Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
A federal judge Tuesday abruptly postponed the sentencing of President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, declaring himself disgusted and disdainful of Flynn’s crime of lying to the FBI and raising the unexpected prospect of sending the retired Army lieutenant general to prison.
Lawyers for Flynn, who admitted lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts, requested the delay during the stunning hearing in which U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan told the former Trump aide in a blistering rebuke that “arguably you sold your country out.”
“I’m not hiding my disgust, my disdain for his criminal offense,” the judge said.
The postponement gives Flynn a chance to continue cooperating with the government in hopes of staving off prison and proving his value as a witness, including in a foreign lobbying prosecution brought just this week. The possibility of prison had seemed remote for Flynn, who was smiling and upbeat as he entered the courtroom, since prosecutors had praised his extensive previous cooperation and didn’t recommend any time behind bars.
But the judge’s upbraiding suggested otherwise and made clear that even defendants such as Flynn who have cooperated extensively in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation may nonetheless be shadowed by the crimes that brought them into court in the first place. The hearing upset what had been a carefully crafted agreement and pushed months into the future a resolution of one of Mueller’s signature prosecutions.
“This is a very serious offense – a high-ranking official of the government making false statements to federal agents while on the physical premises of the White House,” Sullivan said.
He later softened his tone, apologizing for suggesting that Flynn had worked as a foreign agent, “undermining everything this flag over here stands for” while in the White House when that other work had actually already ended.
He also backpedaled on an earlier question on whether Flynn’s transgressions amounted to treason, saying he didn’t mean to suggest they did.
Flynn was to have been the first White House official sentenced in special counsel Mueller’s ongoing investigation into possible coordination between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia. The hearing, though incomplete, marked a remarkable fall after a three-decade military career that included Flynn’s tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and oversight of the Defense Intelligence Agency during the Obama administration.
It all comes amid escalating legal peril for Trump, who was implicated by federal prosecutors in New York this month in hush-money payments involving his former lawyer to cover up extramarital affairs. Nearly a half-dozen former aides and advisers have pleaded guilty or agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Some, like Flynn, have been tripped up by concealing Russian contacts.