Michael Flynn, former national security adviser in the Trump administration, told the Senate Intelligence Committee he will testify in its Russia probe in exchange for immunity, a congressional official told NBC News.

The committee focused squarely on Russia as it opened a hearing Thursday on attempts at undermining the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on the Flynn development. </s> Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is willing to testify before federal and congressional investigators in their ongoing probe into Russian meddling in the US elections, but only if he is granted immunity, his lawyer said Thursday.

“Gen. Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit. … No reasonable person, who has the benefit of advice from counsel, would submit to questioning in such a highly politicized, witch-hunt environment without assurances against unfair prosecution,” Robert Kelner, Flynn’s lawyer, said in a statement late Thursday.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Thursday that Flynn was in talks to try to get a promise of immunity, but that nobody had agreed to his terms yet.

However, aides to the House intelligence committee said they have not received any requests from Flynn yet. A spokesperson for the Senate intelligence committee declined comment Thursday evening.

The White House had no comment on the report Thursday night.

Flynn was forced to resign as one of Trump’s closest advisers after it came out that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about his communications with Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak.

Three former Trump aides who are at the center of the federal investigation into Russia’s interference in the US elections have already come forward and said they would testify freely — without the promise of immunity. Former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former adviser Roger Stone and former foreign policy adviser Carter Page all said, via their lawyers, last week that they were ready to come before House and Senate investigators.

House investigators have been discussing bringing Flynn in for weeks now, but they have also expressed concerns that Flynn would plead the Fifth Amendment if forced to testify.

Democrats, meanwhile, quickly shot around a comment Flynn made last year on MSNBC, that “when you are given immunity, that means you probably committed a crime.” </s> Story highlights His lawyer said Flynn has "a story to tell"

Aides to the House intelligence committee said they have not received any requests from him yet

(CNN) Former national security adviser Michael Flynn is willing to testify before federal and congressional investigators in their ongoing probe into Russian meddling in the US elections, but only if he is granted immunity.

The possibility that Flynn -- formerly a key adviser to President Donald Trump during the campaign -- could testify potentially represents a major development in the probe into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

"Gen. Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit. ... No reasonable person, who has the benefit of advice from counsel, would submit to questioning in such a highly politicized, witch-hunt environment without assurances against unfair prosecution," Robert Kelner, Flynn's lawyer, said in a statement late Thursday.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Thursday that Flynn was in talks to try to get a promise of immunity, but that nobody had agreed to his terms yet.

Read More </s> Michael Flynn, former national security adviser in the Trump administration, told the Senate Intelligence Committee he will testify in its Russia probe in exchange for immunity, a Congressional official told NBC News.

The committee focused squarely on Russia as it opened a hearing Thursday on attempts at undermining the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

A discussion between Flynn and the House and Senate Intelligence Committees has taken place but Flynn refuses to comment on the details, according to a statement from Flynn's counsel Robert Kelner.

"General Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it," the statement said.

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on the Flynn development. </s> WASHINGTON (AP) — Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is in discussions with the House and Senate intelligence committees on receiving immunity from “unfair prosecution” in exchange for agreeing to be questioned as part of ongoing probes into possible contacts between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia, his attorney says.

“General Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit,” attorney Robert Kelner said Thursday.

Kelner said no “reasonable person” with legal counsel would answer questions without assurances that he would not be prosecuted, given calls from some members of Congress that the retired lieutenant general should face criminal charges.

Flynn’s ties to Russia have been scrutinized by the FBI and are under investigation by the House and Senate intelligence committees. Both committees are looking into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election and any ties between Trump associates and the Kremlin.

Since July, the FBI has been conducting a counterintelligence investigation into Russia’s interference in the election and possible coordination with Trump associates.

Trump weighed in Friday, tweeting that Flynn “should ask for immunity in that this is a witch hunt (excuse for big election loss), by media & Dems, of historic proportion!”

Kelner released a statement after The Wall Street Journal first reported that Flynn’s negotiations with the committee included discussions of immunity. The lawyer described the talks as ongoing and said he would not comment on the details.

A congressional aide confirmed that discussions with the Senate intelligence committee involved immunity. The aide was not authorized to discuss private conversations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

House intelligence committee spokesman Jack Langer said Flynn has not offered to testify to the panel in exchange for immunity.

Four other Trump associates have come forward in recent weeks, saying they would talk to the committees. As of Wednesday, the Senate intelligence committee had asked to interview 20 people as part of the probe.

In his statement, Kelner said the political climate in which Flynn is facing “claims of treason and vicious innuendo” is factoring into his negotiations with the committees.

“No reasonable person, who has the benefit of advice from counsel, would submit to questioning in such a highly politicized, witch hunt environment without assurances against unfair prosecution,” Kelner said.

In September, Flynn weighed in on the implications of immunity on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” criticizing Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her associates in the FBI’s investigation into her use of a private email server.

“When you are given immunity, that means that you have probably committed a crime,” Flynn said during the interview.

Flynn was fired from his job as Trump’s first national security adviser after it was disclosed that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about a conversation he had with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. during the transition.

