Michael Flynn transcripts released, calls with Russian diplomat detailed

The Obama administration announced sanctions against Russia that day in response to the country’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

“What I would ask Russia to do is to not -is – is -if anything – because I know you have to have some sort of action – to, to only make it reciprocal,” Flynn had told Kislyak. “Make it reciprocal. Don’t -don’t make it-don’t go any further than you have to. Because I don’t want us to get into something that has to escalate, on a, you know, on a tit for tat.”

Flynn was asked to resign by Trump after less than a month on the job because he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about what was said in the conversation with the Russian ambassador.

After nearly being sentenced in 2018, Flynn replaced his legal team and asked U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan to dismiss his charge. The Justice Department said this month that it, too, wants the case dropped, after finding that the FBI did not have grounds to conduct a counterintelligence investigation of Flynn at the time agents interviewed him.

Sullivan has, for now, refused to grant the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss its prosecution of Flynn.

Instead, Sullivan has asked a retired federal judge, John Gleeson, to make legal arguments on why the case should not be dismissed, and to address whether Sullivan should hold Flynn in criminal contempt for pleading guilty to lying to FBI agents when he now argues he did not lie.

Sullivan has also allowed third parties to file arguments on why he should, or should not, dismiss the case.

Flynn’s lawyers have asked a federal appeals court to bar Sullivan from allowing outside comments on the case in court filings, and to direct the judge to dismiss the case. 

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/29/trump-intelligence-chief-ratcliffe-declassifies-flynn-transcripts.html