This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

In a startling breakthrough for prosecutors investigating potential collusion between Russia and the Donald Trump presidential campaign, former national security adviser Michael Flynn announced on Friday that he was cooperating with prosecutors and ready to testify about Russian contacts.

After months of silence and invisibility, Flynn walked into a federal courthouse in Washington DC on Friday morning and pleaded guilty to one count of lying to the FBI. The plea was part of a larger deal with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, and strikes at the heart of the Trump White House.

The US president was uncharacteristically mute as the spectacle played out. The White House canceled a planned photoshoot in the Oval Office with the prime minister of Libya.

Frame by frame: how the Michael Flynn-Russia saga unfolded Read more

Flynn admitted that he lied in interviews with FBI agents shortly after the inauguration about conversations he had held with the then Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak concerning US sanctions on Russia and other matters.

Flynn further described a chain of communication within Trump’s presidential transition team in which he received direction in December 2016 from a “very senior transition official” – unnamed in court documents – and consulted “senior members” of the team on what to say to Kislyak.

Because Trump was not in power at the time, that plotting could expose those involved to charges of working with foreign governments to undermine US policy. But the extent of Flynn’s potential testimony in the Russia matter was unknown and could carry other legal hazards for the White House.

Flynn acknowledged wrongdoing for the first time in a statement on Friday.

Play Video 0:38 'Lock him up!' shout protesters after Michael Flynn pleads guilty to lying to FBI – video

“It has been extraordinarily painful to endure these many months of false accusations of treason,” Flynn said. “But I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and, through my faith in God, I am working to set things right.”

He added: “My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the special counsel’s office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country.”

Quick guide Michael Flynn and Russia: what we know so far Show Hide Michael Flynn is the fourth Donald Trump aide to face criminal charges in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election and any alleged collusion. Flynn has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI – ‘making false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements’ about his contacts with Russia. Flynn, as part of Trump’s transition team between the November 2016 election and the January 2017 inauguration, had secret contact with the Russian ambassador on at least two topics - shaping US and Russian policy on sanctions, and attempting to influence a UN vote about Israeli settlement-building. Flynn is cooperating with investigators, and under the terms of his deal agreed to take polygraph lie-detector tests and appear as a witness in all relevant cases. He admits that he discussed with another senior Trump transition official what he should say to the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. At least two members of the Trump transition team were briefed by him after his contact with Kislyak. Flynn faces a maximum prison sentence of six months under the terms of his deal and a fine of up to $9,500. While new information reveals secret contact with the Russians, it does not shed light on whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia’s interference in the US election. Photograph: Susan Walsh/AP

Trump’s lead personal lawyer on the case, Ty Cobb, sought to distance the president from his former ally, a key adviser during the 2016 presidential election whose name Trump floated briefly as a possible vice-presidential pick.

“Nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than Mr Flynn,” Cobb said in a statement, which stated that Flynn served in the Trump administration for only 25 days and called Flynn a “former Obama administration official”.

Play Video 0:33 US chat show audience cheer as Flynn pleads guilty to FBI lie – video

Obama fired Flynn as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014 and warned Trump against hiring him.

A report from CNN quoting unnamed White House officials as claiming that the Flynn-Kislyak contacts had been authorized by the Obama administration drew derision from former staffers.

Ned Price, the former National Security Council spokesman told the Guardian in an email: “There is no world in which the Obama administration would have authorized anyone to attempt to subvert the principle of ‘one President – and one foreign policy – at a time.’”

“Any suggestion otherwise by this White House is laughable, as are their other attempts to distance themselves from Michael Flynn, President Trump’s first and handpicked national security adviser,” Price said.

Attempts by the Trump camp to distance themselves from Flynn represented a hard reversal of the president’s previous embrace, and belied Flynn’s status as a member of the innermost circle of the Trump campaign, which he joined in February 2016. Just nine months ago, Trump intervened personally with then FBI director James Comey in an effort to deflect an investigation of Flynn, according to Comey.



Now it is knives out on both sides. As part of his plea deal, Flynn has agreed to be interviewed at any time by government agents and to submit to lie detector tests upon request. He faces a possible sentence of up to six months in prison in his guilty plea to the false statements charge.

Jared Kushner questioned by Mueller's team about Michael Flynn, insider says Read more

Flynn falsely denied to investigators that he had asked Kislyak in a meeting during the presidential transition to refrain from escalating the situation after the United States imposed new sanctions on Russia, and falsely denied that he had asked the ambassador in a separate meeting to delay a vote on a UN resolution, according to court documents.

Flynn further failed to recall being told by Kislyak that Russia had decided to moderate its response to the new sanctions at Flynn’s request, the documents said.



Flynn was filmed walking into FBI headquarters on Friday morning. He ignored shouted questions from the media asking whether he had reached a deal with special counsel.

The retired three-star general, who had failed to declare payments from Turkish and Russian sources and who was reportedly under investigation for an alleged role in a kidnapping plot, had appeared vulnerable to much more serious charges than making false statements.

Anne Milgram, who has worked closely in the past with Mueller and his team as a former attorney general for the state of New Jersey and former federal prosecutor, said that prosecutors’ decision to charge Flynn with a relatively minor offense indicated that a deal for Flynn to cooperate with prosecutors had been struck.

“And that was very quick,” Milgram said in an email.

The Trump campaign has denied coordinating with Russia during and after the presidential campaign, even as evidence of at least 19 in-person meetings between the two sides has emerged and Mueller’s team has uncovered high-level conversations inside the campaign about the contacts.

Previously the special counsel has charged former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and aide Richard Gates, and former foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to making false statements, a similar charge to Flynn.

But Trump had until now seemed especially protective of Flynn, who unlike the others was part of his inner circle during the campaign, frequently introducing Trump at campaign events and working closely with members of Trump’s family, including son Donald Trump Jr and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Mike Flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch hunt (excuse for big election loss), by media & Dems, of historic proportion!

Three news reports on Friday, from Bloomberg, NBC News and BuzzFeed, identified Kushner as the transition team member who had directed Flynn to act on the UN resolution denouncing Israeli settlements.

Flynn’s cooperation with prosecutors seemed potentially ominous for Kushner, who US intelligences sources said tried in one meeting with Kislyak to set up back-channel communications with Russians. Kushner has denied the accusation. The other person in the meeting was Flynn.

In one of Flynn’s most public outings during the campaign, he appeared at the Republican national convention in Cleveland and led the crowd in a chant of “Lock her up!” referring to Hillary Clinton and her handling of classified information on a private email account.

But it would be Flynn, and not Clinton, who would face criminal charges, and on Friday protesters outside the courthouse chanted “Lock him up!” as he left.

Comey, whom Trump fired in May, said that the president had asked him in February to drop an investigation into Flynn’s activities – the very investigation in which Flynn had, according to the charges, lied about a month earlier.

“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Comey quoted Trump as saying. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”

Flynn resigned after 24 days as national security adviser when US surveillance records came to light indicating that he had discussed sanctions with Kislyak, despite a public denial at the time by Vice-President Mike Pence that such a discussion had taken place.

Trump was not yet in office when Flynn made the request for Russia to block the UN resolution, a possible violation of Logan Act proscriptions against communicating with foreign governments and undermining US policy.

The resolution to denounce the Israeli settlements passed 14-0 on 23 December, with the United States abstaining.

If Michael Flynn’s full plea agreement is not visible above, click here to access it.