U.S. Department of Justice
Attorney Work Product // May Contain Material Protected Under Fed. R. Crim. P. 6(e)
to the request.[1] Priebus understood that McFarland was not comfortable with the President's request, and he recommended that she talk to attorneys in the White House Counsel's Office.[2]
McFarland then reached out to Eisenberg.[3] McFarland told him that she had been fired from her job as Deputy National Security Advisor and offered the ambassadorship in Singapore but that the President and Priebus wanted a letter from her denying that the President directed Flynn to discuss sanctions with Kislyak.[4] Eisenberg advised McFarland not to write the requested letter.[5] As documented by McFarland in a contemporaneous "Memorandum for the Record" that she wrote because she was concerned by the President's request: "Eisenberg . . . thought the requested email and letter would be a bad idea — from my side because the email would be awkward. Why would I be emailing Priebus to make a statement for the record? But it would also be a bad idea for the President because it looked as if my ambassadorial appointment was in some way a quid pro quo.[6] Later that evening, Priebus stopped by McFarland's office and told her not to write the email and to forget he even mentioned it.[7]
Around the same time, the President asked Priebus to reach out to Flynn and let him know that the President still cared about him.[8] Priebus called Flynn and said that he was checking in and that Flynn was an American hero.[9] Priebus thought the President did not want Flynn saying bad things about him.[10]
On March 31, 2017, following news that Flynn had offered to testify before the FBI and congressional investigators in exchange for immunity, the President tweeted, "Mike Flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch hunt (excuse for big election loss), by media & Dems, of
- ↑ KTMF_00000047 (McFarland 2/26/17 Memorandum for the Record) ("I said I did not know whether he did or didn't, but was in Maralago the week between Christmas and New Year's (while Flynn was on vacation in Carribean) and I was not aware of any Flynn-Trump, or Trump-Russian phone calls"); McFarland 12/22/17 302, at 17.
- ↑ Priebus 1/18/18 302, at 11.
- ↑ McFarland 12/22/17 302, at 17.
- ↑ McFarland 12/22/17 302, at 17.
- ↑ KTMF_00000048 (McFarland 2/26/17 Memorandum for the Record); McFarland 12/22/17 302, at 17.
- ↑ KTMF_00000048 (McFarland 2/26/17 Memorandum for the Record); see McFarland 12/22/17 302, at 17.
- ↑ McFarland 12/22/17 302, at 17; KTMF 00000048 (McFarland 2/26/17 Memorandum for the Record).
- ↑ Priebus 1/18/18 302, at 9.
- ↑ Priebus 1/18/18 302, at 9; Flynn 1/19/18 302, at 9.
- ↑ Priebus 1/18/18 302, at 9-10.
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