Trump pardons former national security officer Michael Flynn

By Maia Irvin 

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump pardoned former national security officer Michael Flynn after he had pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI, according to news sources. 

Flynn was Trump's first national security officer and in 2017, he lied to the FBI about conversations he had with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, according to NBC. Flynn asked Kislyak if Russia would wait on any retaliatory sanctions against the U.S. since Trump planned to reverse the sanctions that the Obama administration imposed on Russia, NBC reported. 

Flynn initially pleaded guilty to lying about this conversation to the FBI, but he later withdrew his plea and substituted it with a  second plea of not guilty after accusing the government of trying to frame him, NPR reported. 

Trump announced the pardon via Twitter, and critics said that Trump's action to grant Flynn a full pardon interfered with the justice system, according to NPR. This was not a surprise to most people though because, in March, Trump said that he was "strongly considering" pardoning Flynn, NBC reported. 

This could be a foreshadowing that Trump will pardon other former advisors who were also indicted as part of the Russia investigation, according to NPR. 

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