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Mueller Rejects Flynn’s Attempt to Portray Himself as Victim of the F.B.I. Mueller Rejects Flynn’s Attempt to Portray Himself as Victim of the F.B.I.
(about 5 hours later)
WASHINGTON — The special counsel’s office rejected on Friday a suggestion from Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, that he had been tricked into lying to F.B.I. agents investigating Russia’s election interference and ties to Trump associates. WASHINGTON — The special counsel’s office rejected on Friday a suggestion from Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, that he had been tricked into lying last year to F.B.I. agents investigating Russia’s election interference and ties to Trump associates.
Prosecutors laid out a pattern of lies by Mr. Flynn to Vice President Mike Pence, senior White House aides, federal investigators and the media in the weeks before and after the presidential inauguration as he scrambled to obscure the truth about his communications during the presidential transition with Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States at the time. Prosecutors laid out a pattern of lies by Mr. Flynn to Vice President Mike Pence, senior White House aides, federal investigators and the news media in the weeks before and after the presidential inauguration as he scrambled to obscure the truth about his communications during the presidential transition with Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States at the time.
Neither Mr. Flynn nor his lawyers have explained why he lied. But in a memo this week seeking leniency, they revealed details from the interview that helped stoke an unfounded theory that Mr. Flynn’s relaxed appearance during the F.B.I. agents’ questioning was potential evidence that he did not actually lie, and they blamed the F.B.I. for not informing Mr. Flynn ahead of time that lying to agents is illegal. Prosecutors repudiated the argument. Neither his lawyers nor Mr. Flynn, the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, have explained why he lied to the F.B.I., a felony that he pleaded guilty to a year ago. But in a memo this week seeking leniency, his lawyers revealed details from the interview that stoked an unfounded theory that Mr. Flynn’s relaxed appearance during questioning was potential evidence that he did not actually lie. They also blamed the F.B.I. for not informing Mr. Flynn ahead of time that lying to agents is illegal — an argument that prosecutors repudiated.
“A sitting national security adviser, former head of an intelligence agency, retired lieutenant general and 33-year veteran of the armed forces knows he should not lie to federal agents,” prosecutors wrote in court papers. “He does not need to be warned it is a crime to lie to federal agents to know the importance of telling them the truth.” “A sitting national security adviser, former head of an intelligence agency, retired lieutenant general and 33-year veteran of the armed forces knows he should not lie to federal agents,” prosecutors for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, wrote in court papers. “He does not need to be warned it is a crime to lie to federal agents to know the importance of telling them the truth.”
Mr. Flynn’s bid to blame investigators appeared to be directed at Mr. Trump, who seized on the details and defended Mr. Flynn on Thursday on Twitter and on Fox News. “They convinced him he did lie, and he made some kind of a deal,” Mr. Trump said in the television interview. [Read prosecutors’ memo rejecting Michael Flynn’s attempt to blame investigators for lying to them.]
Mr. Flynn’s disclosure called into question why he waited until just before his sentencing on Tuesday to argue that he was coerced into lying when he had pleaded guilty last year to the charge and said at the time, “I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong.” Leniency for Mr. Flynn had all but been assured after Mr. Mueller’s prosecutors recommended last week that he receive little or no prison time, crediting his cooperation with their inquiry and other investigations as well as his lengthy military service. His decision to attack the F.B.I. in his own plea for probation appeared to be a gambit for a pardon from Mr. Trump, whose former lawyer had broached the prospect last year with a lawyer for Mr. Flynn.
It also prompted a quick response from Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, who is presiding over the case. He ordered that lawyers and prosecutors for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, turn over documents related to Mr. Flynn’s Jan. 24, 2017, interview and could question Mr. Flynn during his sentencing about why they decided now to make an issue of the circumstances of the F.B.I. interview. The president seized on the case that Mr. Flynn made against the F.B.I. in his sentencing memo, defending him on Twitter and on Fox News. “They convinced him he did lie, and he made some kind of a deal,” Mr. Trump said of investigators on Thursday during the television interview.
