Michael Flynn says he's not ready to be convicted. The United States say that it is ready

(Reuters) – Lawyers for former US National Security Advisor Michael Flynn have accused the federal government of curbing their efforts to defend it.

Flynn's lawyers raised their objections against the government's conduct in a joint status report filed Friday in federal court in Washington, DC.

Government lawyers responded that Flynn was ready to give his sentence, possibly as early as 21 October. Both parties agreed that Flynn's cooperation with various government investigations was complete.

Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to having lied to the FBI about his conversations with Sergey Kislyak, Russia's ambassador to the United States, last December, about the sanctions imposed by President Barack Obama in Moscow.

This argument concerned the investigation by Special Adviser Robert Mueller since then into the interference of Russia in the 2016 US election.

Flynn's conviction was originally scheduled for December 2018, and US District Judge Emmet Sullivan will have to decide whether further delay is warranted.

In her status report Friday, Flynn's lawyer, Sidney Powell, said she had not had enough time to review the case and accused the government of refusing unfairly. to transmit information relevant to the defense.

She added that this included transcripts and recordings of phone calls allegedly at the origin of the charges against Flynn and that the government had "firmly refused to produce".

US Department of Justice lawyers countered that the government had "overstepped" its disclosure obligations and was not aware of any confidential information that Flynn would need to review.

The Department of Justice has proposed that Flynn be sentenced between October 21 and 23 or between November 1 and November 15. Flynn's lawyers requested 90 days prior to the release of another status report.

The discussions between Flynn and Kislyak took place in anticipation of Trump's inauguration in January 2017, after Flynn worked on Trump's election campaign.

As part of his plea, Flynn was to testify at a trial last month against his former partner, Bijan Rafiekian, accused of secret lobbying for Turkey.

Prosecutors quashed Flynn's testimony on July 9, saying they were planning instead to present the retired lieutenant-general of the US military as Rafiekian's co-conspirator. Rafiekian was sentenced two weeks later.

Flynn was Trump's first national security advisor for three weeks.