(MENAFN - Gulf Times) US President Donald Trump said yesterday he was not concerned about what his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, might tell investigators after Flynn pleaded guilty to lying about contacts with Russia.
'What has been shown is no collusion, no collusion, Trump told reporters at the White House as he left Washington for fundraisers in New York.
Flynn had emerged at the centre of an investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the US presidential election last year and into whether Trump's campaign may have colluded with the Russians.
Trump has repeatedly denied collusion and downplayed the significance of aides implicated in the probe.
Flynn is cooperating with prosecutors, after admitting on Friday that he lied to FBI agents.
A member of Trump's inner circle during the right-wing populist's election campaign and White House transition, Flynn pleaded guilty at a federal courthouse in Washington to one count of making false statements to investigators about a conversation with the Russian ambassador.
Flynn resigned in February after just 25 days as national security advisor, admitting to 'inadvertently giving 'incomplete information to key people in the White House about his communication with the Russian ambassador before Trump took office.
A White House lawyer said that Flynn's guilty plea does not implicate Trump in any wrongdoing. Flynn is the fourth person associated with Trump to be charged in the widening investigation.
George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign foreign policy aide, pleaded guilty on October 30 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia.
Separately, Paul Manafort — who was Trump's campaign manager from June to August 2016 — and Manafort associate Richard Gates were charged with conspiracy, money laundering and violations of lobbying laws related to Manafort's past lobbying work for a pro-Russian party in Ukraine.
US security agencies have asserted since October 2016 that the highest levels of the Russian government directed Internet hacking and other interference with the US election process.
Moscow denies any election meddling, though Western intelligence agencies allege a long-standing pattern of Russian efforts to disrupt elections in Europe and elsewhere.
The FBI led the federal investigation of suspected election meddling until May, when Trump sacked FBI chief James Comey.
Within days, Trump's own Justice Department named Mueller, an ex-prosecutor and former FBI director, as special counsel to lead the Russia probe.
Mueller's investigation has several thrusts, including whether there was any co-ordination between Trump's presidential campaign and the Russian government. Other targets of the Mueller investigation include top White House aide Jared Kushner, who is Trump's son-in-law, and one of the president's sons, Donald Trump Jr.

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