AP FACT CHECK: Trump, GOP distortion on Flynn; virus fiction

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and his GOP allies are misrepresenting the facts behind the legal case of former national security adviser Michael Flynn as they seek to allege improper behavior during the Obama administration in the presidential campaign season.Broadly dubbing his allegations “Obamagate,” Trump points to unspecified conspiracies against himself in 2016 and suggests the disclosure of Flynn’s name as part of legal U.S. surveillance of foreign targets was criminal and motivated by partisan politics. There’s no evidence of that.In fact, the so-called unmasking of Americans’ names like Flynn’s is legal, and such requests have been more frequently sought in the Trump administration than in the last stretch of Obama’s tenure.In a politically tumultuous week, the president also mischaracterized messages between FBI employees and again alleged without evidence corruption involving Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, in China.Meanwhile, Trump continued to spread falsehoods about the availability of tests needed to help stem the spread of the coronavirus in the U.S.A look at the past week’s political rhetoric and reality:FLYNNTRUMP: “OBAMAGATE!” — tweet Wednesday.TRUMP: “Biggest political crime and scandal in the history of the USA.” — tweet Thursday. LINDSEY GRAHAM, Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee: “The unmasking of General Flynn by the Obama Administration regarding conversations during the presidential transition are deeply troubling and smell of politics, not national security.” — statement Wednesday.THE FACTS: There is nothing from newly released material that suggests the unmasking requests were rooted in politics rather than national security. If you need to be contact traced, you can get a test.” — news briefing Monday.THE FACTS: Not according to public health experts, who say the U.S. is not near the testing level to safely reopen.Researchers at the Harvard Global Health Institute, for instance, said the U.S. should now be doing 900,000 tests a day to help stop the spread of the virus. We actually acted very early.” — interview Thursday with Fox News.THE FACTS: The travel restrictions he imposed on China in late January had other loopholes besides the exceptions for U.S. citizens.