Lawyers for President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn claim the Justice Department is in possession of 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.
Sidney Powell, who took over Flynn’s legal defense a couple months ago, asked U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan, the presiding judge in the D.C. District Court case, to order the Justice Department to produce the “data and metadata” related to the two devices, according to a Tuesday court filing.
The phones were obtained by the Justice Department “very recently,” Powell told the Washington Examiner, adding that Flynn’s defense team requested this information from DOJ prosecutors Brandon Van Grack and Jocelyn Ballantine on Friday by email but have not received it.
Onetime Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos identified Mifsud as the man who told him in 2016 the Russians had “dirt” about Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails, effectively setting in motion what would become the Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller. Mifsud has denied telling Papadopoulos anything about Russian “dirt.” He has long been suspected of having ties to Russia, but Republican investigators such as California Rep. Devin Nunes have alleged he was cooperating with Western intelligence to undermine Trump.
Attorney General William Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham, who are conducting a review of the Russia investigation origins, recently flew to Rome to meet with Italian intelligence to obtain government information on Mifsud and listen to a secret recording of the elusive academic.
Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to investigators about conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The defense team who negotiated the plea deal was fired earlier this year, and since taking over the new team 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.
The information allegedly contained in Mifsud’s two Blackberry devices, Powell claims, is “material, exculpatory, and relevant to the defense” of Flynn and would shed light on “agents that western intelligence tasked against [Flynn] likely as early as 2014 to arrange — unbeknownst to him — ‘connections’ with certain Russians that they would then use against him in their false claims.” Powell also referred to the “oconus lures” — a phrase referring to spies outside the continental United States — which Powell told the Washington Examiner is related to a text message exchange between former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.
In a December 2015 exchange between Strzok and Page, which made no reference to then-candidate Trump’s campaign, Strzok asked: “You get all our oconus lures approved? ;)” and Page replied, “No, it’s just implicated a much bigger policy issue. I’ll explain later” and that he “might even be able to use it as pretext for a call… :)”
Trump tweeted in June 2018 that he believed this text exchange referred to a plot against him, although there is no direct evidence to support the claim and the texts do not mention Trump, the campaign, or Russia. “Wow, Strzok-Page, the incompetent & corrupt FBI lovers, have texts referring to a counter-intelligence operation into the Trump Campaign dating way back to December 2015,” Trump said. “SPYGATE is in full force! Is the Mainstream Media interested yet? Big stuff!”
In recent weeks, U.S. prosecutors have accused the Flynn defense team of pushing baseless distractions in an effort to kill the case. “It is a fishing expedition in hopes of advancing conspiracy theories related to the U.S. government’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election,” the DOJ said.
Powell argues the information she seeks in her latest request is Brady material, referring to the Supreme Court decision in Brady v. Maryland that requires prosecutors to turn over exculpatory evidence. “Brady’s mandate is fundamental to due process and crucial to ensure that prosecutors fulfill their obligation to seek justice rather than convictions,” Powell said.
Flynn is facing a tentative sentencing hearing on Dec. 18.
