Former national security adviser Michael Flynn exits a vehicle as he arrives for his sentencing hearing at U.S. District Court in Washington, December 18, 2018.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he had pardoned Michael Flynn, his first national security advisor, who pleaded guilty three years ago to lying to FBI agents.
The pardon came before a judge had ruled on a motion by the U.S. Justice Department to dismiss the case and to undo Flynn’s guilty plea for making false statements to agent about the nature of his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the United States after Trump’s election in 2016.
“It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon. Congratulations to @GenFlynn and his wonderful family, I know you will now have a truly fantastic Thanksgiving!
Trump repeatedly has said he was considering granting the retired Army lieutenant general a pardon in the case.
Flynn’s defense lawyer Sidney Powell recently told the judge in the case that she had spoken directly to Trump about the “overall status” of litigation.”
Powell also said she asked Trump “not to issue a pardon” to Flynn as she continued efforts to have his case dismissed.
Flynn pleaded guilty on Dec. 1, 2017, and as part of his plea agreed to cooperated with the probe then being conducted that Robert Mueller, the former FBI director who had been appointed special counsel to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
But since last year, Flynn’s lawyers have sought to reverse that guilty plea by claiming misconduct by federal prosecutors.
The Justice Department earlier this year filed its motion to dismiss the case.
But U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan refused to sign off on the dismissal, and instead appointed an outside lawyer to give him arguments against the Justice Department’s request.
Flynn appealed Sullivan’s moves, and a three-judge panel in the federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed with him that the case should be dismissed.
But Sullivan then asked the full line-up of the judges in that appellate court to reconsider that decision, which they did, reversing it, and sending it back to the trial judge.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