In the weeks after he resigned, Flynn and his business registered with the Justice Department as foreign agents for $530,000 worth of lobbying work that could have benefited the Turkish government.

The lobbying occurred while Flynn was a top Trump campaign adviser. The Turkish businessman who hired Flynn, Ekim Alptekin, has told the AP that Flynn’s firm registered under pressure from the Justice Department. </s> The Senate Intelligence Committee stepped up its public role in investigating Russia's attempts to hack the 2016 election, as the House investigation descended into chaos this week.

There have been a lot of twists and turns in the investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election. Here's one more - General Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser, has offered to testify in exchange for immunity from prosecution. He doesn't seem to have found any takers on that offer. But he has found an apparent supporter in President Trump, who tweeted this morning, quote, "Mike Flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch hunt, excuse for big election loss by media and Dems."

This all comes at the end of a day where there were already several other developments on the Russia story, all swirling around these questions - what exactly did Russia do? And did it collude with anyone close to Donald Trump? Two congressional committees are looking into that answer, but they seem to be taking very different paths.

NPR congressional reporter Scott Detrow's been following all of this, and he joins us in the studio this morning. Hi, Scott.

MARTIN: So let's start with this most recent development. What should we make of the reports about Flynn seeking immunity?

DETROW: Well, like you said, there don't seem to be any takers on this offer yet, either the FBI or the congressional committees. Flynn's lawyer says this is simply about Flynn protecting himself. He said in a statement, and I'll just quote, "no reasonable person would submit to questions in such a highly politicized witch hunt environment without assurances against unfair prosecution." But Flynn's critics immediately dug this clip up from last year when Flynn was criticizing Hillary Clinton during the campaign.

MICHAEL FLYNN: People like Hillary Clinton, I mean, five people around her have had - have given immunity, to include her former chief of staff. When you are given immunity, that means that you've probably committed a crime.

DETROW: Flynn, of course, is a key person in all of this. He was fired after misleading Vice President Mike Pence and others about the nature of a conversation he had with Russia's ambassador during the transition.

MARTIN: So this Flynn story is grabbing all kinds of headlines this morning. But so much seems to be going on with these Russia investigations. It's hard to sort out what is actually important moving forward substantively and what has been just political theatrics.

DETROW: So I think the best way to go through what happened with the House investigation yesterday is chronologically because otherwise it'll get even more confusing. So yesterday afternoon, the White House sends a letter to the chairs of the two congressional committees saying you had asked for information about whether intelligence about U.S. citizens was mishandled and leaked. We now have some. Please come to the White House to look at it.

Adam Schiff, top Democrat on the House Committee, responded saying this is very weird timing given that The New York Times had just reported that two White House staffers were the ones who gave those documents to Devin Nunes last week which sent the committee into this whole tail spiral.

ADAM SCHIFF: Are these the same White House staff that reportedly discovered them in the ordinary course of business? And if they are, they just walk down the hall or across the plaza and they can present it to the White House staff or the president himself at any time. So why all the cloak-and-dagger stuff?

MARTIN: So Adam Schiff, other Democrats say Nunes should now step down, recuse himself from this investigation because of all of this. So where is that now? Is there any indication Nunes could step down?

DETROW: Well, that would be up to, you know, Republican leaders. And so far, they continue to back Devin Nunes. We've now seen one House Republican, Walter Jones of North Carolina, say that he should recuse himself. Another House Republican, Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, has not said that but has basically said this House investigation is at a gridlock and it's time for the Senate to take over. There was one interesting comment from House Speaker Paul Ryan yesterday.

PAUL RYAN: I think you're right, this has gotten a little political. Let's take a pause. And let's just get all the evidence, all the documents and find out what happened.

DETROW: So that's an acknowledgement from Ryan that this has really hit the rails.

MARTIN: Yeah. So - interesting to hear Paul Ryan say that and also focusing attention in some way on the Senate investigation which is launching this week. A lot of pressure on these people now as we see the House investigation kind of go off the rails in some ways. They've got to make sure this is a different kind of experience.

DETROW: Yeah. And they are making a point to present a bipartisan front here. They held their first public hearing yesterday. It was informational, big picture, experts talking about what Russia was trying to do in terms of meddling in the United States elections, doing the same thing in Western Europe.

One interesting expert was Clint Watts, who's from the George Washington University Center for Cyber and Homeland Security. He walked the panel through just how intricate these efforts are, how Russia has actually, at points, come up with whole armies of Twitter trolls - Twitter bots to kind of spread information and even given them identities who look like Midwestern swing-voter Republicans.

CLINT WATTS: So that way whenever you're trying to socially engineer them and convince them that the information is true, it's much more simple because you see somebody and they look exactly like you, even down to the pictures.

MARTIN: So we heard from experts yesterday on hacking and cyber and these bots. Did any of the witnesses have anything to say about the alleged role of President Trump or his campaign aides in any of this?

