US DoJ drops case against security adviser Flynn

The US Justice Department is dropping the criminal case against Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, abandoning a prosecution that became a rallying cry for the US President and his supporters in attacking the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation. According to a report in The Guardian, the move was a stunning reversal for one of the signature cases brought by special counsel Robert Mueller. It came even though prosecutors for the past three years have maintained that Flynn lied to the FBI in a January 2017 interview about his conversations with the Russian ambassador. Flynn himself admitted as much, pleading guilty before asking to withdraw the plea, and became a key co-operator for Mueller, the special counsel who investigated ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign. Last week, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, complained that the decision was ‘outrageous’ and said he intended to call the Attorney-General, Bill Barr, to testify about the decision to drop Flynn’s case. It was not immediately clear how the federal judge overseeing Flynn’s case would react to the DoJ’s motion to drop the case. Flynn had been awaiting sentencing, the date for which had been repeatedly postponed. The US Attorney reviewing the Flynn case, Jeff Jensen, recommended dropping the case to Barr two weeks ago and formalised the recommendation last week. The action comes amid an internal review into the handling of the case and an aggressive effort by Flynn’s lawyers to challenge the basis for the prosecution.