Robert Mueller Says Thank You to Michael Flynn

By Eric Lach, The New Yorker

05 December 18

lmost exactly a year ago, after he had pleaded guilty to lying to the government about his conversations with the Russian Ambassador to the U.S. and about his business relationship with the Turkish government, Michael Flynn, the retired lieutenant general who served for a few short weeks as Donald Trump’s first national-security adviser, issued a statement acknowledging that he was coöperating with the special counsel Robert Mueller. “I am working to set things right,” he said. At the time, Nicholas Schmidle, who wrote a Profile of Flynn for The New Yorker, predicted that coöperating with Mueller had the potential to be Flynn’s “most significant act of public service yet.” On Tuesday, Mueller filed a memo in court suggesting that Flynn had made good on his word.

“The defendant’s assistance to the government was substantial and merits consideration at sentencing,” the memo says. “His early cooperation was particularly valuable because he was one of the few people with long-term and firsthand insight regarding events and issues under investigation.” Flynn is due to be sentenced for his crimes later this month, and the memo states that a sentence with no jail time “is appropriate and warranted.”

Many people had been eagerly anticipating Tuesday’s memo, hoping to learn what exactly Flynn has told Mueller. But the document doesn’t really say—citing “ongoing investigations,” Mueller redacted much of the document in the public filing. The document states that Flynn sat for nineteen interviews with the special counsel’s office (S.C.O.) or other attorneys from the Justice Department, that he coöperated in at least one criminal investigation separate from the special counsel’s investigation, that he turned over documents and communications, and that he spoke to Mueller’s team about interactions between Trump’s transition team and the Russian government. But whole paragraphs are blocked out. Names, dates, and other details remain unknown. There is one other interesting part of the document, though. In a section titled “History and Characteristics of the Defendant,” the memo states, “The defendant’s record of military and public service distinguish him from every other person who has been charged as part of the SCO’s investigation”—a nod toward Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, George Papadopoulos, et al. “However,” the document goes on, “senior government leaders should be held to the highest standards.” Whom might this second sentence be nodding toward?