Judge Sullivan is wary of prosecutorial misconduct. In 2009, he dismissed the ethics conviction of former Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska, and scolded prosecutors, who had withdrawn the charges, for improperly withholding evidence. That contradicts the narrative that prosecutors have described in court papers. American intelligence had picked up Mr. Flynn’s conversations on wiretaps of the ambassador as part of standard surveillance. So the F.B.I. agents had evidence that Mr. Flynn was lying when he denied asking Mr. Kislyak that Russia refrain from reacting harshly to sanctions imposed by the Obama administration over election interference. He also said he did not remember Mr. Kislyak telling him that Moscow had backed off as a result of Mr. Flynn’s request.
Lawyers for Mr. Flynn described his lying to the F.B.I. as an “uncharacteristic error in judgment.” But Mr. Trump fired Mr. Flynn, who briefly served as his national security adviser, for lying to the vice president about the calls with Mr. Kislyak. And prosecutors revealed on Friday how far investigators had gone during the interview to give Mr. Flynn the chance to tell the truth. At one point, the F.B.I. agents repeated portions of what he had said privately to Mr. Kislyak to jog Mr. Flynn’s memory. “But the defendant never corrected his false statements,” the prosecutors wrote.
Mr. Flynn’s calls to Mr. Kislyak, during which he made assurances about the incoming administration, were part of a broader effort by senior Trump officials to create foreign policy before they were in power, and they alarmed F.B.I. investigators who were already scrutinizing Mr. Flynn as part of the Russia inquiry. Lawyers for Mr. Flynn have tried to minimize his lying to the F.B.I. as an “uncharacteristic error in judgment.” In their sentencing memo, they also seized on the spurious theory that Mr. Flynn’s relaxed behavior was exculpatory.
Andrew G. McCabe, then the deputy director of the F.B.I., called Mr. Flynn, who agreed to meet with agents at the White House. Mr. McCabe and his colleagues had decided not warn Mr. Flynn that lying to the F.B.I. was a crime, a decision that Mr. Flynn’s allies have seized on as proof of a trap. “Even when circumstances later came to light that prompted extensive public debate about the investigation of General Flynn, including revelations that certain F.B.I. officials involved in the Jan. 24 interview of General Flynn were themselves being investigated for misconduct, General Flynn did not back away from accepting responsibility for his actions,” his lawyers wrote.
When the agents arrived, Mr. Flynn appeared “relaxed and jocular,” offering to give them a tour of the White House, his lawyers wrote. One agent said Mr. Flynn was “unguarded” and “clearly saw the F.B.I. agents as allies.” The theory about his body language grew out of F.B.I. memos, court papers and revelations about the interview in which the agents have revealed that Mr. Flynn appeared “relaxed and jocular” when they arrived at the White House. He offered to give them a tour, and they discussed the hotels where Mr. Flynn had stayed during the campaign and the president’s “knack for interior design,” according to court papers.
During the interview, Mr. Flynn denied asking Mr. Kislyak that Russia refrain from reacting harshly to sanctions imposed by the Obama administration over Russia’s campaign of disruption and said he did not remember Mr. Kisklyak saying that Moscow had backed off as a result of Mr. Flynn’s request. One agent said Mr. Flynn was “unguarded” and “clearly saw the F.B.I. agents as allies,” and he readily answered questions, F.B.I. documents showed. Mr. Flynn had a very “sure demeanor” during the interview, according to the senior counterintelligence agent who interviewed him, Peter Strzok, who said he saw no “indicators of deception.”
Law enforcement officials grew so concerned about his contacts with Mr. Kislyak and his false accounts of them that they warned the White House that Mr. Flynn might be compromised by the Kremlin. But prosecutors explained his confidence not as evidence of truth-telling but as a result of the numerous dishonest accounts he had already given about his conversations with Mr. Kislyak. “By the time of the F.B.I. interview,” they wrote, “the defendant was committed to his false story.”
