Trump in deep trouble

US President Donald Trump yesterday denied having asked then FBI director James Comey to stop investigating ex-national security advisor Michael Flynn, who has since pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about discussions with Russia.

Trump also insisted he and his campaign had not colluded with Moscow in last year's election, and shifted blame on the Justice Department and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

"I never asked Comey to stop investigating Flynn. Just more Fake News covering another Comey lie!" Trump said in a tweet.

But his position was complicated by another Twitter post on Saturday in which he indicated he had fired Flynn because the national security chief had been untruthful not just to Vice President Mike Pence but to the FBI as well.

"I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI," the president tweeted on Saturday. "He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!"

The tweet is garnering a lot of attention from critics -- with some calling it a possible admission of obstruction of justice, which is under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.

California Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, tweeted, "If that is true, Mr. President, why did you wait so long to fire Flynn? Why did you fail to act until his lies were publicly exposed? And why did you pressure Director Comey to "let this go?"

White House officials, however, told The New York Times that Trump was only referencing Flynn's guilty plea for lying to the FBI about his conversations with then Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak over sanctions president Barack Obama slapped on Russia for election meddling.

And two people briefed on the matter said the Twitter post was in fact written by Trump's personal lawyer John Dowd, who apologized to the White House for the tactless language.

Flynn was forced to resign as national security adviser in February, when news surfaced that Flynn had spoken to Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak about US sanctions on Russia on December 29 — the same day that the sanctions were imposed by President Barack Obama.

Trump and his former national security adviser Michael Flynn in happier times during the campaign. Photo: AFP

Trump told reporters at the time that he had been forced to fire Flynn because he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about those conversations. But the White House gave no indication at the time that it knew Flynn had lied to the FBI in a January interview about those conversations — a federal crime that Flynn pleaded guilty to on Friday.

Trump's tweet on Saturday appears to indicate that Trump was aware Flynn had lied to the FBI when he departed the administration in February.

If Trump knew that Flynn was in the FBI's crosshairs when he asked former Comey, whom he later fired, to consider "letting Flynn go" the day after Flynn resigned, that could dramatically bolster the obstruction case federal prosecutors are building against him.

"I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go," Trump told Comey on February 14, according to Comey's testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in June. "He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go."

Comey gave no indication that he would consider Trump's request. Three months later, Trump abruptly fired Comey, who was leading the FBI's Russia investigation at the time.

"I think the obstruction case was already substantial — both circumstantially and through Trump's own words," said DOJ veteran and former Assistant Deputy Attorney General Bill Yeomans.

"This tweet certainly contributes to the case. He knew Flynn lied to the FBI when he pressed Comey to drop the case and then fired Comey," Yeomans said. "Mostly disturbingly, however, the tweet shows either that the president is utterly clueless about his own jeopardy or he truly believes he is beyond accountability because neither his base nor Republicans in Congress will hold him responsible."

Andy Wright, a former associate counsel to President Barack Obama, said Trump's tweet " could be construed as an admission that he knew Flynn had lied to the FBI."

"Later that same week, DOJ tells the WH that Flynn is compromised and President Trump tells Jim Comey he 'needs loyalty.' Then, on Valentine's Day, the president asks Comey if the FBI could 'let Flynn go,'" Wright said. "Having not received the assurances he sought, he fired Comey under the false pretext of Comey's handling of the Clinton investigation. As an obstruction of justice timeline, it looks very bad."

The White House initially said Comey was fired because of his handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.

Later, however, Trump told NBC's Lester Holt that "this Russia thing" had been a factor in his consideration. He also told Russian officials during an Oval Office meeting one day after firing Comey that dismissing the FBI director had taken "great pressure" off of him.

"Oh my god, he just admitted to obstruction of justice," tweeted former DOJ spokesman Matt Miller. "If Trump knew Flynn lied to the FBI when he asked Comey to let it go, then there is your case."

"So he knew Flynn had lied, and now he's admitted it. And of course it's possible he and Flynn discused it at the time," Miller later told Business Insider. "Just unreal."

Meanwhile, US media reported that senior FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok was removed from Mueller investigation over the summer for sending text messages critical of Trump.

Comey himself seemed to be addressing the latest developments in an Instagram message: "To paraphrase the Buddha -- Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun; the moon; and the truth."