Fast Forward

Flynn’s Alleged Lies Including Asking Russia To Ease Off On Israel

Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn at the U.S. Capitol during President Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony, Jan. 20, 2017. Image by Getty Images

By Nathan Guttman December 1, 2017

The explosive federal indictment issued Friday against Michal Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, accuses the retired general of making false statements to FBI investigators.

Flynn, according to the indictment lied to the FBI regarding his talks with Russian ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak. In one of these conversations, Flynn asked that Russia delay a UN Security Council vote condemning Israel’s West Bank settlements. The request was made in December, before Trump took office. Previous media reports also indicated that Jared Kushner held conversations with foreign officials presenting them with the same request.

It is not clear why Flynn lied about the conversation.

Flynn’s request was not answered and Russia did not postpone the vote, which eventually passed the Security Council.

Contact Nathan Guttman at guttman@forward.com or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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