The lead lawyer for retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn said she has spoken with President Trump within the past few weeks to give him an “update” on her client’s case and claimed the only request she made was that he “not issue a pardon” to his former national security adviser.
Judge Emmet Sullivan, who has presided over the Flynn case since 2017, pressed Flynn attorney Sidney Powell during a hearing on Tuesday about whether she had ever spoken with Trump.
“I would think any conversations I had with the president would be protected by executive privilege,” Powell said at first. But after being repeatedly pressed by Sullivan, Powell conceded that she had spoken with Trump “one time about this case.” She said that “after the government moved to dismiss” the charges against Flynn in May, she “provided the White House with an update about the overall status of the litigation” and “provided it in person to counsel for the president.” Powell added that “within the past few weeks,” she had spoken with Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis as well as “the president himself” in order to “provide an update about the general litigation” in the case.
Sullivan asked if she had made any requests to Trump, including asking the president to appoint new government attorneys to the case, and Powell said, “No sir, other than he not issue a pardon.”
The judge also referenced a June 2019 letter that Powell had sent to Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, asking for the Justice Department to look into the Flynn case.
Flynn, a target of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to FBI investigators about his December 2016 conversations with a Russian envoy, details of which were leaked to the press and generated the controversy that ended his tenure in the first several weeks of Trump’s presidency. But after changing legal teams in the summer of 2019, Flynn claimed he was innocent and had been set up by the FBI, contended exculpatory evidence had been concealed, withdrew his guilty plea, and pushed for the case to be dismissed.
Sullivan brought up “propriety” and “legal ethics” and suggested that “it may well be that the bar will have to address that at some point.” Hashim Mooppan, a counselor to the U.S. solicitor general, stressed that “the attorney general made his decision” to dismiss the Flynn case “based on the plea withdrawal and emerging evidence of FBI misconduct.” Mooppan added that “it’s not apparent to me why it would be improper” for someone to send a letter to the attorney general. Sullivan said he would “like to know what the attorney general wrote in response” and any information about communications or meetings between Barr, Rosen, and Flynn’s team. Powell said she could answer, but Sullivan cut her off.
When Powell was allowed to answer, she said that “the only response that was received from the Department of Justice was from” Mueller prosecutor Brandon Van Grack “saying there had been no denial of Brady material” and that “there was no response from the attorney general — and there was no meeting with me at all.” Sullivan asked if it was legally ethical for her to have sent that letter, and Powell said Flynn had already terminated his prior representation from Covington and Burling and that she was already representing Flynn by that time, and so it was “perfectly” legal and ethical.
Powell objected to Sullivan appointing former Judge John Gleeson as an outside counsel to argue against the Justice Department’s dismissal and said that a “special prosecutor” had never been appointed like that before. Powell said Sullivan should be disqualified from the case and asked him to recuse himself, calling him “biased.” Sullivan said she could file a motion for him to recuse himself in writing if she’d like and gave her a week to do so.
