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A possible forgiveness for Flynn would be the President’s final instance to use his vast power of forgiveness for a high-level ally.
To date, Trump’s presidential pardon record has been marked by personal connections, a showmanship, and an aversion to going through official government channels.
Recipients have earned clemency by directing their demands to Trump through friends, Fox News figures, or Hollywood celebrities speaking to the president. This unusual pipeline has worked for people like Joe Arpaio, a former Arizona sheriff, Dinesh D’Souza, right-wing commentator, and Michael Milken, a financier convicted of securities fraud.
Trump also granted pardons at the urgent request of Kim Kardashian West, who made his case in the Oval Office. And earlier this year, he commuted the sentence of his longtime confidant Roger Stone, whose conviction stemmed from the Mueller inquiry.
Flynn’s tenure in the White House only lasted a few weeks – he resigned after being caught in a public lie about his Russian contacts.
He pleaded guilty at the end of 2017 to lying to the FBI about these contacts, but then disowned his plea and tried to have the case dismissed. In a shocking twist this spring, the Justice Department dropped the case, which is still stuck in legal limbo.
Throughout the saga, Flynn narrowly avoided being convicted.
It has also become an emblem of Trump’s persistent efforts to undermine the Russia investigation and a channel to test the separation of powers between judges and prosecutors.
The Justice Department argued that Flynn should never have been questioned by the FBI in January 2017 and put in the position where he lied.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
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