Robert Mueller Recommends No Prison for Michael Flynn

The special counsel says the former national security adviser provided “substantial assistance.”

Michael Flynn arrives at the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse on July 10, 2018.Scott Wilson/Getty Images

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, has provided valuable cooperation to prosecutors investigating possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia, special counsel Robert Mueller said Tuesday in a filing recommending a light sentence for Flynn. “Given the defendant’s substantial assistance and other considerations,” prosecutors write, “a sentence at the low end of the guideline range—including a sentence that does not impose a term of incarceration—is appropriate and warranted.”

Flynn is scheduled to be sentenced on December 18.

Mueller’s sentencing memo on Flynn was much-awaited by Trump-Russia watchers. Flynn was the first high-level Trump ally to plead guilty in the scandal and the first to complete his cooperation. In an addendum to the filing, prosecutors say that Flynn’s “early cooperation…likely affected the decisions of other firsthand witnesses to be forthcoming with the [special counsel] and cooperate.”

The addendum is heavily redacted. Prosecutors say that is because it includes sensitive information about ongoing investigations. Some of the benefit of Flynn’s help “may not be fully realized at this time because the investigations in which he has provided assistance are ongoing” they say. But the document contains intriguing nuggets. It says that Flynn participated in 19 interviews with the special counsel’s office or attorneys from other Justice Department offices, and assisted with “several ongoing investigations” including a criminal probe separate from Mueller’s main investigation. “The defendant has also assisted with the [special counsel] investigation concerning links or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump campaign,” it adds.

Flynn pleaded guilty last year to lying to FBI agents about his contacts with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. As part of his plea, Flynn also admitted to making false statements to the Justice Department regarding work his company, the Flynn Intel Group, did for the Turkish government.

What’s next for Flynn after a potential prison stint? Maybe more lobbying. In July, two lobbyists known for their work for Qatar, Nick Muzin, a former staffer for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Joey Allaham, the ex-owner of several kosher steakhouses in New York, announced that Flynn would join a lobbying consulting firm, Stonington Global LLC, that they launched. That plan was nixed by Flynn’s lawyers. Sources said Mueller’s team had not been told of Flynn’s new venture, and Flynn’s lawyers feared they would react negatively to the plan. But Allaham and Muzin say they still anticipate Flynn joining the firm after he completes his sentence.

*This is a developing story

Read the sentencing memo and the addendum:

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate