With Flynn deal, Mueller can set sights on higher targets
Documents send strong warning to Trump’s circle
WASHINGTON – The carefully worded account of Michael Flynn’s offenses and his agreement to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller represent more than the stunning fall of a former three- star general and top Trump administration official.
The extraordinary six- page document filed Friday by prosecutors investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election also sent a clear signal to the White House that Mueller now knows who helped Flynn coordinate his contacts with the Kremlin and worked to keep those communications quiet.
Flynn, according to court documents, shattered any notion that the former national security adviser was a freelancer.
In a series of late December telephone calls, prosecutors asserted that at least one “senior” transition team member helped craft Flynn’s discussions with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, urging the Kremlin to moderate its response to sanctions leveled just a day earlier by the Obama administration.
The senior official, who was not identified by prosecutors, and Flynn addressed the issue at least twice, before Flynn on New Year’s Eve shared Kislyak’s promise that Russia would not retaliate with a larger group of senior transition members.
Flynn acknowledged Friday that he lied to FBI agents about those contacts, resulting in his guilty plea, but legal analysts said Flynn’s promise to cooperate with Mueller’s team — more than his conviction — has likely sent a shiver through the White House.
Flynn’s sentencing is delayed until his cooperation is complete. He faces up to six months in prison.
“The special counsel now has an ally who understands that he will only get a benefit if he cooperates with the investigation,” said Jack Sharman, a former House special counsel in the Whitewater investigation of President Clinton. “I would think that there would be some considerable anxiety over there ( at the White House), unless people there have an understanding of what he could testify to. But only Flynn really knows what he is prepared to say.”
Patrick Cotter, a former federal prosecutor, called Mueller’s move Friday a “masterful use of court documents that both supported the criminal case against Flynn and deliberately put others in Trump’s inner circle on notice.”
“You couldn’t send a message any better or any stronger unless you had access to the Goodyear blimp,” he said. “That message: ‘ We’re coming for you.’ ”
The documents, analysts said, also seriously call into question the White House’s explanation for Flynn’s February dismissal after only 24 days on the job. By then, the FBI had opened its investigation into the former national security adviser related to his contacts with Russia.
At the time, President Trump said Flynn lied to Vice President Pence when he told Pence he had not discussed sanctions against Russia in the pre- inaugural contacts.
Yet Friday’s court documents say other top transition officials were fully aware of Flynn’s conversations.