Mueller recommends no prison time for Flynn
WASHINGTON » Special counsel Robert Mueller on Tuesday recommended that former national security adviser Michael Flynn serve no prison time, citing his “substantial assistance” with several ongoing investigations, according to a new court filing.
Flynn was forced out of his post as national security adviser in February 2017 after the White House said he misled administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, about his contacts with Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States at the time.
Since then, Flynn has been cooperating with Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, and his full account of events has been one of the best-kept secrets in Washington. He is one of five Donald Trump aides who have pleaded guilty in the special counsel probe.
The special counsel’s filing Tuesday is the first time prosecutors have described Flynn’s assistance since the former national security adviser’s guilty plea last year.
But Tuesday’s sentencing memo was heavily redacted, continuing to shroud in secrecy the details of what Flynn has told Mueller’s team and other prosecutors.
The special counsel wrote that Flynn has provided information for several ongoing investigations — participating in 19 interviews with federal prosecutors and turning over documents and communications. The filing indicated that Flynn has provided extensive assistance to Mueller, including about matters that were redacted and hidden from public view. It also indicated that he has cooperated with a separate unidentified criminal investigation, the details of which were completely redacted.
Mueller wrote that Flynn had provided “firsthand information about the content and context of interactions between the transition team and Russian government officials,” though the details were largely redacted.
Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to one felony count of making a false statement, despite a longer list of charges he could have faced. Prosecutors said last year they would likely seek a prison sentence between zero and six months.
On Tuesday, the special counsel’s office said that based on Flynn’s assistance, the government was recommending a sentence on the low end of that range, “including a sentence that does not impose a term of incarceration.”
Mueller wrote that Flynn’s guilty plea “likely affected the decisions of related firsthand witnesses to be forthcoming with the SCO and cooperate.”
And the special counsel noted that Flynn’s “early cooperation was particularly valuable because he was one of the few people with long-term and firsthand insight regarding events and issues under investigation by the SCO.”
Flynn’s attorney declined to comment. His son Michael Flynn Jr. tweeted “God is good. To those who have supported us throughout this process ... Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I will never forget you.”
An attorney for President Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As part of his investigation, Mueller has been working to determine whether any of Trump’s allies coordinated with Russia or sought help for his campaign. Prosecutors have sought to learn whether Trump urged Flynn’s outreach to the Russian ambassador to signal that the new White House team would go easy on the Russian government.