WASHINGTON – Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, decided to delay his sentencing on Tuesday after a judge harshly criticized him for lying to the FBI and acting as an unregistered agent for Turkey, and warned that he might improve his odds of a better sentence if he finished cooperating with the government first.

It was a surprising turn of events two hours after what was supposed to be Flynn's sentencing hearing began. Throughout the proceedings, US District Judge Emmet Sullivan repeatedly asked Flynn if he wanted to go ahead with sentencing, given his lawyers' comments questioning the conduct of the FBI officials and agents who handled his questioning in January 2017, and the fact that Flynn might not be finished cooperating.

Flynn, wearing a dark suit and red and blue striped tie, each time said he wished to proceed. But following a particularly rough string of criticism from the judge about the crimes he'd admitted to, Flynn asked for a break to speak with his lawyers. When they returned, Flynn's lawyer Robert Kelner said they wanted to postpone sentencing to give Flynn time to complete his cooperation. The judge agreed. The parties are now due to file a report with the court on the status of his case by March 13.

Flynn's change of heart came after Sullivan warned him that he couldn't guarantee Flynn wouldn't get prison time, given the seriousness of his crimes. Sullivan noted that Flynn had lied to the FBI while serving as a senior official in the White House, and had acted as an unregistered agent for the Turkish government. (The judge initially implied that Flynn did work for Turkey while he was in the White House, but later said he misspoke; the prosecutor said Flynn's work for Turkey ended in November 2016.)

"Arguably, that undermines everything this flag over here stands for," Sullivan said, gesturing to an American flag displayed behind his chair. "Arguably you sold your country out."

Sullivan continued: "I'm not hiding my disgust, my disdain for this criminal offense."

Flynn at that point took up the judge's offer of additional time to consult with his lawyers. Before the judge took a break, however, he asked special counsel prosecutor Brandon Van Grack if Flynn could have been charged with treason for his conversations with now-former Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in December 2016, after then-president Barack Obama had entered sanctions against Russia for interfering in the election.

Van Grack replied that given the evidence prosecutors had, treason was not something the government considered charging Flynn with at the time. Sullivan pressed him, asking if they could have charged Flynn with that crime. Van Grack demurred, saying he was hesitant to answer that question because the offense was so serious.

The judge also asked if Flynn had violated any law in his communications with Kislyak. Van Grack said the facts potentially supported a charge under the Logan Act — a federal law that generally prohibits private citizens from having unauthorized communications with a foreign government in order to influence foreign relations — but it wasn't one of the charges the government had considered. Sullivan noted that no one had ever been charged under the law.

After the recess, Sullivan said that he hadn't meant to imply that Flynn might have committed treason — he said he was just probing the extent of Flynn's offenses and "was just curious." Van Grack said the government had no reason to believe Flynn committed treason.

At the beginning of the hearing, the judge said there was a "great deal" of information in the case that was not public. He asked Van Grack if Flynn was still cooperating with the government, and Van Grack replied that it "remains a possibility." Sullivan said judges were normally reluctant to sentence a defendant until they were done cooperating, since the judge couldn't take into account the full extent of the value of that cooperation.

Van Grack did reveal that Flynn had provided "substantial assistance" that led to criminal charges unsealed yesterday against two individual accused of acting as unregistered agents for the Turkish government, including Bijan Rafiekian, a former business partner of Flynn's. In asking the judge later on in the hearing to delay sentencing, Kelner said that they expected Flynn to be asked to testify in that case, which was brought by federal prosecutors in Virginia, not the special counsel's office.

