Flynn told ‘you sold your country out’
For a full eight minutes, US District Judge Emmet Sullivan read aloud an inventory of Michael Flynn’s lies – describing his ‘‘disgust’’ that President Donald Trump’s national security adviser sought to deceive FBI agents while ‘‘on the premises of the White House’’.
Flynn, a retired general who is the highest-ranking Trump aide to plead guilty as part of the special counsel investigation, listened intently, his face tight, as the judge ticked through his misdeeds.
This was not how Flynn’s supporters or President Trump thought yesterday’s sentencing hearing would unfold. They had pinned their hopes on Sullivan, an independent-minded jurist with a history of ferreting out prosecutorial misconduct, as the one who would reveal overreach by special counsel Robert Mueller III and the FBI. Some Flynn allies even speculated the judge might toss out Flynn’s guilty plea and clear his name.
Instead, the 71-year-old veteran jurist reminded the country of a few simple creeds commonly held in courthouses but increasingly dismissed by the president’s allies: Lying to the FBI is against the law. Breaking the law is bad. People who work in the White House are supposed to be held to a higher standard.
‘‘This is a very serious offence,’’ Sullivan told Flynn, even after Mueller’s prosecutors told the judge they agreed that Flynn should face little to no incarceration because he cooperated with their investigation.
The judge pointed to the American flag behind his bench and told the decorated combat veteran that he had undermined it: ‘‘Arguably, you sold your country out.’’
Sullivan’s angry lecture from the bench – and his suggestion that he was willing to throw Flynn in jail – injected a moment of high drama into the longrunning investigation and served as a reminder of the seriousness of the allegations that launched the special counsel investigation.
Sullivan warned Flynn that he believed Mueller’s recommendation that Flynn serve little to no prison time was probably too kind. ‘‘I can’t promise you a sentence that involves no jail time,’’ the judge said.
After a 30-minute recess to confer with his lawyers, Flynn agreed to delay sentencing until a later date, when prosecutors presumably could reveal more about the nature of his co-operation.
Sullivan ended the tense hearing with a status conference set for March.
At day’s end, the judge issued one last shot at Flynn, ensuring that he understood he will be treated like all other defendants. Noting that there had been no restrictions on Flynn’s travel, Sullivan wrote in an order that beginning January 4, the former general will no longer be allowed to travel more than 80 kilometres outside of Washington without permission. He will also have to surrender his passport. – Washington Post