Flynn rebuked, sentencing delayed
SENTENCING DELAYED AS TRUMP’S FORMER SECURITY ADVISER STUNNED BY ‘DISGUST’ AT OFFENCES
Michael Flynn entered a courtroom Tuesday with the hope of a lenient sentence with no prison time and a thank you for his cooperation.
Instead, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser left with the threat of a prison term, a delay in sentencing and a stinging rebuke from a federal judge who told him, “Arguably, you sold your country out.”
The startling turn of events in a Washington federal court came after U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan pressed prosecutors for more details about Flynn’s illegal deeds and expressed “disgust” and “disdain” for the seriousness of Flynn’s offences.
Flynn pleaded guilty to lying during an early 2017 FBI interview about his conversations with the Russian ambassador. Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller said in court papers that Flynn had provided such valuable cooperation — across 19 interviews related to multiple probes — that he deserves a lenient sentence without time behind bars.
But the judge delved into allegations revealed this week that Flynn had taken money for a secret lobbying effort for Turkey while he was the top national security adviser for Trump’s campaign. Federal prosecutors told the judge Tuesday that participation in that alleged conspiracy could have led to as much as a decade in prison.
Flynn’s attorneys asked for the delay after Sullivan accused Flynn of acting as “an unregistered agent of a foreign country, while serving as the national security adviser to the president of the United States” — an allegation he later walked back. Sullivan granted the request and asked for a status report in 90 days, though he said he was “not making any promises” that he would view the matter differently in three months.
After reviewing some of the allegations against Flynn, including that he worked to advance the interests of the Turkish government in the United States during the 2016 presidential campaign, the judge pointed to an American flag behind him in the courtroom and said heatedly, “Arguably, that undermines everything this flag over here stands for. Arguably you sold your country out.
“The court’s going to consider that,” the judge said. “I cannot assure you, if you proceed today, you will not receive a sentence of incarceration.”
Sullivan also asked a prosecutor with the special counsel’s office whether Flynn could be charged with “treason.”
Flynn, standing straight and flanked by attorneys, looked shaken, his jaw clenched. Sullivan declared a recess to let Flynn consider whether he wanted to proceed and let the judge impose a punishment, or to delay and cooperate more with the special counsel in hopes of leniency.
The judge began the hearing by questioning Flynn about the defence suggestion that Flynn might have been fooled into lying to the FBI because he hadn’t been warned that doing so was a crime.
Sullivan reminded Flynn he could get into “more trouble” if he were to lie in court, then asked, “Were you not aware that lying to FBI investigators was a crime?” “I was aware,” Flynn said. The judge asked if he wanted to postpone the sentencing, or reconsider his plea.
“I would like to proceed your honour,” Flynn said.
“Because you are guilty of this offence?” the judge responded.
“Yes, your honour.” “I’m not hiding my disgust, my disdain for this criminal offence,” Sullivan said.
“Could he be charged with treason?” Sullivan asked special counsel prosecutor Brandon Van Grack.
“It’s such a serious question, I’m hesitant to answer it,” Van Grack responded. He said later he had “no reason to believe that Mr. Flynn committed treason.”
Flynn pleaded guilty more than a year ago, admitting he lied to the FBI about conversations with Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States at the time. Flynn had talked with the diplomat in the weeks before Trump’s inauguration about efforts to blunt Obama administration policy decisions — on sanctions against Russia and a UN resolution on Israel. On Monday, prosecutors revealed the FBI notes of the interview with Flynn.
The filings show that Flynn was asked about Obama-era sanctions that were announced Dec. 29, 2016, as punishment for Russia’s interference in the election, and that he insisted he had not discussed them with Kislyak. Flynn claimed he had not even known about the new sanctions because he had been on vacation in the Dominican Republic, where he did not have access to TV news and his government Blackberry was not working.
In fact, Flynn had called a senior transition official at Trump’s Florida resort, Mara-lago, to talk about what he should say to Kislyak about the sanctions, and he later reported the upshot of the conversation with the ambassador, according to his plea agreement.
The lies — which prosecutors said Flynn repeated to Vice-president Mike Pence — ultimately cost Flynn his job.
Flynn also admitted he had lied about his business dealings with the Turkish government. On Monday, prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia charged two of Flynn’s associates with acting as agents of a foreign government and detailed how the trio had worked during the heart of Trump’s campaign to persuade the United States to expel a rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.