After the first federal indictments by FBI special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian influence in the 2016 election last week, NBC News reports multiple sources say Mueller has enough evidence to bring more charges from the probe of former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and his son.
Mueller's investigators are looking into Flynn's international lobbying work with his son, Michael G. Flynn, three sources told NBC News, including potential money laundering or possibly lying to federal agents about overseas contacts – the nature of the indictments served to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, his associate Rick Gates, and a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos.
The elder Flynn, fired just 24 days after officially taking the national security adviser role in President Trump's administration, might have lobbied for removal of a chief rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in exchange for cash, two officials told NBC News, according to the report.
The Mueller-led FBI investigation also may indict Flynn's son, who assisted his father in Trump's campaign and during the transition, or use his father's cooperation in exchange leniency, the three sources told NBC News.
The White House had maintained this week the involvement with then-candidate Trump had been minimal for those charged, but Flynn would be the first Trump administration official to be charged in Mueller's probe.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., supported the work of Mueller and the Department of Justice in his appearance on "Fox News Sunday."
"We need to let the career professionals do their jobs, see it through," Rep. Ryan told Fox News host Chris Wallace. "So, no, I don't think he should be stepping down. I don't think he should be fired, and the president has made it clear he's not going to do that. So, no we're not going to interfere with this investigation.
"The investigation will take its course, and we will let it take its course. . . . Let the career professionals at DOJ do their jobs and finish their jobs, and we're going to let them do that."
Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., added calls to investigate the Hillary Clinton campaign funding of the Fusion GPS opposition research on then-candidate Trump.
"Everything about Fusion GPS stinks," Graham told Wallace on "Fox News Sunday." "The idea that the Democratic Party would hire, through a law firm, a foreign intelligence officer go to Russia to try to gather dirt means that they've set themselves up to be manipulated by the Russians. The idea that the Russians didn't know that Mr. [Christopher} Steele was in town looking for dirt on Donald Trump is zero impossible.
"I can't believe they didn't know. So you're setting yourself up to be manipulated by the Russians, and to me that's a terrible thing to do.
". . . It would be wrong to have the Russians help the Trump campaign or the Hillary Clinton campaign. Here's what nobody talks about: The Russians manipulated [fired FBI Director James] Comey in getting involved into the election. It was Russian information that Comey used to jump into the middle of the 2016 election."