At this point, it appears that Michael Flynn’s request for immunity in exchange for testimony about the Trump administration’s ties to Russia has been rejected by Congress. But the mere fact that he asked for it in the first place has led to wild speculation about both the extent of his own guilt and what he might know about President Trump.
On his Late Night show Monday night, Seth Meyers stressed that there is “no evidence connecting the dots that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to help him win the election.” But, he added, “there are so many dots.”
“We are covered in dots,” Meyers said. “The Trump presidency is basically a 6-year-old with chicken pox. And the rest of us are so fucking itchy.”
One of those dots is Flynn, and his request for immunity has raised a lot of questions. “Does it mean Flynn is worried about criminal prosecution?” Meyers asked. “Or is he just afraid he can’t get a fair hearing? There’s a lot of conjecture swirling around. And I just wish someone would tell us straight up: What does it mean when you’re given immunity?”
Cut to Michael Flynn on Meet the Press last September saying, in reference to members of Hillary Clinton’s staff, “When you are given immunity, that means you have probably committed a crime.”
“Great. Thank you, Mike Flynn,” Meyers said in response, before playing a clip of Trump himself declaring that same month, “If you’re not guilty of a crime, what do you need immunity for?”
“Of course, you’ll be shocked to find that Trump has had a change of heart when it comes to immunity,” Meyers said. “Now he thinks it’s great and shows you’ve done nothing wrong.”
“Mike Flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch hunt,” Trump tweeted on Friday. That prompted Meyers to warn Flynn against taking legal advice from the president, who has been involved in more than 3,500 lawsuits. To give his viewers “a sense of what 3,500 looks like,” he showed a photo of Trump’s inauguration crowd.
“Trump is clearly bothered by the mounting questions about his potential ties to Russia,” Meyers added later. “And so, as usual, he’s lashing out about completely unrelated fake controversies,” including a tweet Monday morning about Hillary Clinton “receiving answers to the debate.”
“Well, first of all, she received questions in advance and it was during a Democratic primary debate, not the general election,” Meyers said, correcting Trump. “Second of all, if someone did give her the answers, you should thank them. Because maybe you forget, but she didn’t pass.”
With that, he put up an image of the 2016 Electoral College map. And as it turns out, Trump still won.