DETROW: Watts did say something about that. And it wasn't in terms of any sort of evidence of collusion or anything like that, but just - he said - stating a reality from his point of view. He was asked at one point, so Russia's has been trying to spread misinformation for years, why were they so effective this time? And he said, well, basically because Trump himself was willing to spread false information as well.

WATTS: He denies the intel from the United States about Russia. He claimed that the election could be rigged. That was the No. 1 theme pushed by RT, Sputnik news, white outlets all the way up until the election. He's made claims of voter fraud, that President Obama's not a citizen.

MARTIN: So two investigations underway now. What happens next?

DETROW: We don't know. (Laughter) A lot of the serious work happens behind closed doors. And there's no set timetable. So we just don't know when hard conclusions will happen. But it seems like there's some sort of leaked development one way or another multiple times a day at this point.

MARTIN: NPR's Scott Detrow keeping us up to speed. Thanks so much, Scott. </s> Donald Trump could be moving ever closer to impeachment after a report that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has offered to testify about Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The Trump campaign has been accused of working closely with Russian intelligence officials on the release of damaging information obtained by hackers who accessed the emails of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chief, John Podesta. The emails were released through the organization WikiLeaks.

Flynn, who was fired from his post after it came out that he lied about contact with the Russian ambassador on the day President Obama announced sanctions against Russia, is now reportedly turning on Trump to testify about the potential collusion with Russia. A report from the Wall Street Journal claimed that Flynn is offering to testify in exchange for immunity from prosecution — a sign that the investigation into Trump’s alleged ties to Russia could end up with criminal charges for those involved.

As the Wall Street Journal report noted, Flynn may be fearful that he could face charges for his role in the campaign’s contact with Russia.

The offer to testify may also be a chance for Michael Flynn to distance himself from the allegations against Donald Trump. In a statement released after the Wall Street Journal report was published, Flynn’s attorney said Flynn has become the target of “unfounded allegations.”

“General Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit,” Robert Kelner said in a statement (via The Hill).

Donald Trump’s past statements have also come under fire in the wake of reports that Michael Flynn has offered to testify about collusion with Russia. During the 2016 campaign, both Trump and Flynn insinuated that immunity deals offered to aides of Hillary Clinton for her email investigation was proof that a crime had taken place.

There is also growing speculation that the investigation into potential coordination with Russia will lead to Donald Trump’s impeachment. The reports that Flynn might be flipping on Trump and working with the FBI had started to emerge days before Thursday’s report about his offer to testify, leading many to speculate that Flynn’s testimony could ultimately sink Trump.

The reports of Flynn’s offer to testify about Trump’s possible collusion with Russia comes at the same time that the Senate Intelligence Committee has opened its investigation into Russian interference with the election. On Thursday, Senator Mark Warner noted that the Kremlin employed an “army” of up to 1,000 online trolls to spread fake conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton.

Clint Watts, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, noted that Donald Trump himself pushed some of these fake stories, even reading from a fabricated Russian news report at a rally in October.

While the speculation about his impeachment mounts, Donald Trump has continued to deny having any collaboration with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign. </s> Former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn will decline to comply with a subpoena from the Senate Intelligence Committee investigating possible Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, according to media reports on Monday.

Flynn will invoke his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, the Associated Press, Wall Street Journal and Fox News reported, citing sources close to Flynn. The committee had first requested documents from Flynn in an April 28 letter, but the retired lieutenant general had declined to cooperate with the committee’s request. </s> WASHINGTON - Former US National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is in discussions with congressional investigators about receiving immunity from “unfair prosecution” in exchange for agreeing to testify about ongoing probes into possible contacts between President Donald Trump’s election campaign and Russia.

Flynn’s lawyer, Robert Kelner, said in a statement Thursday that his client is facing “claims of treason and vicious innuendo” and that has been a factor into his negotiations with the intelligence committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate in Congress.

“No reasonable person, who has the benefit of advice from counsel, would submit to questioning in such a highly politicized, witch-hunt environment without assurances against unfair prosecution,” Kelner said. “General Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should circumstances permit,” the statement said.

The lawyer described the talks as ongoing and said he would not comment on the details. A congressional aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that discussions with the Senate intelligence committee involved immunity.

The FBI, as well as the Senate and House intelligence committees, are investigating Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and any ties between Trump’s associates and Moscow. Flynn was forced to resign last month from his position as Trump’s first national security adviser after it was revealed that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about a conversation he had with the Russian ambassador to the US in late December.

The conversation, which took place before Trump’s inauguration, centered around lifting then-President Barack Obama’s sanctions against Russia. Any discussion of sanctions at that time would have amounted to a breach of US law barring private citizens engaging in foreign policy.

Flynn’s tenure of just 24 days as national security advisor is the shortest in the history of the office.

Flynn had a history of making incendiary and Islamophobic statements that have drawn criticism from his own military peers. During a White House press briefing on February 1, Flynn put Iran “on notice” over Tehran’s ballistic missile tests.
Michael T. Flynn is willing to testify under the condition of immunity in the ongoing congressional probe on Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.