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Flynn Lawyer Says She Asked Trump Not to Pardon His Former Aide

Flynn Lawyer Says She Asked Trump Not to Pardon Former Aide

Michael Flynn’s lawyer told a judge she personally briefed President Donald Trump in recent weeks and asked him not to pardon his former national security advisor while she and the Justice Department continue their fight to dismiss the case.

That Trump would carve out time for such a briefing highlights his strong interest in the case of Flynn, who twice pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents during the probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The revelation by Flynn lawyer Sidney Powell at a Tuesday court hearing in Washington comes as U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan is weighing whether the Justice Department’s surprise request to drop the case in May was a politically corrupt move designed to help a Trump ally.

Under tough questioning by Sullivan, Powell said she briefed Trump and White House lawyer Jenna Ellis on the status of the case “within the last couple of weeks” and asked the president not to pardon Flynn. Powell didn’t say at the hearing why she made the request of Trump, though she said after the hearing that a pardon was unnecessary.

“General Flynn is entitled to a public exoneration by the court,” Powell said in an email. “If the system works right, the wrongful prosecution will be dismissed with prejudice. No pardon should be needed. General Flynn is innocent.”

Trump’s ‘Consulting’

At the hearing, however, her meeting with Trump was seized upon by John Gleeson, a former federal judge appointed by Sullivan to argue against dismissal as a so-called friend of court. Gleeson said Trump’s “consulting with defense counsel” appeared to be part of his effort to undermine the case.

Gleeson, who has called Justice Department’s dismissal request “corrupt and politically motivated,” said at the hearing the president wants to let Flynn “off the hook” without having to use his pardon power.

Flynn and the Justice Department argue the case is fatally flawed because the probe was corrupted by FBI agents with anti-Trump bias. Flynn moved to withdraw his plea in January.

Powell initially sought to avoid answering questions about Trump, but Sullivan knocked aside her attempt to claim executive privilege.

“Did you have any discussions at all with the President of the United States about Mr. Flynn and about this case. Yes or no?” the judge asked.

Flynn Lawyer Says She Asked Trump Not to Pardon His Former Aide

Powell was also questioned by Sullivan about a June 2019 letter she sent Attorney General William Barr asking him to name different prosecutors to the case before she formally joined Flynn’s defense. The judge said the letter appeared “highly unusual” and raised questions about some developments in the case, including changes to the prosecution team.

Powell said she didn’t get a response from Barr but said she believed there was nothing unethical or unusual about the communication.

Justice Department lawyer Kenneth Kohl rejected any suggestion that the U.S. was trying to help a Trump ally. The government decided to abandon the case after concluding that the FBI agents who conducted the interview with Flynn at the center of the case didn’t believe he’d lied, and that another agent came to the conclusion the case was brought improperly “to get Trump,” Kohl said at the hearing.

“The allegation against our office that we would somehow act with a corrupt political motive is just not true,” Kohl said. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office’s decision to dismiss this case was the right call for the right reasons.”

No Rubber-Stamp

In its motion to dismiss the case, the Justice Department said Flynn’s lies to the FBI in a January 2017 interview at the White House weren’t “material” to the Russia probe. Sullivan declined to immediately grant the motion, triggering a court fight with Flynn that resulted in a federal appeals court ruling the judge doesn’t have to rubber-stamp the dismissal.

“Career prosecutors looking at these facts would never have filed the charge in this case,” Kohl said. Flynn “gave wrong and false information, but was it willful?”

The case has become a cause celebre among conservative commentators, who claim Flynn was unfairly targeted by holdovers from President Barack Obama’s administration. Kohl said Tuesday that an internal probe into the Flynn case is continuing to uncover evidence that agents who were involved in the probe didn’t believe there was sufficient evidence to bring a case.

Flynn “has a friend in high places” who wanted the Justice Department “to scuttle this case,” Gleeson said at the hearing. He urged Sullivan to give particular weight to Trump’s own comments about the case, including more than 100 tweets and retweets blasting the prosecution with false information that found its way into the government’s arguments against the case.

“A first-year prosecutor one day out of law school could win this case,” Gleeson said. The dismissal “has everything to do with the president’s belief that this is some kind of witch hunt.”

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