President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn has asked a judge to spare him a prison sentence because of his cooperation with the Russia investigation.
Special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the investigation, recommended last week that Flynn, a retired Army general, receive little or no prison time. Mueller said Flynn has been interviewed 19 times by the special counsel or other Justice Department officers and has provided documents and communications.
In a sentencing memo filed Tuesday, Flynn’s attorneys ask that he receive one year’s probation at most, along with 200 hours of community service, when a federal judge sentences him Dec. 18. The memo cites his military service and says he’s accepted responsibility for his conduct.
“As the Government has made clear, his cooperation was not grudging or delayed,” the defense memo said. Federal sentencing guidelines suggest up to six months in prison.
Flynn in December 2017 pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian government representatives while he was serving in Trump’s White House. Trump in February 2017 claimed he fired Flynn after less than a month on the job because he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about a conversation with then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Trump continued to defend Flynn publicly for a year and a half, saying he had been treated “unfairly” by the “fake media.” But the president has stayed quiet since Mueller’s recommendation of no jail time for Flynn.
Flynn has been a central figure in the probe into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia during the 2016 election.
Former Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen faces sentencing on Wednesday for crimes including tax evasion and illegal hush-money payments to women who said they had affairs with Trump to shield him from negative publicity during the campaign.