Department of Justice does not comply with court order to publish transcripts of Michael Flynn's conversations with Russian ambassador

Federal prosecutors on Friday refused to release transcripts of recorded conversations between Michael Flynn and the Russian ambassador to the United States in December 2016, despite a judge's order.

In a lawsuit filed Friday, the Department of Justice wrote that it did not rely on such recordings to establish Flynn's guilt or make a recommendation as to his conviction.

Prosecutors also failed to publish an unredacted version of parts of the Mueller report relating to Flynn, which the judge ordered to make public.

Flynn, who was briefly the first national security adviser to President Trump, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversation with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and cooperated with him. Special inquiry Robert S. Mueller III. He is waiting for the sentence.

The government's unusual response came after US District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in Washington ordered the Department of Justice to release various documents relating to the case, including transcripts of audio recordings by Flynn, such as his conversations with Russian officials.

[Judge orders public release of what Michael Flynn said in call to Russian ambassador]

Prosecutors provided an element that Sullivan ordered to be published, a transcript of a voice message left by a Trump lawyer, much of which was already in Mueller's report. It is unclear how the judge will react to the government's non-compliance with other elements of his order. Late last year, Sullivan postponed Flynn's conviction after congratulating the former national security adviser for his actions, saying, "It can be argued that you sold your country."

Flynn's interactions with Kislyak were described in Mueller's report and in court documents, but the exact words used by the two men were not revealed. US officials have not publicly confirmed the existence of records, which are classified.

Sullivan made it clear that he wanted the complete transcript of Flynn's calls shared with the public, although he did not explain his reasoning. The response from the Department of Justice appeared to thwart this order.

Prosecutors Brandon L. Van Grack, of the National Security Division of the Department of Justice, who were previously part of Mueller's team, and US Assistant Attorney, Deborah Curtis, of Washington, DC, said. did not explain why they did not deliver the transcripts, but indicated that the judge had requested material that was irrelevant to Flynn's possible conviction.

Prosecutors have written in a single line on Sullivan's order that the government "does not rely on any other record of a person to establish the guilt of the accused or to determine his sentence. There are also no other recordings forming part of the record judgment. "

Some legal experts have stated that Sullivan's claim was atypical, insofar as it required the disclosure of classified documents that prosecutors had not used to prove Flynn's guilt.

Some former prosecutors, however, said that the government's response was also particularly spared.

"I'm sure that they spent a lot of time thinking about how to proceed: protect intelligence-related actions, protect their record, try not to bother the judge, balance all those interests," said Barbara. McQuade, former employee of the United States. lawyer in Michigan.

She noted that although there was no public indication that prosecutors had filed additional documents under seal, it was possible for them to do so.

"If they're just trying to avoid ordering bypassing it and saying" it's not necessary for your sentencing decision, "judges tend not to be satisfied with such a response, "she added.

The US Attorney's Office in Washington declined to comment.

The transcripts of the Flynn-Kisylak appeals would provide a rare glimpse of the power of US surveillance to capture private discussions of foreign emissaries – and an intimate look at the nascent relationship between a senior Russian official and the US. One of the most trusted of the elected President Lieutenants in the weeks leading up to Trump's entry into office.

Flynn lied about his contacts with the Russian ambassador and made him the shortest national security advisor in US history: he spent just 24 days at the prestigious job of the United States. White House.

Sullivan ordered transcripts of Flynn's conversations published two weeks ago after the Washington Post filed a motion seeking disclosure of redacted and sealed documents in the case. The Post argued that the public deserved to know more about Trump's role in key events and the information he shared with investigators.

As part of his order, Sullivan had also given the government until Friday to publish a non-redacted version of parts of Mueller's report regarding Flynn.

In refusing to disclose it, the prosecutors wrote that "the last reduced deletions concern the search for information, such as references to subpoenas to appear before the grand jury".

They provided no explanation other than this: "All the information contained in the report that the defendant provided to the Office of the Special Advocate was not redacted, as was all the information provided in the report. by others about the defendant ".

One of the articles the Justice Department released on Sullivan's order was the full transcript of a voice message that John Dowd, a private Trump lawyer, had left for Flynn's lawyer Robert Kelner. , in November 2017.

Most of the voicemails were cited in Mueller's report, which describes a message left by a personal lawyer in Trump for a Flynn lawyer after the former national security adviser began cooperating with the investigators. The special council examined the message as part of its investigation into whether Trump was seeking to obstruct the investigation in Russia.

Trump's lawyer was Dowd, according to people familiar with the episode.

In the voicemail addressed to Kelner, Dowd described himself as "nice".

"I understand your situation, but let me see if I can not express it in harsher terms," ​​he said, adding that "if there is any information involving the president, we have a national security problem. "

"So, you know … we need some kind of one-on-one," he added. "Uh, just to protect all of our interests if we can, without you having to give up … confidential information … remember what we've always said about the president and his feelings about him. in respect of Flynn and, still remain. "

In a statement Friday, Dowd said that his contact with Flynn's lawyer had never been reprehensible and that he had never tried to discourage Flynn's cooperation with the government.

"It's clearly an unfounded policy document designed to tarnish and damage the reputation of lawyers and innocent people," Dowd said of the special advocate's report.

Devlin Barrett and Spencer S. Hsu contributed to this report.