Justice Department dropping 
Flynn's Trump-Russia case

[b]By MICHAEL BALSAMO and ERIC TUCKER [/b]Associated Press
 
MAY 7, 2020 — 4:00PM




FILE - In this July 10, 2018, file photo, former Trump national security adviser 
Michael Flynn leaves the federal courthouse in Washington, 
following a status hearing.


WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Thursday said it is dropping the 
criminal case against President Donald Trump's first national security adviser, Mr
Michael Flynn, abandoning a prosecution that became a rallying cry for the president 
and his supporters in attacking the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation.

The action was a stunning reversal for one of the signature cases brought by special 
counsel Robert Mueller. It comes even though prosecutors for the past three years
 have maintained that Flynn lied to the FBI in a January 2017 interview about his 
conversations with the Russian ambassador.

Flynn himself admitted as much, pleading guilty before later asking to withdraw 
the plea, and he became a key cooperator for Mueller as the special counsel 
investigated ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 political campaign.

Thursday's action was swiftly embraced by Trump, who has relentlessly tweeted 
about the "outrageous" case and last week pronounced Flynn "exonerated." 
It could also newly energize Trump supporters who have taken up the retired 
Army lieutenant general as a cause.

But it will also add to Democratic complaints that Attorney General Barr is 
excessively loyal to the president, and could be a distraction for a Justice Department 
that for months has sought to focus on crimes arising from the coronavirus.

Shortly before the filing was submitted, Brandon Van Grack, a Mueller team 
member and veteran prosecutor on the case, withdrew from the prosecution, 
a possible sign of disagreement with the decision.

After the Flynn announcement, Trump declared that his former aide had been 
"an innocent man" all along. He accused Obama administration officials of
targeting Flynn and said, "I hope that a big price is going to be paid." At one
 point he went further, saying of the effort investigating Flynn: 
"It's treason. It's treason."

In court documents filed Thursday, the Justice Department said that after 
reviewing newly disclosed information and other materials, it agreed with 
Flynn's lawyers that his interview with the FBI should never have taken place 
because he had not had inappropriate contacts with Russians. The interview, 
the department said, was "conducted without any legitimate investigative basis."

The U.S. attorney reviewing the Flynn case, Jeff Jensen, formally recommended 
dropping it to Barr last week, the course of action vehemently and publicly
 recommended by Trump, who appointed Barr to head the Justice Department.

Barr has increasingly challenged the federal Trump-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 case of Roger Stone, 
a longtime Trump friend and adviser, in favor of a more lenient 
recommended sentence.

Jensen said in a statement: "Through the course of my review of 
General Flynn's case, I concluded the proper and just course was to 
dismiss the case. I briefed Attorney General Barr on my findings, 
advised him on these conclusions, and he agreed."

The department's action comes amid an internal review into the handling 
of the case and an aggressive effort by Flynn's lawyers to challenge the basis 
for the prosecution. The lawyers cited newly disclosed FBI emails and notes 
last week to allege that Flynn was improperly trapped into lying when agents
 interviewed him at the White House days after Trump's inauguration. 
Though none of the documents appeared to undercut the central allegation 
that Flynn had lied to the FBI, Trump last week pronounced him "exonerated."

Thursday's filing was the latest dramatic development in a years-old case full 
of twists and turns. In recent months, Flynn's attorneys have leveled a series 
of allegations about the FBI's 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.

Earlier this year, Barr appointed Jensen, the top federal prosecutor in 
St. Louis to investigate the handling of Flynn's case.

As part of that process, the Justice Department gave Flynn's attorneys a 
series of emails and notes, including one handwritten note from a senior 
FBI official that mapped out internal deliberations about the purpose of 
the Flynn interview: "What's our goal? Truth/admission or to get him to 
lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?" the official wrote.

Other documents show the FBI had been prepared weeks before its interview 
of Flynn to drop its investigation into whether he was acting at the direction 
of Russia. Later that month, though, as the White House insisted that Flynn 
had never discussed sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, 
FBI officials grew more concerned by Flynn's conversations with the diplomat 
and decided to keep the investigation open so they could question him 
about that. Two agents visited him at the White House on Jan. 24., 2017.

But Thursday's filing says the FBI had no basis to continue investigating Flynn 
after failing to find that he had done anything wrong. It says there was 
nothing on his Russia calls "to indicate an inappropriate relationship between 
Mr. Flynn and a foreign power," and that none of the statements he made to 
the FBI had any relevance to the underlying investigation into whether the 
Trump campaign and Russia were illegally coordinating.

It also cites internal uncertainty within the FBI over whether Flynn had lied, 
noting that the agents who interviewed him reported that he had a 
"very sure demeanor" and that-then FBI Director James Comey had said 
it was a "close" call.

Flynn pleaded guilty that December, among the first of the president's aides 
to admit guilt in Mueller's investigation. He acknowledged that he lied about 
his conversations with Kislyak, in which he encouraged Russia not to retaliate 
against the U.S. for sanctions imposed by the Obama administration over 
election interference.

He provided such extensive cooperation that prosecutors said he was entitled 
to a sentence of probation instead of prison.

However, his sentencing hearing was abruptly cut short after Flynn, facing a 
stern rebuke from U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, asked to be able to 
continue cooperating and earn credit toward a more lenient sentence.

Flynn's views about the case were already on display when his then-attorneys 
pointedly noted in their sentencing memo that the FBI had not warned him 
that it was against the law to lie when they interviewed him.

He later hired new attorneys, including conservative commentator 
Sidney Powell, who have taken a far more confrontational stance to the 
government. The lawyers accused prosecutors of withholding documents 
and evidence they said was favorable to the case and have repeatedly noted 
that one of the two agents who interviewed Flynn was fired for having sent 
derogatory text messages about Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.



Source : Star Tribune