President Trump’s ex-national security adviser Mike Flynn wants to avoid any time behind bars, with his lawyers arguing that his extensive cooperation with the feds’ Russia probe earned him a break.

“As the Government has made clear, his cooperation was not grudging or delayed. Rather, it preceded his guilty plea or any threatened indictment and began very shortly after he was first contacted for assistance by the Special Counsel’s Office,” his lawyers said in a federal court filing on Tuesday.

They requested that Flynn only be put on probation for a year for lying to FBI agents in their probe into Russian meddling in the US election and possible collusion with Trump’s campaign.

Flynn’s lawyers asked the court to “sentence him to a term of probation not to exceed one year, with minimal conditions of supervision, along with 200 hours of community service.”

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office said last week Flynn had provided substantial cooperation with its investigation, as well as with other probes.

Flynn — one of Trump’s earliest and most ardent supporters — held the White House job for only 24 days.

He pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia and will be sentenced in federal court in Washington, DC, on Dec. 18.

Flynn participated in 19 meetings with the special counsel’s office and other government bureaus and produced thousands of documents for the Justice Department, his lawyers said in a court filing.

Flynn is the only Trump administration official to plead guilty to a crime connected with Mueller’s sprawling probe into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election.

Both Trump and Moscow have denied wrongdoing, with the president repeatedly calling it a “hoax” and a “witch hunt!”

The lawyers said the retired Army general was not warned before a meeting with FBI agents in January 2017 that it was a crime to lie to them.

The filing also included dozens of letters from people attesting to Flynn’s personal character, along with honors he had garnered and Army evaluation reports.

With Reuters