By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump has told allies he plans to pardon his former national security adviser Michael Flynn who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.
The source said Trump could still change his mind on the planned pardon, which was first reported by Axios.
Flynn, a retired Army general, pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about interactions he had with Russia’s ambassador to the United States in the weeks before Trump took office.
But he has since sought to withdraw the plea, arguing that prosecutors violated his rights and duped him into a plea agreement.
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Eric Beech; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Robert Birsel)
