WASHINGTON — Joe Biden has denied allegations he was part of an anti-Trump operation to frame former national security adviser Michael Flynn, playing down his presence at a key Oval Office meeting with then-President Barack Obama and the nation’s FBI chief.
Documents released last week after the Department of Justice dropped its case against Flynn revealed that Obama briefed FBI Director James Comey, Biden and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates on Flynn’s conversations with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
“I know nothing about those moves to investigate Michael Flynn,” Biden said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Tuesday.
“This is all about diversion,” he continued when asked about President Trump’s belief that the case against the former national security adviser was “the biggest political crime in US history.”
“This is the game this guy plays all the time,” Biden said. “The country is in crisis. We’re in an economic crisis, we’re in a health crisis. We’re in real trouble. He should stop trying to always divert attention from the real concerns of the American people.”
Nevertheless, questions remain over the origins of the case against Flynn and the FBI’s Russia probe and how Obama knew about Flynn’s calls in December 2016 to Kislyak before FBI agents interviewed Flynn on Jan. 24, 2017.
The development surprised Yates and Comey, who both testified that they did not know of Flynn’s phone calls until the Jan. 5 meeting with Obama.
When asked about the meeting by “GMA” anchor George Stephanopoulos, Biden said he was aware of the investigation but knew nothing else.
“I thought you asked me whether or not I had anything to do with him being prosecuted, I’m sorry,” he said.
“I was aware that they had asked for an investigation, but that’s all I know about it and I don’t think anything else,” he continued, without clarifying who “they” were.
Following the meeting, then-national security adviser Susan Rice wrote an unusual email to herself noting the fact that Obama directed top officials to keep information from the incoming Trump team.
“President Obama said he wants to be sure that, as we engage with the incoming team, we are mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia,” Rice wrote.
On Sunday, Flynn’s attorney accused Obama, other top administration officials and the FBI of setting up her client.
“These agents specifically schemed and planned with each other how to not tip him off, that he was even the person being investigated,” Sidney Powell told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”