One of the agents who interviewed Mr. Flynn was Peter Strzok, the F.B.I. senior counterintelligence agent who disparaged Mr. Trump in inflammatory text messages and helped oversee the Hillary Clinton email investigation as well as the Russia inquiry in its early months.
Mr. Strzok and Mr. McCabe, who were both fired this year, have been frequent targets in Mr. Trump’s attacks on law enforcement.
Mr. Trump has long expressed sympathy for Mr. Flynn, and one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers even raised the idea of a pardon for Mr. Flynn last year as he was debating whether to assist Mr. Mueller’s investigators. It was not clear whether Mr. Trump was aware of the discussions.
But after pleading guilty, Mr. Flynn began cooperative extensively with the Justice Department, sitting for 19 interviews with prosecutors in multiple investigations.
Prosecutors asked for little to no prison time because of his willingness to help. Mr. Flynn’s lawyer have said their client deserves only probation because of his assistance to Mr. Mueller and his time in the military.
“Even when circumstances later came to light that prompted extensive public debate about the investigation of General Flynn, including revelations that certain F.B.I. officials involved in the January 24 interview of General Flynn were themselves being investigated for misconduct, General Flynn did not back away from accepting responsibility for his actions,” Mr. Flynn’s lawyers wrote.
James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director fired by Mr. Trump, testified last week before Congress that the theory being pushed by allies of Mr. Flynn about his body language was bogus. “There’s no doubt he was lying,” Mr. Comey said.James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director fired by Mr. Trump, testified last week before Congress that the theory being pushed by allies of Mr. Flynn about his body language was bogus. “There’s no doubt he was lying,” Mr. Comey said.
Indeed, law enforcement officials grew so concerned about Mr. Flynn’s contacts with Mr. Kislyak and his false explanations for them that they warned the White House that he might be compromised by the Kremlin.
Mr. Strzok viewed Mr. Flynn as “bright but not profoundly sophisticated,” according to court papers. Mr. Strzok, who disparaged Mr. Trump in critical text messages and was fired this year for violating bureau policies, has been a frequent target in Mr. Trump’s attacks on law enforcement.
Mr. Flynn’s disclosures this week about his F.B.I. interview also called into question why he waited until just before his sentencing on Tuesday to argue that he was coerced into lying. In pleading guilty last year, he said, “I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong.”
The move also prompted a quick response from the judge presiding over the case, Emmet G. Sullivan of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He ordered that lawyers and prosecutors turn over documents related to Mr. Flynn’s Jan. 24, 2017, interview and could question Mr. Flynn during his sentencing about why he decided to revisit the circumstances of it nearly a year after pleading guilty.
Judge Sullivan is wary of prosecutorial misconduct. In 2009, he dismissed the ethics conviction of former Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska, and scolded prosecutors, who had withdrawn the charges, for improperly withholding evidence. He took the rare step of appointing a special prosecutor to investigate whether the prosecutors themselves should be charged.
Mr. Flynn’s calls to Mr. Kislyak, during which he made assurances about the incoming administration, were part of a broader effort by senior Trump officials to create foreign policy before they were in power, and they alarmed F.B.I. investigators who were already scrutinizing Mr. Flynn as part of the Russia inquiry.
Prosecutors also reminded the judge that Mr. Flynn had made false statements in trying to conceal lobbying work he had done on behalf of Turkey. The Turkish government had paid Mr. Flynn more than $500,000 to investigate Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric who lives in Pennsylvania. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey believes that Mr. Gulen and his supporters were behind a failed coup attempt in 2016 and has repeatedly demanded the United States extradite him.
“The defendant made those false statements while represented by counsel and after receiving an explicit warning that providing false information was a federal offense,” the prosecutors wrote.