Michael Flynn's prospects for a lenient sentence are now uncertain

WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors have informed a judge that they no longer plan to bring Michael Flynn to appear when his former business partner would be tried in Virginia next week – not because they do not want to do so. Did not need his testimony, but because they no longer believed that he was telling them. the truth.

In recently unsealed court documents, the government said it "does not plan to call Flynn as a witness" in the trial of Bijan Rafiekian, the former Flynn partner. in a consulting firm. Rafiekian is accused of failing to reveal cabinet lobbying on behalf of the Turkish government, which wanted the United States to extradite a man living in Pennsylvania, whom the Turkish president has accused of attempting to make a coup attempt. d & # 39; State.

At the end of 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to a charge brought by the then special advocate, Robert Mueller, acknowledging that four days after he took office, he falsely denied having had two separate contacts with him. the Russian ambassador to the United States during the Trump transition. . As part of his plea agreement, he also admitted to lying about his company's lobbying for Turkey.

Flynn was to be sentenced in December 2018, in the hope that he would only be sentenced to a term of probation and not to a prison sentence. But Judge Emmet Sullivan of the Federal District Court strongly suggested that Flynn should show more cooperation with the government if he hoped for a lenient sentence. Flynn's lawyers requested additional time to give him more time to cooperate with prosecutors in the Rafiekian case, in which he would have been a key witness.

But after declaring for months that Flynn was going to testify, prosecutors informed the Virginia judge on July 3 of a brutal change. They will not offer it as a witness and will instead say that he was a co-conspirator, they said.

Rafiekian's lawyers said they received an email from the government on July 2 in which prosecutors said they "did not necessarily agree" with Flynn's explanation of why which he had signed a lobbyist file in which he had falsely denied lobbying on behalf of the Turkish government.

In another case, Flynn's defense stated that he had spent hours helping prosecutors prepare for Rafiekian's trial and that he was always willing to cooperate. The government should not be allowed to change positions at this advanced stage, they said.

In response to these developments, Sullivan, who will decide Flynn's sentence, has ordered the government to explain how the attorneys' change in attitude will affect Sullivan's sentencing decision. The government's presentation is expected by July 10 and Flynn's lawyers for the next day, July 11.