Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office said Mr Flynn had provided “substantial assistance” in its investigation. Mr Flynn has admitted one count of lying to the FBI. He is the only member of the Trump administration so far to plead guilty as a result of the investigation. President Donald Trump has called the investigation a witch hunt and denies there was any collusion between his team and Russian officials to try to secure his election victory.
What is in the memo?
The memo was a sentencing recommendation for Flynn that summarized his misconduct and subsequent work with prosecutors. It said Flynn had provided “substantial assistance” to Mueller’s team since pleading guilty to one count of making false statements to the FBI in November 2017. In the document, Mueller recommended that Flynn — due to his cooperation — receive the “low end” of the zero- to six-month sentence that could have come with his crime.
“Given the defendant’s substantial assistance and other considerations set forth below, a sentence at the low end of the guideline range — including a sentence that does not impose a term of incarceration — is appropriate and warranted,” Mueller wrote.
The seven-page sentencing memo was accompanied by a heavily redacted six-page addendum detailing the “significance and usefulness” of Flynn’s assistance. Mueller had requested that the addendum to be partially sealed because it contained what he described as “sensitive information about ongoing investigations.”
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The false statements Flynn pleaded guilty to making to the FBI occurred in an interview he had with agents in January 2017, the month Trump took office. At the time, Flynn was serving as the president’s national security adviser. In that interview, Flynn falsely denied asking Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak not to respond to President Barack Obama’s sanctions against the Kremlin for the election interference. Flynn was fired from the Trump administration in February 2017 after it was discovered he also lied about his contacts with Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence.
Mueller’s memo also revealed that Flynn admitted to misrepresenting his lobbying work on behalf of the Turkish government. He was not charged for that crime.
