March 15 (UPI) — President Donald Trump said Sunday he is “strongly considering” offering a full pardon to his former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
In a tweet on Sunday, Trump suggested the FBI and Justice Department lost some of Flynn’s records related to his charge of making a false statement to the FBI during his testimony as part of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
“So now it is reported that, after destroying his life and the life of his wonderful family (and many others also, the FBI, working in conjunction with the Justice Department, has “lost” the records of General Michael Flynn,” Trump wrote. “How convenient. I am strongly considering a full pardon!”
In September, Flynn’s lawyers said the prosecution was unable to produce an internal Justice Department memo clearing Flynn of being a Russian agent.
A government lawyer on the case, however, declared the claims irrelevant, stating Flynn was not accused of being a Russian agent.
Last month, a federal judge indefinitely suspended Flynn’s sentencing hearing originally set for Feb. 27 “until further order of the court.”
Flynn originally pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with former Russin ambassador Sergey Kislyak but withdrew the guilty plea on Jan. 14.
He stated that prosecutors broke an agreement for his cooperation when they requested he receive jail time instead of probation.
Federal prosecutors then filed a motion seeking a delay of several key deadlines in Flynn’s case citing that his request to withdraw his guilty plea may require additional testimony from his former lawyers at the law firm Covington & Burling.
