In the Russia affair , FBI special investigator Robert Mueller has recommended to the court not to detain former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. As a reason Mueller called in his Tuesday night in a federal court in Washington penalty recommendation the „significant support“ of the former advisor to US President Donald Trump in the investigation.
An addendum to the penalty recommendation is about the information that Flynn provided to the investigators. This document is blackened in substantial parts. The document shows that Flynn met 19 times with the Special Investigator or with prosecutors and handed over documents. He has provided „first-hand information about the content and context of relations between the transition team and Russian officials“.
Among other things, Mueller is investigating whether there were any collusion between the Trump camp and representatives of Russia in the 2016 US presidential campaign. The US President regularly criticizes the investigation as a „witch hunt“.
Verdict against Flynn should probably fall on 18 December
Flynn , a year ago, pleaded guilty to deliberately misrepresenting to FBI interrogations about contacts with the then Russian ambassador to the US , Sergei Kisljak. With Kisljak, Flynn unlawfully spoke in December 2016 about US sanctions against Moscow and an upcoming vote on a UN resolution on Israeli settlement policy, although Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama was still in office.
According to US media reports, Flynn would have threatened a prison sentence of up to five years. Because of the cooperation Mueller had promised punishment mitigation and a maximum prison term of six months.
In Mueller’s penalty recommendation it was now, because of the „significant support“ of the defendant, a penalty at the lower end of this range appropriate – „including a sentence that imposes no term“. According to media reports, the court will decide on 18 December.
Flynn was only National Security Advisor for 24 days – shorter than anyone else in the office. He resigned on February 13, 2017, after admitting he lied to Vice President Mike Pence.
