Former Vice President Joe Biden admitted Tuesday he was aware of federal prosecutors’ plans to question incoming National Security Advisor Michael Flynn after denying knowledge of any investigation.
“I know nothing about those moves to investigate Michael Flynn,” Biden said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” when George Stephanopoulos asked what he knew of the FBI’s operations in early 2017.
Biden went on to call new earthshattering revelations in recent weeks about the Obama administration’s spy scandal a distraction from the ongoing public health pandemic in an effort to avoid the topic.
“This is all about diversion. This is a game this guy plays all the time. The country is in crisis … He should stop trying to always divert attention from the real concerns of the American people.”
Stephanopoulos followed up, adding that Biden was present at a Jan. 5, 2017 Oval Office meeting where he and President Barack Obama was briefed by top White House national security officials on plans to question Flynn over conversations with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislak as the presidential transition was underway.
“I thought you asked me whether or not I had anything to do with him being prosecuted,” Biden said. “I was aware that there was, that they asked for an investigation, but that’s all I know about.”
The January meeting in the final days of the Obama presidency has raised questions about what the president and vice president knew of the FBI’s pursuit of Flynn’s conviction which was attended by then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, FBI Director James Comey, CIA Director John Brennan, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and National Security Advisor Susan Rice. As the initial meeting concluded those who would not be transitioning into the new administration left while those staying on under Trump, Yates and Comey stayed behind with Rice and Biden where Comey mentioned using the arcane Logan Act to indict Flynn.
In 2018, Comey bragged about flouting formal protocol to question Flynn in the White House where negotiations on who would be interviewed and who would be present is standard procedure. Comey admitted it was “something I probably wouldn’t have done or gotten away with in a more organized investigation, a more organized administration.”
Newly uncovered notes from the FBI show agents’ goal was to catch Flynn in a perjury trap in their interview with Flynn without an attorney present or even informing the senior White House staffer of why he was being questioned. The notes show that the FBI’s alternate goal was to “get [Flynn] to admit breaking the Logan Act,” a 1799 law widely seen as unconstitutional that bars citizens from communicating with foreign governments. In its more than 200-year history, the law has never successfully been used to prosecute an American.
Last week, the Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss federal charges against Flynn over making false statements to law enforcement officials following the explosive revelations of FBI corruption that show the interview should have never occurred in the first place.
On Monday, Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who has long conducted congressional oversight over the Flynn case, pressed for answers on what the highest ranking officials in the previous administration, the president and the vice president themselves, knew of the deep-state set-up to bring down Flynn.
“Given all that we know now regarding the fake foundation for the inquiry, it’s time that ask: What did Obama and Biden know, and when did they know it?” Grassley asked on the Senate floor.