Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn claims he “never lied” to federal investigators, more than two years after he pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI.
“In truth, I never lied,” President Trump’s former national security adviser wrote in a court filing to the United States District Court in D.C. on Wednesday.
Flynn, 61, pleaded guilty in December 2017 for lying to investigators about his conversations with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak regarding U.S. sanctions and a U.N. Security Council vote. He was interviewed because he was one of a handful of people connected to the Trump campaign targeted by the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation, Crossfire Hurricane, which began in July 2016.
But Flynn said on Wednesday he “never would have pled guilty” if his first team of attorneys from the Washington law firm Covington & Burling had informed him that the FBI agents who interviewed him in January 2017 did not see signs that Flynn was lying to them.
Flynn wrote of a “sudden and intense” pressure campaign in November 2017 to get him to plead guilty, including threats of a “long-term” prison sentence and charges against his son, Michael Flynn Jr., related to their Turkey business dealings.
“I tried to ‘accept responsibility’ by admitting to offenses I understood the government I love and trusted said I committed,” Flynn wrote, adding: “I am innocent of this crime.”
Flynn said he does not recall speaking of sanctions with Kislyak, as has been alleged by the FBI, or the details of a U.N. vote on Israel.
As part of his plea deal, Flynn agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, admitting and then reaffirming his guilt in 2017 and 2018. The defense team that negotiated the plea deal was fired last summer, and, since taking over Flynn’s defense, former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell has argued “there never would’ve been a plea to begin with” if Flynn knew how much information the Justice Department was reportedly hiding from him.
Flynn filed to withdraw his guilty plea earlier this month after the Justice Department asked Judge Emmet Sullivan to sentence Flynn to up to six months in prison in a reversal of its previous request that the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency receive probation and no time behind bars. The U.S. attorney’s office for D.C. reasoned that the “complete record” showed actions by Flynn that “negate the benefits of much of the defendant’s earlier cooperation.”
Prosecutors, led by U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu, wrote in a filing Wednesday that they stand by the zero-to-six-months recommendation but also noted that “probation is a reasonable sentence” and that they would not oppose it.
Last week, Sullivan said Flynn may have to testify under oath in order to withdraw his plea deal. Flynn is tentatively scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 27.
