Michael Flynn showed up for sentencing Tuesday at a D.C. courthouse to receive a verbal lashing from a federal judge for the argument his attorneys made in court filings that the FBI was somehow partially to blame when Flynn lied to federal agents about his Russian contacts.
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan started by asking Flynn whether he was aware that lying to the FBI was illegal, a reference to his attorneys’ suggestion last week that the FBI ambushed Flynn when they questioned him at the White House early in Trump’s administration.
”I was aware,” Flynn said.
Sullivan also asked Flynn several times whether he wanted to withdraw his guilty plea. He declined. The court recessed until 12:30 PM ET without sentencing Flynn. The special counsel has recommended no jail time for Flynn based on his cooperation, but Judge Sullivan reportedly asked Flynn whether he wanted the judge to consider the possibility of further cooperation before being sentenced.
Sullivan’s opening bid and what followed was clearly an effort to make certain Flynn accepted full culpability for the felony crime to which he has pleaded guilty—lying to federal agents.
Sullivan also asked Flynn attorney Robert Kelner whether it was their contention that the FBI was legally bound to remind Flynn that lying to the FBI is a federal crime. “No, your honor,” Kelner responded.
Clearly, Flynn and his team overstepped. The judge obviously didn’t want Flynn to walk away being able to claim that, somehow, he and he alone wasn’t responsible for his own actions.
The judge also touched on Flynn’s foreign lobbying efforts for Turkey, though he has not been charged with a crime failing to register as a foreign agent. “Arguably,” the judge said, “you sold your country out, the court is going to consider all that.”
Here’s a little more color from inside the courthouse.