Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, on Thursday night suggested that a report that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is seeking immunity from the intelligence committees shows that he is not “innocent.”
“Generally, innocent people don’t seek immunity,” Swalwell said on CNN following a report in the Wall Street Journal that Flynn has asked for immunity in exchange for speaking with the intelligence committees in Congress.
Swalwell said that he would not support giving Flynn immunity.
“I don’t want to hear from him in a setting where there are conditions,” he said. “I think we should hear from him in the public and that we should get to the bottom of just exactly why was he working with Russia Today, who, as a former Defense intelligence agency director, he of all people knows that that agency is connected to Russia’s intelligence services.”
“And so to take money from them and then to work with Russian ambassador after sanctions were put on Russia and to lie to the vice president, that’s powerful evidence that he knew what was going on,” Swalwell continued. “And this was converging at the time of Russia’s interference campaign.”
When asked how the committee would decide if someone is granted immunity, Swalwell said, “Ideally, we work together as far as witness testimony.”
“This is not anything that I or I believe my colleagues are familiar with. And so we want to hear from Michael Flynn. We want to hear from Paul Manafort, and Carter Page and Roger Stone,” he added.
Watch the interview via CNN:
