‘We will see what happens’

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

Gen. Michael Flynn(C), former national security adviser to US President Donald Trump, leaves Federal Court in Washington, DC, December 1, 2017.

President Donald Trump said Friday he does not want to discuss pardons for his former national security advisor Michael Flynn — “yet.”

“We’ll see what happens,” he told reporters ahead of a speech to FBI’s National Academy. “Let’s see, I can say this: When you look at what’s gone on with the FBI and the Justice Department, people are very, very angry.”

Flynn pleaded guilty on Dec. 1 to lying to FBI agents. He is the first Trump White House official to officially get charged with a crime in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort is among those also charged.

Flynn, who is cooperating with investigators looking into ties between Trump’s top advisors and the Kremlin, is the closest link to the president to be flipped by law enforcement.

Trump has touted his ability to pardon aides in the past.

“While all agree the U. S. President has the complete power to pardon, why think of that when only crime so far is LEAKS against us,” he wrote in a July post.

Trump tweet: “While all agree the U. S. President has the complete power to pardon, why think of that when only crime so far is LEAKS against us,”

The Washington Post reported that Trump’s lawyers were exploring the limits of the president’s pardon authority over the summer. Trump attorney John Dowd called that report “nonsense.”