The Justice Department is dropping its case against President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn in the midst of a review into the former Army general’s prosecution.
The decision, sure to ignite fresh speculation about Attorney General William Barr’s close relationship with the White House, comes just more than a week after Trump claimed that newly released FBI notes exonerate Flynn, even though he pleaded guilty to charges of lying about contacts with a Russian ambassador.
Before Thursday’s decision, Flynn had sought to withdraw his guilty plea when he admitted to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak before Trump’s inauguration.
“They tormented him – dirty cops tormented Gen. Flynn,” Trump told reporters at the White House last week. In new court documents, federal prosecutors asserted the FBI’s interview of the then-national security adviser was “unjustified.” Federal prosecutors, in new court documents, claimed that the FBI’s January 2017 interview of then-national security adviser was “unjustified.”
“The government is not persuaded that the January 24, 2017 interview was conducted with a legitimate investigative basis and therefore does not believe Mr. Flynn’s statements were material even if untrue,” the documents state. “Moreover, we do not believe that the government can prove either the relevant false statements or their materiality beyond a reasonable doubt.”