No-jail recommendation for Flynn
WASHINGTON: Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor in charge of the Russia election meddling probe, recommended that President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn face no jail time due to his “substantial” cooperation with the investigation.
Mueller said in a court filing on Tuesday that Flynn, who admitted last year to lying about his contacts with Russians following Trump’s November 2016 election victory, had helped in his and other unspecified federal criminal investigations, including being interviewed 19 times.
Mueller also told the Washington Federal court that despite his “serious” offence, the retired three-star general and former Pentagon intelligence chief had a strong record of military and public service.
The surprise recommendation came ahead of Flynn’s upcoming sentencing, which had been postponed four times over the past year.
Those postponements indicated that, once hostile to the investigation that threatens Trump and his inner circle, he had possibly become a valuable witness.
“Given the defendant’s substantial assistance and other considerations set forth below, a sentence at the low end of the guideline range – including a sentence that does not impose a term of incarceration – is appropriate and warranted,” Mueller said.
Flynn’s was the first guilty plea secured by the Mueller investigation into alleged collusion between Trump’s election campaign and Russia.
In an interview with investigators on Jan 24, 2017, four days after Trump’s inauguration, Flynn lied about conversations he had the previous December with Russia’s ambassador to the US, Sergei Kislyak.
In those conversations, apparently recorded by US intelligence, Flynn appeared to be trying to undermine the policy of then-President Barack Obama by making separate political deals with Moscow.