DOJ drops criminal case against Flynn
Ex-Trump adviser had pleaded guilty to lying to FBI
Prosecution had become rallying cry for Trump, his supporters in attacking Russia investigation.
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department dropped its criminal case Thursday against Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, who had previously pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about his conversations with a Russian diplomat.
The extraordinary move comes amid a sustained attack by Flynn’s lawyers on prosecutors and the FBI, accusing them of egregious conduct. In recent days, Flynn’s lawyers said the Justice Department had uncovered new documents that pointed to misconduct, particularly in investigators’ interview of Flynn in January 2017 as part of its inquiry into whether Trump advisers conspired with Russia’s election interference.
Law enforcement officials cited that interview in moving to drop the charges, saying in a court filing that the some of newfound documents showed that the questioning “was untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Flynn.” Prosecutors said that the case did not meet the legal standard that Flynn’s lies be “materially” relevant to the matter under investigation.
“The government is not persuaded that the Jan. 24, 2017, interview was conducted with a legitimate investigative basis and therefore does not believe Mr. Flynn’s statements were material even if untrue,” the U.S. attorney in Washington, Timothy Shea, said in a motion to dismiss the charges.
In a possible sign of disagreement, Brandon Van Grack, the Justice Department lawyer who led the prosecution of Flynn, abruptly withdrew from the case Thursday. Flynn’s lawyers have repeatedly attacked Van Grack by name in court filings, citing his “incredible malfeasance.” Prosecutors in Shea’s office were stunned by the decision to drop the case, according to a person who spoke to several lawyers in the office.
The move also appeared to be the latest example of Attorney General William Barr’s efforts to chisel away at the results of the Russia investigation. The documents Flynn’s lawyers have cited were turned over as a result of a review by an outside prosecutor whom Barr assigned to review the Justice Department’s case. Barr has cast doubt not only on some of the prosecutions in the broader Russia investigation but also on the premise itself, assigning another independent prosecutor to scrutinize the inquiry’s origins.
Responding to the news, Trump told reporters that Flynn was “an innocent man,” and said he now views him as an “even greater warrior.” Sidney Powell, Flynn’s lawyer, did not respond to a request for comment.
Flynn first pleaded guilty in late 2017 to lying to investigators and cooperated extensively before moving to withdraw his plea and fight the case in court. He had also entered a guilty plea a second time in 2018 at an aborted sentencing hearing.
It is now up to the federal judge in Washington overseeing the case, EmmetSullivan, to decide whether to dismiss the case and close off the possibility that Flynn could be tried again for the same crime. If the judge wants, he could ask for written submissions and hold a hearing on that topic.
Sullivan, who accepted Flynn’s original guilty plea, could also weigh in on whether he believes any of the new materials that the government has produced to Flynn’s lawyers represent any violation on the part of the Justice Department or its lawyers who worked on the case.
The White House was prepared for the possibility of Trump pardoning Flynn last week, according to two people familiar with the discussions. But some advisers urged him to hold off and let the case play out, either with the Justice Department or with the judge in the case, according to people familiar with discussions.
If Trump was briefed by Barr long before the decision, he did not let on to advisers, according to those familiar with the discussions.
Flynn’s case grew out of an investigation by law enforcement officials who had reason to suspect that he constituted a national security threat. They learned that he had lied in January 2017 to other White House officials about conversations during the presidential transition with the Russian ambassador to the United States, and they warned the White House that Russia could have blackmailed Flynn, then the Trump administration’s highest-ranking national security official.
After more than a year of cooperating with investigators, Flynn adopted a more combative stance last year when he hired new lawyers who accused Van Grack and other prosecutors in a blizzard of court filings of “bad faith,” pressuring their client to cooperate and withholding exculpatory evidence.
Powell has been critical of the Russia investigation during appearances on Fox News and has sold T-shirts on her website that mock the investigators.
Sullivan forcefully rejected most of the defense’s claims in a 92-page ruling in December.
Flynn, a decorated lieutenant general and former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, was an early supporter of Trump’s campaign, joining the crowd in a “lock her up” chant about Hillary Clinton at the Republican National Convention in 2016. the the