AP FACT CHECK: Trump, GOP falsehoods on Flynn, Biden, virus

AP FACT CHECK: Trump, GOP falsehoods on Flynn, Biden, virus

SeattlePI.com

Published

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and his GOP allies are misrepresenting the facts behind the legal case of former national security adviser Michael Flynn as they seek to allege improper behavior during the Obama administration in the presidential campaign season.

Broadly dubbing his allegations “Obamagate," Trump points to unspecified conspiracies against himself in 2016 and suggests the disclosure of Flynn's name as part of legal U.S. surveillance of foreign targets was criminal and motivated by partisan politics. There's no evidence of that.

In fact, the so-called unmasking of Americans' names like Flynn's is legal.

Over the weekend, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro also alleged without evidence corruption involving Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's son, Hunter, in China. And in an interview re-aired Sunday, Trump mischaracterized messages between FBI employees to suggest a post-2016 election plot to get him.

Meanwhile, Trump continued to spread falsehoods about the availability of tests needed to help stem the spread of the coronavirus in the U.S. and exaggerated the scope of his travel restrictions on China.

A look at the recent political rhetoric and reality:

FLYNN

TRUMP: “OBAMAGATE!” — tweet Saturday.

TRUMP: “Biggest political crime and scandal in the history of the USA.” — tweet Thursday.

THE FACTS: He’s making an unsupported claim that former President Barack Obama broke the law.

Trump and his supporters have made the unmasking of Flynn one of their major talking points, claiming that it proves the Obama administration unfairly and illegally targeted Flynn and other Trump associates.

But there is nothing illegal about unmasking. The declassified document also states that the unmasking requests were approved through...

Full Article