Michael Flynn files to withdraw guilty plea

WAEX:

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn filed to withdraw his guilty plea late Tuesday.

The motion, filed by Flynn’s legal team, which cites “the government’s bad faith, vindictiveness, and breach of the plea agreement,” comes one week after the Justice Department asked a federal judge to sentence President Trump’s former national security adviser to up to half a year in prison.

“It is beyond ironic and completely outrageous that the prosecutors have persecuted Mr. Flynn, virtually bankrupted him, and put his entire family through unimaginable stress for three years,” wrote former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell and her co-counsel wrote in a filing in the U.S. District Court in D.C.

Flynn, 61, pleaded guilty in 2017 for lying to investigators about his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak regarding U.S. sanctions and a U.N. Security Council vote. Former FBI Director James Comey admitted he took advantage of the chaos in the early days of the Trump administration when he sent then-special agent Peter Strzok and another FBI agent to talk to Flynn.

Last week, the Justice Department asked the judge to sentence Flynn to up to six months in prison in a reversal of its previous request that the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency get probation and no time behind bars. The Justice Department said Flynn no longer deserved any credit for providing assistance in its investigations or for accepting responsibility for his false statements to the FBI about discussions he had with Russia’s ambassador and his work for Turkey. read more