US no longer wants Flynn to testify against his ex-partner

WASHINGTON — Michael Flynn will not testify against his former business partner at a trial starting in Alexandria, Virginia, federal court next week because prosecutors no longer believe his version of events, according to recently unsealed court filings.

The judge who will decide Flynn’s sentence in D.C. federal court quickly asked the Justice Department to explain how the decision in Virginia will affect Flynn’s case.

Flynn, President Donald Trump’s onetime national security adviser, had promised full and truthful cooperation with the government when he pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI. His sentencing has been on hold pending that cooperation.

The decision by prosecutors could imperil Flynn’s ability to avoid incarceration unless he is pardoned by Trump.

Flynn’s lawyers asked for proceedings to be delayed so Flynn could continue to cooperate with federal prosecutors in hopes of a probationary sentence — a request recently renewed so he could testify at the Virginia trial of Bijan Rafiekian, with whom he ran a consulting business.

The newly unsealed filings include an email that Assistant U.S. Attorney James Gillis ended by saying prosecutors “do not necessarily agree” with Flynn’s “characterizations” of how he came to make an inaccurate filing under the Foreign Agent Registration Act for an influence campaign that benefited the Turkish government.

Prosecutors said they now consider Flynn a coconspirator — a legal distinction that would allow them to introduce his prior statements at trial.