Fomer national security adviser to Donald Trump, Michael Flynn, has said he didn’t want the presidential pardon he received for lying about to the FBI about his contacts with the Russia.
On Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show, Mr Flynn said he “didn’t want the pardon” he got from Mr Trump in November last year, because he “didn’t deserve it”.
Mr Flynn said he wanted to be able to fight to withdraw his guilty plea and prove his innocence, which the pardon prevented.
He told Mr Carlson: “I would say that I went through persecution for a lie that I didn’t ever state and for a pardon that I didn’t want,” he said during the interview.
“You didn’t want the pardon?” asked Mr Carlson.
“No I didn’t want it at all, I didn’t want, it because I didn’t deserve it,” he said.
Mr Flynn served as national security adviser under Mr Trump for just 23 days before he was fired in February 2017, after it emerged he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his discussions with Russia’s then-ambassador to the United States.
The Defence Department’s Office of Inspector General opened a separate investigation in April 2017 into payments Mr Flynn received from Russia and Turkey, including a $45,000 fee to attend a dinner in Moscow in 2015, where he sat next to President Vladimir Putin, reported NPR.
During special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation into election interference and links between the Trump campaign and Moscow, Mr Flynn admitted lying to the FBI about conversations he had with Russia during the presidential transition period.
At the time of his guilty plea, Mr Flynn said: “My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the special counsel’s office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country. I accept full responsibility for my actions.”
However, he later changed tack and filed to withdraw his guilty plea, accusing the government of “bad faith, vindictiveness and breach of the plea agreement”.
Mr Flynn’s conviction was erased two months before Mr Trump left office, when he received a presidential pardon, seemingly bringing an end to a complicated legal saga.
