Special Counsel sentencing memo on Flynn increases pressure on Trump

 

Special Counsel sentencing memo on Flynn increases pressure on Trump

By
Barry Grey

6 December 2018

On Tuesday night, Special Counsel Robert Mueller released a memorandum filed with the US district court in Washington DC laying out his office’s recommendation on the sentencing of Michael Flynn.

Repeating several times in the course of the 13-page filing that Flynn had provided “substantial assistance to the government,” Mueller recommended a sentence with no jail time. Judge Emmet Sullivan is slated to hand down the sentence for Flynn on December 18.

Flynn is the retired Army lieutenant general and former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency who served for 24 days as President Donald Trump’s national security advisor before he was fired in February 2017 for lying to Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with then-Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak.

Flynn pleaded guilty last December to one count of lying to the FBI in connection with the special counsel’s investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 elections and possible collusion by the Trump election campaign. He admitted to having given false information about his discussions with Kislyak concerning sanctions imposed by Barack Obama against Russia in the final days of his administration, when Flynn was part of the Trump transition team. He also acknowledged lying about talks with Kislyak urging the Putin government to oppose a UN resolution against Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

In pleading guilty to the single count, Flynn agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation.

There was a feverish media buildup in advance of the release of the court document, with speculation that it would provide information about Flynn’s statements to Mueller’s investigators highly…

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