Mary McCord, former acting assistant attorney general for national security, claimed in a New York Times op-ed Sunday that the Justice Department's motion to dismiss the case against Michael Flynn "twisted" her words to suggest that the counterintelligence investigation against Flynn was illegitimate.
Why it matters: The Justice Department's filing relies in part on McCord's July 2017 interview with the FBI to argue that the FBI had no valid counterintelligence reason to interview Flynn, and that the former national security adviser's apparent lies were therefore immaterial.
The big picture: The Flynn filing — signed by acting U.S. Attorney for D.C. Timothy Shea, a close confidante of Attorney General Barr — notes that the FBI had intended to close its counterintelligence investigation of Flynn but extended it upon learning about his conversations with then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
- The Justice Department claims that the calls were "entirely appropriate on their face," and that nothing was said on the calls to indicate an "inappropriate relationship" between Flynn and Russia.
- Therefore, "there was no factual basis for the predication of a new counterintelligence investigation," the filing states. "Nor was there a justification or need to interview Mr. Flynn as to his own personal recollections of what had been said."
- The filing cites a summary of McCord's interview with the FBI more than 25 times to show that Justice Department leadership wanted to notify the incoming Trump administration of the Flynn-Kislyak communications, but that the FBI refused.
Yes, but: McCord claims in her op-ed that her interview does not help support the conclusion that the interview shouldn't have taken place, and that "it is disingenuous for the department...