Biden Changes Story on Flynn as Obamagate Scandal Snowballs
Former vice president tries to flip narrative on 'unmasking' in new interview
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Former Vice President Joe Biden has attempted to change his story regarding what he knew about the investigation into Trump's ex-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, is now trying to flip the narrative on his involvement in the Obama Administration's anti-Trump campaign.
As the scandal, dubbed "Obamagate," continues to spiral, Biden is now attempting to backtrack his comments from earlier this week.
On Tuesday, Biden admitted during an appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America that he knew “they had asked for an investigation” into retired Army Lieutenant General Flynn.
However, speaking to MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell on Thursday evening, Biden claims he was not aware of any “criminal investigation” of Flynn before leaving office in January 2017.
On Wednesday, Biden was exposed as one of the members of the Obama admin who had asked for Flynn’s name to be “unmasked” in intelligence reports.
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Biden made his “unmasking” request on Jan. 12, 2017, the same day Flynn’s conversations with the Russian ambassador were reported in the Washington Post by columnist David Ignatius, according to Breitbart.
Biden participated Thursday in a virtual town hall on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell.
RealClearPolitics noted that O’Donnell spent “less than a minute” asking Biden about the Flynn controversy:
O’Donnell: The issue of people wanting the attorney general to resign is over the Michael Flynn case where the attorney general is basically trying to drop the case as a federal judge questioning how that case is being dropped.
Mr. Vice President, what was your involvement in the investigation of Michael Flynn and the FBI investigation of Michael Flynn?
Biden: I was never a part, or had any knowledge, of any criminal investigation into Flynn while I was in office, period.
Not one single time.
O’Donnell did not ask a follow-up question.
On Tuesday, Biden initially told George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America that he had known “nothing” about the effort to investigate Flynn.
Stephanopoulos followed up, asking Biden specifically about his presence at a January 5, 2017 meeting in the Oval Office.
Biden met with then-President Barack Obama in the White House, and the pair discussed the Flynn investigation.
When quizzed about the meet, the former vice president said: “No, I thought you asked me whether or not I had anything to do with him being prosecuted.
"I’m sorry. I was aware that there was — that they had asked for an investigation.
"But that’s all I know about it and I don’t think anything else.”
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The FBI had already been conducting a counterintelligence investigation into Flynn by Jan. 5; FBI agents had wanted to close the case but were prevented from doing so by agent Peter Strzok, acting on the instructions of senior FBI leadership.
The question of a “criminal investigation” may have been moot.
When FBI agents met Flynn at the White House on Jan. 24, they were not investigating him for any crime, according to notes revealed recently.
