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Obama calls Trump's COVID-19 response a ‘disaster’

May 10th, 2020 | Tags:
Barack Obama said shortly before President Trump took office that he would only weigh in on his successor’s actions when he believes 'our core values may be at stake.' Photo: Washington Post
WASHINGTON POST

Former president Barack Obama shared deep worries Friday about the Justice Department’s decision to drop its prosecution of ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn, telling old aides on a call that “our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk,” according to a recording obtained by Yahoo News and confirmed by an Obama spokesperson.

Obama also appeared to slam the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic as an “absolute chaotic disaster,” offering the sort of blistering criticisms he has rarely aired in public. Obama said shortly before President Trump took office that he would only weigh in on his successor’s actions when he believes “our core values may be at stake.”

With his comments on Flynn, Obama joined a wave of criticism from Democrats and law enforcement officials, as legal analysts see a pattern by Attorney General William P. Barr to intervene in cases that involve the president’s allies. The Justice Department moved this week to drop its case against Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with a Russian ambassador amid Robert S. Mueller III’s special counsel inquiry. He is now seeking to withdraw that plea.

The news that the government would not pursue its case against Flynn “has been somewhat downplayed,” Obama said.

The move to abandon Flynn’s case was cheered by Trump supporters who have long derided the special counsel and believe the former Trump adviser was unfairly targeted — bolstered by a Justice Department finding that lower-level prosecutors and agents made key errors while investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Flynn was one of the first and highest-ranking Trump aides to plead guilty and cooperate with Mueller’s investigation, as the FBI tried to determine whether anyone in Trump’s campaign had coordinated with Russia. After Mueller’s probe ended in March 2019, Flynn changed course, hired new lawyers and began fighting to undo his plea deal.

In court documents filed Thursday, the Justice Department said that Flynn’s FBI interview was “untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn” and that it was “conducted without any legitimate investigative basis.”

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