#‘He’s a great gentleman’: Trump says he’d welcome Flynn back on campaign

President Trump said Tuesday that he would welcome ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn back with open arms to campaign for his reelection.

“I would. I think he’s a great gentleman,” the president told CBS News. “He’s a great — he’s been in the military for many, many decades, actually. Highly respected. What General Flynn went through is so unfair,” he said of the former US Army Lt. General.

Flynn was fired by Trump in February 2017 and then pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about discussing sanctions and a UN vote in December 2016 with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Flynn later said he did not intentionally lie and the Justice Department said in May it would drop the case, asserting that FBI agents had no valid basis to interview Flynn days into Trump’s presidency.

A federal appeals court on July 10 stayed a decision ordering that a judge accept the Justice Department’s motion to drop its criminal case against Flynn.

The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit issued an order that gives Flynn and the Justice Department 10 days to respond to Judge Emmett Sullivan’s petition Thursday for a rehearing by the full appeals court.

The filing also stated that the three-judge panel’s June 24 decision ordering Sullivan to grant the Justice Department’s motion to drop the charges against Flynn had been stayed “pending disposition of the petition for rehearing en banc,” which means by the full 11-member appellate court.

The president said he did not think that Flynn would need a pardon — days after he commuted the 40-month federal prison sentence given to his longtime pal Roger Stone.

“I don’t think he’s going to need a pardon because he’s been proven to be innocent,” the president said. “I don’t think he’s going to need a pardon.”

Trump stopped short of saying he regretted firing Flynn, blaming others in his administration for providing faulty information.

“You have to understand. I was given information that he lied,” he said.

Stone also said he would campaign for Trump leading up to the election. Asked whether he would allow that, the president told the network: “Hey, Roger’s free.”

The Post reported Saturday that Flynn could be making a comeback to the campaign trail.