Former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn told the special counsel’s office that people connected to US President Donald Trump’s administration and Congress sought to influence his cooperation with the Russia investigation, and he provided a voicemail recording of one such communication, prosecutors said in a court filing made public on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the judge in the case ordered that portions of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report that relate to Flynn be unredacted and made public by the end of the month.
The order from US District Judge Emmet Sullivan is the first time a judge is known to have directed the Department of Justice to make public any portion of the report that the agency had kept secret.
Photo: AP
It could set up a conflict with US Attorney General William Barr, whose team spent weeks blacking out from the report grand jury information, details of ongoing investigations and other sensitive information.
Prosecutors revealed details about Flynn’s communications in a court filing aimed at showing the extent of his cooperation with Mueller’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Flynn, a vital witness in the probe, is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts during the presidential transition period in 2016 with the-then Russian ambassador to the US.
Prosecutors did not identify the people with whom Flynn was in touch nor did they describe the exact conversations.
However, they said Flynn recounted multiple instances in which “he or his attorneys received communications from persons connected to the administration or Congress that could have affected both his willingness to cooperate and the completeness of that cooperation.”
Prosecutors say they were unaware of some of those instances, which took place before and after his guilty plea, until Flynn told them about them.
Mueller’s report did not reach a conclusion on whether Trump illegally obstructed justice, but he did examine nearly a dozen episodes for potential obstruction, including efforts by the president to discourage cooperation.
The report shows that after Flynn began cooperating with the government, an unidentified Trump lawyer left a message with Flynn’s attorneys reminding them that the president still had warm feelings for Flynn and asking for a “heads-up” if Flynn knew damaging information about the president.
Sullivan ordered prosecutors to give him a copy of the audio recording they reference in the court filing and to make public a transcript of that call. He also directed them to file publicly transcripts of any calls with Russian officials, such as then-ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Flynn was supposed to have been sentenced in December last year, with prosecutors saying he was so cooperative and helpful in their investigation that he was entitled to avoid prison.
However, after a judge sharply criticized Flynn during his sentencing hearing, Flynn asked for it to be postponed so that he could continue cooperating with prosecutors and reduce the likelihood of being sent to prison.
The document also details how Flynn assisted investigators as they looked into whether the Trump campaign conspired with the Kremlin to sway the outcome of the 2016 election.
Flynn described to investigators statements from senior campaign officials in 2016 about WikiLeaks — which received and published Democratic e-mails that were hacked by Russian intelligence officers “to which only a select few people were privy,” prosecutors said.
That includes conversations with senior campaign officials “during which the prospect of reaching out to WikiLeaks was discussed.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in