Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett encouraged retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn to sue his “persecutors” should the charges against him get dropped.
There has been buzz among some commentators this week who believe that Flynn, 61, who pleaded guilty in December 2017 for lying to investigators about his conversations with Russian diplomat Sergey Kislyak on Russian sanctions and a United Nations resolution on Israel but has more recently claimed to be innocent, could be exonerated in the near future. Last week, the former national security adviser’s legal team, led by Sidney Powell, said that new evidence submitted in the case, which is under seal, proves Flynn was “set up” by the FBI. Powell is pressing for the dismissal of his case, arguing that the FBI unfairly treated him.
Jarrett, in a column published on the Fox News website on Monday, argued that if the charges get dropped, which he said “should” happen, Flynn “should sue the very people and government that persecuted him under the pretext of a legitimate prosecution.”
“The unvarnished truth is that the retired Army lieutenant general and former National Security Adviser never did anything wrong and committed no crimes,” Jarrett wrote. “He was set up by unscrupulous FBI officials, then relentlessly pursued by Mueller’s team of overzealous prosecutors who were desperate to show that President Trump and his campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election.”
Flynn initially pleaded guilty, but after switching legal teams, he filed to withdraw his guilty plea after the Justice Department asked the judge to sentence him up to six months in prison — though afterward, the department said probation would also be appropriate. The Justice Department called Flynn’s claims of innocence “an extraordinary reversal.”
Reports last week said the FBI’s top leadership concealed exculpatory evidence from Flynn’s defense team, but the bureau denied the accusation. Brian Hale, the assistant director of the FBI’s Office of Public Affairs, told the Washington Examiner: “The assertion that Director Wray pushed to withhold exculpatory evidence in the Michael Flynn case is absolutely false.”
The documents touted by Powell come from U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri Jeffrey Jensen, who was selected by Attorney General William Barr in January 2020 to review the Flynn case. Powell said the documents, which were submitted Friday under seal to the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., could be unveiled to the public as early as Tuesday.
