Judge: Flynn sold country out
But court delays sentencing to allow more time for Mueller cooperation
WASHINGTON: A federal judge accused President Donald Trump’s former national security chief Michael Flynn of selling out the United States but agreed to delay his sentencing for lying over secret communications with Russian officials.
Judge Emmet Sullivan on Tuesday said Flynn had behaved in a “traitorous” manner while he was in the White House in early 2017 and threatened to impose a stiff prison sentence, rejecting a recommendation by prosecutors that the retired three-star general benefit from cooperating and receive no jail time.
But the judge gave Flynn the option to delay his sentencing, to better demonstrate why he merited a light punishment.
“I want to be frank with you, this crime is very serious,” Sullivan said.
“I’m not hiding my disgust, my disdain. Arguably, you sold your country out,” he added.
It was a sharp and unexpected rebuke to the highest-ranked Trump aide so far to face a judge in the Russian collusion investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Flynn, a lanky 60-year-old former head of the Defence Intelligence Agency, showed no emotion as he answered the judge’s questions as briefly as possible.
Trump has maintained that Flynn has fallen prey to a “witch hunt” by the FBI and allied Democrats to undermine his administration.
“The whole Russian Collusion thing was a HOAX, but who is going to restore the good name of so many people whose reputations have been destroyed?” Trump tweeted earlier on Tuesday.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said following Tuesday’s hearing that Flynn had been mistreated.
“The FBI broke standard protocol in the way they came in and ambushed General Flynn and in the way they questioned him,” she said.
Flynn has been a central focus of the Mueller probe.
Two FBI agents arrived at the White house on Jan 24, 2017 – four days after Trump was inaugurated – to interview Flynn about his conversations the previous month with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak.
The agents said Flynn lied about those contacts, in which he allegedly promised to remove sanctions on Russia even while the Obama government was in the process of strengthening them over Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election.
Weeks later Flynn left the White House under a cloud for the alleged lies, but Trump persisted in defending him. In private meetings he pressured then-FBI director James Comey to pull back the investigation into Flynn’s Russia contacts, Comey has testified.
After Comey refused, Trump fired him, an act which led to Mueller’s appointment as an independent prosecutor in charge of the Russia probe.
I want to be frank with you, this crime is very serious ... I’m not hiding my disgust, my disdain. Emmet Sullivan