Flynn attorney seeks immediate dismissal, saying new evidence shows Trump adviser was 'framed'

Attorneys for retired Gen. Michael Flynn asked a judge Friday to dismiss his criminal conviction immediately, saying new evidence belatedly turned over by federal prosecutors proves the former national security adviser to President Trump was framed in the Russia investigation.

“This afternoon, the government produced to Mr. Flynn stunning Brady evidence that proves Mr. Flynn’s allegations of having been deliberately set up and framed by corrupt agents at the top of the FBI,” Flynn’s attorneys said in an eight page filing

Brady evidence is pretrial information that could exonerate a defendant.

The attorneys also argued in the filings that the long-awaited evidence defeats any argument that a key interview with Flynn on January 24, 2017, was material to any “investigation.” 

The redacted documents were filed in a District of Columbia federal court as a supplement to Flynn’s court motion in January to dismiss charges against him. You can read the filing here.

Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general, pleaded guilty in 2017 to making false statements to the FBI in connection with the Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether members of the 2016 Trump presidential campaign colluded with Russia to influence the outcome of the election.

“The government has deliberately suppressed this evidence from the inception of this prosecution – knowing there was no crime by Mr. Flynn,” the attorneys also wrote in Friday’s filings. “All this new evidence, and the government has advised there is more to come, proves that the crimes were committed by the FBI officials and then the prosecutors. The government’s misconduct in this case is beyond shocking and reprehensible. It mandates dismissal.” 

Flynn’s lawyers sought in January to withdraw their client’s guilty plea because, they argued, federal prosecutors violated their deal with Flynn in connection with testimony he would give in a related case. 

A copy of the filings were also sent by Flynn attorney Jesse R. Binnall to Timothy J. Shea, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia;  Jocelyn Ballantine, assistant U.S. attorney; and Brandon L. Van Grack, special assistant U.S. attorney.

The new evidence includes documents suggesting the government sought to hide the fact that prosecutors had agreed not to prosecute Flynn's son as an inducement to get Flynn to plead guilty and cooperate, the filing alleged.

A federal prosecutor made a "side deal not to prosecute Michael G. Flynn as a material term of the plea agreement, but he required that it be kept secret between himself and the Covington attorneys expressly to avoid the requirement" of disclosure in future cases, the filing said.