© 2026 ABC News

Dowd told ABC News he wrote those words. A second source who corroborated that Dowd had written the tweet called it \"sloppy.\"

It's unclear who actually sent out the tweet, but Dowd said he gave the drafted message to the president's social media director Dan Scavino.

\"I’m out of the tweeting business,\" Dowd said. \"I did not mean to break news.\"

The White House, which has insisted that tweets from the president should be taken as official statements, has declined to comment.

\"PHOTO:
Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
PHOTO: Gen. Michael Flynn, center, with his attorney, Robert Kelner, right, leaves Federal Court in Washington, DC, December 1, 2017 after pleading guilty to one count of lying to the FBI about his back-channel negotiations with the Russian ambassador.
>

The apparent admission made in the president's tweet -- that he knew Flynn had lied to the FBI at the time of his firing -- would seem to add a potentially explosive new dimension to the ongoing special counsel investigation.

If true, why then would Trump ask the FBI director to go easy on Flynn, as former FBI Director James Comey later testified? The message set off renewed talk of potential evidence of obstruction of justice.

While Dowd concedes that Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates informed White House Counsel Don McGahn in January following Flynn's interview with the FBI that \"the agents were told the same thing the Vice President was told,\" he maintains that the president did not know Flynn had lied to the FBI because the Department of Justice did not characterize Flynn as having lied.

\"The FBI and Yates and the Department of Justice did not accuse Flynn of lying despite the fact that he lied to the agents, but nobody was accused of it, so the president didn't know about it,\" Dowd said.

\"All the president knew was that the department was not accusing him of lying,\" Dowd later added.

Administration officials have declined to comment on that matter and the president did not respond to shouted questions Saturday evening about Flynn's firing as he returned home from campaign fundraisers in New York City.

\"PHOTO:
Susan Walsh/AP
PHOTO: President Donald Trump passed Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, left, and National Security Adviser Michael Flynn as he arrives via Air Force One at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, Feb. 6, 2017.
>

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story indicated Dowd referred to the tweet as \"sloppy.\" It was a second source who corroborated Dowd’s account who also called it \"sloppy.\"

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