GOP rep says there was a double standard in Flynn, Clinton probes

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said in an interview that aired Monday on “Rising” that there was a double standard in how Hillary Clinton and former national security adviser Michael Flynn were treated when they were under federal investigation. 

“Yeah, I mean there’s an obvious concern when you see that Hillary Clinton was interviewed by the FBI with nine lawyers present, where even people who were potentially witnesses in the fact pattern were able to participate subsequently as attorneys for Hillary Clinton,” Gaetz told Hill.TV’s Buck Sexton on Friday. 

“Yet with Michael Flynn, there seemed to be a strategy to confuse the legal consequences of his statements — and again, that doesn’t excuse anyone for lying to the FBI. No one should intentionally lie to the FBI, but maybe this was a case where Flynn misstated something that wasn’t true, but I think that’s different than, like, having the criminal intent to lie,” he continued. 

In 2016 the FBI dropped its investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of State in the Obama administration. 

Flynn is set to be sentenced on Dec. 18 for lying to the FBI about his contacts as national security adviser with then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak regarding Russia sanctions.

The former national security adviser pleaded guilty last year and has since cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia’s election meddling. 

Mueller asked Judge Emmet Sullivan to impose a lenient sentence, pointing to Flynn’s “substantial assistance” in the ongoing investigation. 

However, when Flynn’s attorneys requested that he be spared jail time, Mueller’s team rebuked the request. 

“The defendant chose to make false statements about his communications with the Russian ambassador weeks before the FBI interview, when he lied about that topic to the media, the incoming Vice President, and other members of the Presidential Transition Team,” Mueller wrote.

— Julia Manchester