
The White House has cut off press access to Donald Trump after Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

The White House canceled a planned media availability with Donald Trump after news broke that his former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

Flynn will reportedly offer evidence to special counsel Robert Mueller implicating Trump, his family, and senior administration officials in the scheme to collude with Russia during the election, and to subsequently cover up that collusion.

Trump received Libyan prime minister Fayez al-Sarraj at the White House, and was scheduled to be recorded speaking with him by the reporting pool at the White House.


Instead, the meeting was abruptly canceled. As CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller noted, "This spares Pres Trump from facing shouted press pool questions about the Flynn guilty plea and what it means for the larger investigation."

After the news of the cancellation went public, the White House then claimed that they never intended to have a photo op with the Libyan prime minister, and that the schedule was wrong — a claim that does not pass the smell test.

Flynn was a top adviser and trusted lieutenant to Trump. We now know that he worked to influence major decisions on U.S. and international policy by contacting Russia, at the behest of a "very" senior member of the Trump presidential transition team.

Flynn knows many of Trump's inside secrets. And his apparent decision to reveal what he knew and observed to the special counsel has clearly rattled Trump and his team.

They are avoiding the media likely in the hope of avoiding accountability for their actions and the fallout it will bring.

But they can't hold out forever, and a day of reckoning is fast approaching.