Former Trump advisor | Justice Department reaches out-of-court settlement with Michael Flynn

(Washington) The United States Department of Justice has reached an out-of-court settlement for approximately US$1.2 million with Michael Flynn, former national security adviser to President Donald Trump.

Mr. Flynn pleaded guilty during the Republican president’s first term to lying to the FBI about his conversations with a senior Russian diplomat and was later pardoned.

Court documents filed Wednesday do not reveal the amount of the settlement, but a source familiar with the matter, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to disclose non-public information, confirmed it was about $1.2 million.

The agreement ends a lawsuit filed in 2023, in which Mr. Flynn sought at least US$50 million and claimed that the criminal proceedings against him constituted an abusive proceeding.

It also represents a dramatic turnaround by the Justice Department, which under the Biden administration had pressured a judge to have Mr. Flynn’s complaint thrown out.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, the president’s former personal lawyer, has openly criticized the Russia investigation in which Mr. Flynn was indicted, and the Justice Department last year opened investigations into former officials who participated in that investigation.

The Justice Department presented this agreement as an “important step to repair” what it describes as a “historic injustice” linked to the Russian investigation which weighed on Donald Trump for much of his first term.

“The Department of Justice will continue to pursue those responsible at all levels for these wrongdoings. Such instrumentalization of the federal government must never happen again,” said a spokesperson.

In a separate statement, Mr. Flynn said: “Nothing will ever make up for the hell my family and I endured all these years. The continued attacks, the destruction of our reputations, the financial ruin and the deep personal trauma that has been inflicted on us, no amount of money or formal agreement will erase the pain caused by prosecutions that should never have been brought. »

End of a cycle

This agreement constitutes the latest episode in the long legal saga involving Mr. Flynn, one of six close to Donald Trump indicted as part of special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigation into potential links between Russia and Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016.

That investigation concluded that Russia interfered in the election to benefit Donald Trump and that Mr. Trump’s campaign team eagerly welcomed the help, but ultimately concluded there was insufficient evidence of a criminal conspiracy.

Michael Flynn, a retired army lieutenant general and strong supporter of Donald Trump during the campaign, served for a few weeks as Trump’s top national security adviser before being fired.

He remained an ally of Mr. Trump, even after agreeing to cooperate with Mr. Mueller’s team. He was pardoned in the final weeks of the president’s first term.

In December 2017, Mr. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. He then declared that he had not discussed with the Russian envoy, Sergei Kislyak, the sanctions that the outgoing Obama administration had just imposed on Russia for electoral interference.

During this conversation, Mr. Flynn advised Russia to remain calm in the face of these punitive measures and assured that “a more constructive discussion” on bilateral relations would be possible after the inauguration of Donald Trump.

This conversation alarmed the FBI, which was then investigating possible coordination between Mr. Trump’s campaign and Russia to influence the election. Moreover, White House officials publicly claimed that Mr. Flynn and Mr. Kislyak had not discussed the issue of sanctions, which the FBI knew to be false.

Mr. Flynn was removed from his post in February 2017 after it was revealed that Obama administration officials had warned the White House that Mr. Flynn had indeed discussed sanctions with Mr. Kislyak and was vulnerable to blackmail.

He pleaded guilty a few months later to charges of making a false statement. However, Mr. Flynn later sought to recant, saying that federal prosecutors had acted in bad faith and breached their commitments in seeking a stiff prison sentence.

In 2020, the Justice Department moved to dismiss the case, arguing that the FBI had no basis to question Mr. Flynn about Mr. Kislyak and that his statements during that questioning were not relevant to the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation.

Michael Flynn was pardoned by Donald Trump in November 2020, ending the legal proceedings and legal battles.

In his complaint, Mr. Flynn maintained his innocence and said he was targeted by the FBI branch investigating Russian interference, a branch that is fiercely anti-Trump.

He argued that investigators pursued him knowing there was no evidence of a crime and forced him to plead guilty.

“He was wrongly accused of treason against his country, lost at least tens of millions of dollars in business opportunities and lifetime earning potential, was improperly prosecuted, and spent considerable sums of money in his defense,” says the complaint, which adds that Mr. Flynn will continue to suffer “moral and psychological suffering.”