December 18, 2018

Flynn Told a Judge the FBI Never Tricked Him. The White House Still Says the FBI Did.

“We still firmly believe” even after a federal court hears the exact opposite.

ZUMA

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White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to back down from remarks accusing the FBI of having “ambushed” Michael Flynn during a January 2017 interview.

Earlier on Tuesday, Flynn admitted in court to having known it was a crime to lie to the FBI—a a sharp break from his lawyers’ suggestion last week that federal investigators may have tricked him into lying.

“No, we still firmly believe,” Sanders said when asked if she wanted to revisit the accusation during a White House press briefing barely two hours later.

“What we do know that was inappropriate, by own self-admittance of James Comey, is that the FBI broke standard protocol in the way that they came in and ambushed General Flynn and in the way that they questioned him, and in the way that they encouraged him not to have White House counsel’s office present,” she continued. “We know that because James Comey told us that.”

Sanders’ decision to stand by her initial remarks, which came during an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday morning, came shortly after Flynn told a federal judge that investigators never “entrapped” him, in the same proceeding where he admitted to knowing it was a crime to lie to the FBI.

After receiving a scathing rebuke by a federal judge, Flynn’s sentencing was ultimately delayed until March.

Ahead of Flynn’s Tuesday court appearance, President Donald Trump and conservative talking heads pushed the narrative that Flynn was the victim of potential wrongdoing by the FBI. Sanders’ refusal to retract her statement on Tuesday—in spite of Flynn telling a federal judge the exact opposite—signals the president and his allies are likely to keep pushing the line.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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