GOP intelligence panel chair: Flynn did U.S. a ‘big favor’

Devin Nunes, R-Calif., chairman of the House 

Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, 

talks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol about the committee’s 

Russia investigation on Feb. 27, 2017. 

(Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — House Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said today that Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the national security adviser fired by President Trump, may have done the country a “big favor” if he signaled to the Russian ambassador that sanctions imposed by President Barack Obama after the Russian cyberattack on Democratic Party officials would be lifted once President Trump took office.

The comments by Nunes, a vocal defender of the Trump White House, seemed to be the strongest indication to date that Flynn may have sought to undercut Obama’s actions, giving private assurances to Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, that punitive measures just imposed by the then-president would go away under Trump.

Nunes told reporters at a press conference that he had been briefed on the contents of intercepted conversations between Flynn and Kislyak, but had not seen the transcript of those calls. Still, he dismissed the idea that Flynn had done anything wrong, and said that the punitive actions taken by Obama over the election hack were “petty” and “not taken seriously” by Moscow.

Michael Isikoff.

Full story at Yahoo News.