Olivier Douliery/DPA/ZUMA
Update, 2/15/17, 12:25 p.m.: President Trump continued to defend Flynn during Wednesday’s joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying Flynn is a “wonderful man” who has “been treated very, very unfairly by the media, as I call it, the ‘fake media’ in many cases.”
Trump also blasted the leaks from the US intelligence community that forced Flynn’s ouster as National Security Adviser: “From intelligence, papers are being leaked, things are being leaked. It’s criminal action, criminal act, and it’s been going on for a long time, before me, but now it’s really going on. People are trying to cover up for a terrible loss that the Democrats had under Hillary Clinton.”
President Donald Trump angrily repudiated a New York Times report that alleged his aides engaged in “repeated” contact with Russian officials throughout the campaign, taking to his Twitter account on Wednesday to blast the intelligence community for continuing to leak information to the media.
This Russian connection non-sense is merely an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton’s losing campaign.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2017
Information is being illegally given to the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost by the intelligence community (NSA and FBI?).Just like Russia
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2017
Crimea was TAKEN by Russia during the Obama Administration. Was Obama too soft on Russia?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2017
The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by “intelligence” like candy. Very un-American!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2017
Trump’s denial comes amid the fallout from former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s abrupt resignation on Monday, after it was revealed he misled the administration about his communications to the Russian ambassador. The Washington Post reported last week Flynn discussed easing American sanctions against Russia, contradicting the administration’s previous characterization of the calls as innocent.
In typical Trump fashion, the president on Wednesday thanked Bloomberg View columnist Eli Lake and Fox News for siding with his position on the ongoing leaks.
