Prosecutors reject Flynn claims ahead of sentencing

Federal prosecutors have released FBI notes from former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s interview with agents in 2017 in order to push back on claims that former special counsel Robert Mueller’s team tried to alter evidence against him.

“The defendant’s protestations of innocence and being misled into a guilty plea are demonstrably false,” U.S. Attorney Brandon Van Grack, the lead prosecutor on the case, wrote in a court filing on Friday that included the FBI notes.

The filing was first reported by Politico.{mosads}

A new defense team led by Sidney Powell has accused the former special counsel’s team of altering key evidence and pushing Flynn into a guilty plea, the newspaper reports.

Van Grack has refuted such claims, noting that Flynn was represented by counsel and was free to leave at any time during his voluntary interviews leading up to his guilty plea in late 2017. Flynn also affirmed under oath that he wished to proceed with sentencing a year later, Van Grack noted.

Flynn’s attorneys have complained that the disclosures of some information to Flynn were belated, according to Politico, though prosecutors argue there was no duty for the government to produce material to Flynn when he was uncharged.

Van Grack wrote that handwritten notes, interview reports, drafts of interview reports and statements “are consistent and clear” that Flynn made “multiple false statements” to agents over his communications with the Russian ambassador on Jan. 24, 2017. 

The filing includes some of the notes that Grack said illustrated Flynn’s alleged false statements. 

Flynn pleaded guilty of lying to the FBI in December 2017 and faces up to five years in prison on the current charge. 

A federal judge has set a tentative Dec. 18 sentencing hearing for Flynn’s case.