Former national security adviser Michael Flynn should have been honest with the White House and the FBI, but there likely was nothing malicious in his conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, Sen. James Lankford said Wednesday.
"What's interesting is the evolving story from the FBI through the course of it, where initially he came in, gave his nebulous answers," the Oklahoma Republican told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
"I have no question that Flynn was talking to the Russian ambassador and trying to engage him, to be able to say go easy on America basically, don't respond back to us harshly based on sanctions and trying to talk him down during that time period."
Lankford also discussed the criminal justice reform legislation passed in the Senate on Tuesday, saying the bipartisan push was eight years in the making.
"It's gone through a lot of different changes and it has basic things, minor sentencing reforms where there's conflict in the previous law," said Lankford. "It deals with bipartisan cooperation.
"One section called the Mercy Act is something that Cory Booker and I had worked on, together dealing with juveniles in solitary confinement, dealing with issues of ladies who are pregnant in prison and being able to manage some of those things, also the rebalancing of crack cocaine and wider cocaine.
"The key thing that came out of the bill was the ability for prisoners to return to society, including job training and the opportunity to be in prisons closer to their families so they can stay connected, if they want opportunities for help in their drug rehabilitation, all this provides those incentives to go through that and a hopefully have less recidivism."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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