Newt Gingrich: 'Deep State,' Judge Still Working Against Flynn

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan's refusal to immediately drop charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn is another "outrageous effort" by the "deep state" to cause more pain, ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Wednesday.

"If the Justice Department comes in and says we are not going to prosecute this, what are the grounds for the judge saying, 'I don't care, I want you to prosecute, even if you have decided you can't prosecute,'" Gingrich said on Fox News' "America's Newsroom."

"This is one more old boy example of trying to do something to cause pain to somebody that Barack Obama disliked deeply," he added. "The fact is that I think Gen. Flynn after all of his years of serving the country and risking his life deserves a heck of a lot better treatment than he has been given either by the FBI, President Obama, or this judge."

Gingrich said he hopes answers come about what Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden, former national security adviser Susan Rice, and others knew about the Flynn case.

"I don't remember any occasion in American history where, except maybe (Abraham) Lincoln in the Civil War, where an incoming administration had this institutional hostility expressed at every level," said Gingrich. "It was an effort to try to destroy Trump before he could begin to change things."

Gingrich added that given what is known now, the Trump administration should not allow anyone to work with the House Intelligence Committee as long as chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., remains there.

"We now have documented evidence that for three years, Schiff deliberately and maliciously lied," said Gingrich. "Why would you cooperate with an Intelligence Committee chairman who is a clear proven liar? I think the president should just cut him off and say, when you want to get me an Intelligence Committee chairman I can trust, I will work with him. But this guy is impossible."

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