This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Special counsel Robert Mueller has collected sufficient evidence to charge Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, and his son in the investigation into alleged collusion between Trump aides and Russia, NBC News reported on Sunday.

‘There’s a lot more there’: Mueller ups the stakes in the Trump-Russia inquiry Read more

Citing multiple sources familiar with the investigation, NBC said Mueller’s team was looking at possible charges of money laundering and lying to federal agents, and Flynn’s role in a possible plan to remove an opponent of the Turkish president from the US in exchange for millions of dollars.

Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the report. Barry Coburn, a lawyer for Michael Flynn Jr, declined to comment. Robert Kelner, Flynn’s lawyer, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The younger Flynn appeared to address the report in a tweet. “The SJW are out in full this morning,” he wrote, using an acronym for “social justice warriors”, a pejorative often used in reference to liberals. “The disappointment on your faces when I don’t go to jail will be worth all your harassment.”

In a week which began with Mueller’s indictment on financial charges of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and campaign aide Rick Gates – and news of a guilty plea and potential cooperation by a former foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos – White House and Republican party sources have sought to increase pressure on Mueller.

Mueller is increasing pressure on Flynn following his indictment of Manafort, the NBC report said.

The Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, said on Sunday Mueller should not be fired or step down.

“We need to let these career professionals do their jobs, see it through … I don’t think he should be stepping down and I don’t think he should be fired,” Ryan told Fox News Sunday.

Flynn served 24 days as Trump’s national security adviser but resigned after it was discovered he had misrepresented his contacts with a Russian diplomat to Vice-President Mike Pence.

The NBC report said lawyers for Flynn and his son, Michael G Flynn, who worked with his father, declined to comment. So did Mueller’s office. Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the report.