Fox News host Tucker Carlson called documents released Wednesday from the FBI investigation into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn “shocking.”
Emails and handwritten notes appear to show how the senior leadership of the FBI were determined to prosecute Flynn — even if it meant they had to entrap him into lying. Prosecutors said in January that the former United States Army lieutenant-general should spend up to six months in prison.
Before interviewing Flynn, FBI agents assessed their objective as whether to seek the truth or to maneuver the then-senior Trump administration official to lie and thereby “prosecute him and get him fired.”
Flynn asked to recant his guilty plea and said he did not lie to the FBI.
Disgraced former FBI agent Peter Strzok was one of Flynn’s interviewers. He received information on how Flynn should be questioned from his lover, former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, prior to the Flynn interview. The two had engaged in a series of text message exchanges that denigrated then-candidate Donald Trump and fervently wished for a Hillary Clinton presidency. (RELATED: Former FBI Lawyer Lisa Page Sues DOJ Over Released Text Messages)
Fox News correspondent Trace Gallagher noted that the documents were released by a district judge at the insistence of Attorney General William Barr.
Carlson called the revelation “shocking,” before discussing the news with Fox News host Dana Perino, who said the FBI played the investigation like amateurs.
“I’m not going to say you should treat any citizen differently but if you are going to go after someone who many people consider a war hero, and someone who is working for the president of the United States, then you don’t do it like … in a half-assed manner.” (RELATED: US Attorney Is Investigating 2017 Leak To WaPo About Michael Flynn)
Perino said that the case should have been handled “by the book … and it does not look like that happened here at all.” She suggested the judge responsible for the case might vacate it and ask that it be retried.
President Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn leaves the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse on June 24, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images)
“I’ve been in D.C. most of my life — in and around government.” Carlson said. “My family worked for the government. The idea that our top law enforcement agency would set someone up like this, so boldly … Do we get him to lie so we can prosecute? I find that really shocking”
Carlson suggested the wrong person was prosecuted. “The person who should be prosecuted is the person who decided to do this … What does this mean if they can do this to the national security advisor? What chance do the rest of us have if we somehow get crossways with the FBI?”