DOJ drops criminal case against Michael Flynn two years after ex-Trump aide admitted to lying to FBI about Russia links
DONALD Trump’s National Security Adviser Michael Flynn who had been charged with lying to the FBI about his contact with Russia, is set to have his case dropped by the Department of Justice.
At the time of the call Flynn had already been tapped to be Donald Trump’s NSA.
Flynn eventually pleaded guilty to a charge of lying to the FBI about his December 2016 conversation.
A rebuke by Judge Emmet Sullivan ultimately led Flynn to ask for a delay to his sentencing, a delay which dragged on and on until Flynn fired his original attorneys and hired Sidney Powell, who had long been an advocate of his.
Powell worked to get Flynn’s guilty plea withdrawn, leading to documents being unearthed that showed prosecutors had threatened Flynn’s son, who had just become a father, with prosecution, if Flynn didn’t take the plea.
The turnaround drew immediate praise from Trump, who has long claimed Flynn was railroaded while attacking prosecutors he said were on a “witch hunt”.
Trump said: “I felt it was going to happen. He’s an innocent man, a great gentleman.
I felt it was going to happen. He’s an innocent man, a great gentleman
Donald Trump
Documents also recently made public from the FBI suggested the agents involved in his January 2017 interview — including anti-Trump FBI agent Peter Strzok — set out for the meeting with the goal either to get Flynn fired from the Trump administration or elicit a statement the FBI could use to charge him with.
Further evidence showed the 302 file agents filled out from Flynn’s interview had been edited by multiple individuals before being officially entered in the bureau’s system.
Flynn, a retired United State Army Lieutenant General, had previously been the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency during the Obama administration.
During his time at DIA, however, he’d rankled several Obama officials due to his intention to audit clandestine activity and his stated opposition to the administration’s Syria policy.
Those issues ultimately led to his abrupt end leading that agency and, eventually, led to his work during the 2016 presidential campaign as an adviser to Trump.
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He was even briefly touted as a potential candidate to be selected as Vice President, before settling into the likely NSA role.
The decision is the latest dramatic turn in a years-old case full of twists and turns. In recent months, his attorneys have leveled a series of allegations about the FBIs actions and asked to withdraw his guilty plea. A judge has rejected most of the claims and not ruled on others, including the bid to revoke the plea.
The decision comes as Barr has increasingly challenged the Russia investigation, saying in a television interview last month that it was started without any basis. In February, he overruled a decision by prosecutors in the Roger Stone case in favor of a more lenient recommended sentence for the longtime Trump friend.
Earlier this year, he appointed Jensen, of St. Louis, to investigate the handling of Flynns case.
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