国产热热热精品,亚洲视频久久】日韩,三级婷婷在线久久,99人妻精品视频,精品九热人人肉肉在线,AV东京热一区二区,91po在线视频观看,久久激情宗合,青青草黄色手机视频

USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
World
Home / World / Americas

Flynn pleads guilty on Russia, reportedly ready to testify against Trump

Agencies | Updated: 2017-12-02 02:32

WASHINGTON - Former US national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to the FBI about Russia, and ABC News said he was prepared to testify that before taking office President Donald Trump had directed him to make contact with Russians.

Reuters could not immediately verify the ABC report, which cited a Flynn confidant. The news sent US stocks sharply lower.

Flynn, a former top Trump campaign aide and a central figure in a federal investigation into Moscow's alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election, pleaded guilty under a plea deal on Friday to lying to the FBI.

His decision to cooperate with the investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, marked a major escalation in a probe that has dogged Trump's administration since the Republican president took office in January.

ABC News cited a confidant as saying Flynn was ready to testify that Trump directed him to make contact with Russians, initially as a way to work together to fight the Islamic State group in Syria.

It was not clear when Trump supposedly told Flynn to contact Russians and whether there would be anything illegal in requesting such contact.

Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements about contacts he had in December with Russia's ambassador to the United States, Sergei Kislyak, during the transition period after Trump was elected and before he was sworn in. The charges carry a sentence of up to five years in prison.

The White House said Flynn's guilty plea implicated him alone.

"Nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than Mr. Flynn," Ty Cobb, a White House attorney, said in a statement on Friday.

Flynn was forced out of his White House post in February for misleading Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with the ambassador.

"The false statements involved mirror the false statements to White House officials which resulted in his resignation in February of this year," Cobb said, adding that the plea "clears the way for a prompt and reasonable conclusion" of Mueller's probe.

Moscow has denied a conclusion by US intelligence agencies that it meddled in the election campaign to try to sway the vote in Trump's favor. Trump has denied any collusion by his campaign and has called Mueller's probe a witch hunt.

Flynn said on Friday his decision to plead guilty and to cooperate with the investigation was "made in the best interests of my family and of our country."

In a statement issued by the law firm representing him, Flynn also said it was "painful to endure" the "false accusations of 'treason' and other outrageous acts" over the past several months but that he recognized "that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong."

(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Tim Ahmann; Additional reporting by John Walcott and Nathan Layne; Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Most Viewed in 24 Hours
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
镇康县| 南漳县| 遂溪县| 长寿区| 台山市| 建阳市| 乌审旗| 台江县| 上高县| 阜新| 会东县| 泉州市| 彩票| 英德市| 朝阳市| 威信县| 静安区| 嘉黎县| 苏尼特左旗| 托克托县| 彝良县| 吉林省| 桑日县| 宝山区| 洛隆县| 锡林浩特市| 花莲市| 哈尔滨市| 察雅县| 固安县| 日照市| 罗江县| 天气| 金湖县| 连平县| 那曲县| 藁城市| 兴城市| 平度市| 遂溪县| 乐至县|