Mike Pence, the unpopular former governor of Indiana who somehow wandered his way into the vice presidency, has managed to stay out of the Russia controversy by claiming he didn’t know Michael Flynn’s ties with the Russian government before the disgraced general was forced to resign in February. Until now.
According to CNN, Pence will be tapped for an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller, who is spearheading an investigation to determine if the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.
The story Mike Pence has been telling the American people about Flynn does not add up or make sense. Pence claims he knew nothing about Flynn’s dealing with foreign governments.
However, as head of the transition when the transition Pence was notified multiple times, including in person twice by Flynn’s lawyers, and in writing by Congress, that Mike Flynn had taken foreign payments. Nevertheless, Vice President Pence proclaims he was perfectly ignorant of that fact until weeks after Mike Flynn was fired.
Pence has also maintained he was unaware Flynn spoke with former Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak about U.S. sanctions. But court filings unsealed last week, along with new information revealed about Pence’s knowledge of certain events, suggest he knew of Flynn’s communications with Kislyak. As a result, those close to Pence are concerned Mueller will drag Pence for an interview with his team.
“They are preparing for that,” said an anonymous source close to Pence.
“Chairing the transition would make it possible regardless of who it was,” another source added.
Lawmakers are also interested in hearing from Pence. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., has called for Pence to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to provide insight into what he knew concerning Flynn’s contacts with Russians.
“I think he has new questions to answer,” Blumenthal said.
Last week, Flynn pleaded guilty in a federal court to lying to the FBI in January about his contacts with Kislyak. Flynn was charged on one count of “willfully and knowingly” making “false, fictitious and fraudulent statements” to the FBI about communications exchanged with Kislyak shortly after Trump took office. Flynn said he is cooperating with Mueller.
