President Trump on Tuesday wished Michael Flynn “good luck” ahead of his former national-security adviser’s sentencing hearing later in the day.
“Good luck today in court to General Michael Flynn,” the president wrote. “Will be interesting to see what he has to say, despite tremendous pressure being put on him, about Russian Collusion in our great and, obviously, highly successful political campaign. There was no Collusion!”
Flynn became a target of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into ties between Russia and the Trump campaign after he lied to the FBI about his contacts with Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak. He pled guilty last December to one felony count of making false statements to investigators.
The retired three-star general will be sentenced in D.C. federal court by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan.
Prosecutors recommended no prison time for Flynn because he had cooperated with the Mueller probe and provided “substantial help” in several criminal investigations.
The warm wishes from the president to his former aide lie in stark contrast to the more chilly sentiments he has expressed towards other former associates who have opted to cooperate with the Mueller probe. On Monday, Trump called his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen a “rat” for turning on him and cooperating with the special counsel. He previously called his longtime personal attorney “a weak person and not a very smart person.”
Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for various financial crimes, including bank and tax fraud and campaign finance violations relating to hush money payments to women for Trump. The lawyer said of Trump, his former boss, that he “gave loyalty to someone who truthfully does not deserve loyalty.”
Trump has defended Flynn over the past two years, however, saying he was unfairly targeted by investigators.