WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, issued the following statement:

“The Department of Justice’s reported decision to pay out more than a million of the taxpayer’s dollars to Michael Flynn is as outrageous as it is indefensible. This is someone who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials at a time when Russia was actively interfering in our democratic process, after being charged by the Department of Justice during President Trump’s first term. For this Justice Department to now turn around and reward that behavior with a million-dollar settlement sends exactly the wrong message to our adversaries, to our intelligence professionals, and to the American people. It undermines the rule of law, demeans the work of the men and women who safeguard our national security, and suggests that accountability depends on who you are and who you know, not what you’ve done. At a moment when threats from abroad are growing more complex and more dangerous, we should be reinforcing the principle that no one is above the law, not rewriting history to benefit those who violated the public trust.”

A bipartisan report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the most comprehensive investigation conducted into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and related counterintelligence risks and issued under then-Chairman Marco Rubio (R-FL), found that Michael Flynn’s undisclosed contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and his subsequent false statements about those interactions, created a significant counterintelligence vulnerability and left him susceptible to potential foreign leverage. The Committee documented multiple concerning interactions between Flynn and Russian officials during the presidential transition, including discussions of U.S. sanctions, and found that his conduct and lack of candor heightened risks to U.S. national security at a time when Russia was actively seeking to exploit weaknesses and access points within the incoming administration.

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