U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday that he is "strongly considering" a full pardon for former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
The president's tweet comes as America reels from the , which has surpassed 3,000 cases and left at least 61 dead nationwide. In the , Trump claimed that "the FBI, working in conjunction with the Justice Department, has 'lost' the records of General Michael Flynn."
The president appeared to be referencing a claim made by Flynn's lawyers back in September that there was an internal Department of Justice memo that cleared Flynn of being a Russian agent -- a memo that the prosecution could not produce.
A government lawyer on the Flynn case said those claims are irrelevant, noting they did not accuse Flynn of being a Russian agent. It was not immediately clear Sunday why Trump was referencing the exchange.
Flynn, who is a retired army lieutenant general who served as Trump's first national security adviser and resigned a month into the new administration, is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty in 2017 to charges that he lied to the FBI about a conversation he had with the then-ambassador to Russia. The aftermath of the conversation, including Trump's encouragement of then-FBI director James Comey to go easy on Flynn, led to the eventual appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller.
Attorney General William Barr ordered of Flynn's case last month.
