The Justice Department rejected what it called an “extraordinary reversal” by retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn for claiming to be the victim of a “plot to set up an innocent man and create a crime.”
Flynn “now claims that he is innocent of the criminal charge in this case,” federal prosecutors said in a court filing Tuesday, referring to an allegation by Flynn’s legal team that he was ambushed for an interview by the FBI in January 2017.
“For the first time, the defendant represents to this Court that he ‘was honest with the agents [on Jan. 24, 2017] to the best of his recollection at the time,'” the prosecutors said in a court filing in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. “He makes this claim despite having admitted his guilt, under oath, before two federal judges (including this Court).”
Flynn, President Trump’s first national security adviser, pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to investigators about conversations he had with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in late 2016 regarding sanctions and agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
The defense team that negotiated the plea deal was fired earlier this year. Since taking over the new team, Sydney Powell has argued “there never would’ve been a plea to begin with” if Flynn knew how much information the DOJ was hiding from him, alleging prosecutors improperly pressured Flynn into the deal.
Powell has urged U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan, the presiding judge in the case, to order the Justice Department to produce information that could help Flynn’s case. This includes, she alleged in a court filing this month, two Blackberry devices used by Joseph Mifsud, the mysterious Maltese professor who allegedly played a central role in the launch of the Trump-Russia investigation.
Sullivan canceled a hearing set for Nov. 7, citing the most recent filing from Powell’s team in an attempt to get the case thrown out that alleges, among other things, the FBI manipulated notes on their interview with Flynn. “In view of the parties’ comprehensive briefing concerning 109 Defendant’s Motion to Compel Production of Brady Material, the Court cancels the motion hearing previously scheduled for November 7, 2019,” Sullivan said.
This prompted the Justice Department to file a response Tuesday seeking guidance that said that “each new argument or claim is unsupported by fact or law.” In a separate filing, U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jessie Liu said Powell’s motion for the two phones allegedly used by Mifsud and now allegedly in the possession of the government are not favorable or relevant to Flynn’s defense and “thus, the defendant’s motion should be denied.”
Powell said her team will be filing replies to both documents. “Apparently, the government did not read or comprehend our brief, much less Judge Sullivan’s Brady order. Their filings today smack of desperation,” she told the Washington Examiner.
See DOJ’s two filings below:
