Former Trump adviser Flynn asks for
probation in Mueller probe
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[December 12, 2018]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S.
President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn
requested on Tuesday a sentence of a year's probation for lying to FBI
agents in a case stemming from a probe into possible collusion between
the Trump campaign and Russia.
U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office said last week Flynn had
provided substantial cooperation with its investigation, as well as with
other probes.
Flynn held the White House job for only 24 days. He pleaded guilty in
December 2017 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia and
will be sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the District of
Columbia on Dec. 18.
Flynn participated in 19 meetings with the special counsel's office and
other government bureaus and produced thousands of documents to the U.S.
Justice Department, his lawyers said in a court filing.
"As the Government has made clear, his cooperation was not grudging or
delayed. Rather, it preceded his guilty plea or any threatened
indictment and began very shortly after he was first contacted for
assistance by the Special Counsel's Office," his lawyers said in the
filing.
Flynn is the only Trump administration official to plead guilty to a
crime connected to Mueller's sprawling probe into Russian attempts to
influence the 2016 U.S. election.
Both Trump and Moscow have denied wrongdoing. Trump has repeatedly
described the probe, which threatens to cloud his presidency, as a
"witch hunt."
Flynn's lawyers have asked the court to "sentence him to a term of
probation not to exceed one year, with minimal conditions of
supervision, along with 200 hours of community service."
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Former U.S. National Security Adviser Michael Flynn departs after a
plea hearing at U.S. District Court, in Washington, U.S., December
1, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo
The lawyers said the retired Army general was not warned before a
meeting with FBI agents in January 2017 that it was a crime to lie
to them.
They contrasted Flynn's case with that of Trump campaign aide George
Papadopoulos and Alex van der Zwaan, a lawyer who worked with Trump
campaign associates, who have pleaded guilty to lying to federal
authorities and were both informed of the seriousness of the crime.
The filing also included dozens of letters from people attesting to
Flynn's personal character, along with honors he had garnered and
Army evaluation reports.
(Reporting by Makini Brice; Editing by Mohammad Zargham, Peter
Cooney and Paul Tait)
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