CPAC 2020: Former Flynn deputy McFarland reveals new details of Mueller interviews
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NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—Former White House deputy national security adviser KT McFarland revealed new details about her interviews as part of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation at the Conservative Political Action Conference Thursday, saying federal prosecutors tried to get her to “plead guilty to a crime I didn’t commit” to play along with their “narrative.”
McFarland, who was the deputy to former national security adviser Michael Flynn and a former Fox News contributor, described her experience being approached by members of Mueller’s office.
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“Two FBI agents were outside my house,” McFarland said, noting they “waited until my husband left.”
She added, “I was alone.”
McFarland said the agents described her as a “fact witness” in the investigation, and said she spent hours and hours being interviewed. She explained that the agents and prosecutors from Mueller’s office met with her several times, showing her “parts” of documents and phone logs, and asked her questions about them, but she didn’t remember.
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“They were able to take Trump tweets, excerpts from text messages, things I said,” she explained. “And they said, ‘we think you should have remembered these things, and if you didn’t remember, we think that’s perjury.’”
“It became clear that what they wanted me to do…was plead guilty to a crime I didn’t commit,” she said. “They wanted me to plead guilty for lying.”
KT MCFARLAND: FBI TRIED TO SET ME UP FOR A 'PERJURY TRAP'
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She added: “They expected me to plead guilty for a crime I didn’t commit, or implicate others, like President Trump, to save my own skin.”
McFarland said that “they didn’t have to prove me guilty. I had to prove myself innocent.”
She said they ultimately told her lawyer they would not pursue charges once they realized they would not "get what they wanted to prove their case." She said she was “so beaten down” when the process was complete, she and her husband traveled to a remote area in the Scottish Highlands to try to “make sense” of what had happened.
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She also plugged her new book, “Revolution: Trump, Washington and We the People.”
“I have stayed out of sight for two years,” she said. “But I am back.
“I am back in this fight,” she continued. “You need to be in this fight. You do not want a government who can do to you what they did to me, what they did to Trump.”
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She added: “Do not give your country over to these people.”
The Mueller investigation concluded last spring, and after nearly two years of investigating, Mueller announced that he had found no evidence of collusion or coordination between the Russian government and members of the Trump campaign.
As part of the probe, though, Flynn was charged with making false statements to FBI agents about his conversations and communications with former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Last month, Flynn and his attorney Sidney Powell moved to withdraw his guilty plea.
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Flynn’s move to request a withdrawal of his guilty plea came just days after the Justice Department reversed course to recommend up to six months of prison time for him, alleging he was not fully cooperating or accepting responsibility for his actions. But then the DOJ said it would not "oppose" a sentence of probation. The sentencing remains in limbo.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Bill Barr, earlier this month, tapped an outside prosecutor to review Flynn's case. Jeff Jensen, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, has been assigned to Flynn’s case, and will be working hand-in-hand with the lead prosecutor on the Flynn case, Brandon Van Grack.