By Jeremy Diamond
CNN
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday he feels “very badly” for Michael Flynn after the former national security adviser pleaded guilty last week to lying to the FBI about conversations with Russia’s ambassador.
“I feel badly for General Flynn. I feel very badly. He’s led a very strong life, and I feel very badly,” Trump told reporters Monday before boarding Marine One at the White House.
Trump, in his first public comments on the matter, also echoed tweets he posted over the weekend in which he compared Flynn’s situation to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. He suggested Monday that Clinton had also lied to investigators and decried the situation as unfair.
The FBI concluded that Clinton did not lie during her interview with investigators in July 2016. The FBI cleared her of criminal wrongdoing in July 2016 following an investigation into her use of a private email server, though then-FBI Director James Comey said she had been “extremely careless” in her handling of classified information.
“Hillary Clinton lied many times to the FBI, nothing happened to her. Flynn lied and they destroyed his life,” Trump said. “It’s very unfair.”
The charges against Flynn were the first against a Trump administration official in Mueller’s investigation. Flynn is now cooperating with investigators, raising the possibility that Flynn could provide federal investigators with incriminating information against other individuals connected to the President.
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