Former national security adviser Michael Flynn had previously been scheduled to be sentenced a year ago but requested a delay so he could continue cooperating with former special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors. | Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images Legal Judge proposes Dec. 18 for Michael Flynn sentencing

Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn is on track to finally be sentenced by the end of the year for lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, a federal judge said Tuesday.

“It kind of brings some finality to this case,” U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said during a status hearing at which he said he proposed a Dec. 18 sentencing date for Flynn.


The judge noted that the mid-December date — which could still change — comes one year to the day Flynn had been scheduled to be sentenced before abruptly reversing course and requesting a delay to continue cooperating with then-special counsel Robert Mueller.

Justice Department lawyers who inherited the Flynn case after Mueller wrapped up his underlying probe on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election have repeatedly said they’re ready to see the former Trump aide sentenced.

But Flynn’s new attorneys, including Sidney Powell, an outspoken critic of the Mueller investigation, are pressing for more time.

In court Tuesday, Powell argued she was seeking a court order to force the government to turn over more materials tied to her client’s prosecution. Her aim, she told Sullivan, was to get the entire case dismissed because of “egregious government misconduct.”

For now, she added Flynn doesn’t plan to withdraw from the plea deal, which he signed first in December 2017 and again in February 2018.

“There is far more at stake here than sentencing,” said Powell, who ticked through a series of complaints she’s raising about the Mueller team for allegedly acting maliciously against Flynn and withholding evidence that would have cleared him of any charges.

Government prosecutors a year ago said they would ask Sullivan to spare Flynn any jail time because of his “extensive cooperation” in the Mueller investigation.

But on Tuesday, DOJ attorney Brandon Van Grack said the government planned to refile a sentencing memo for the retired Army general. He didn’t indicate whether DOJ’s position would change on Flynn's punishment, which it initially suggested should be one year of probation.

The court later ordered DOJ to file its recommendations on Flynn’s sentence by Dec. 2.

While Flynn remains locked into his guilty plea, he has made an abrupt shift in his defense strategy since firing his first team of lawyers in June and replacing them with Powell.

Last month, she filed a 19-page motion seeking a court order for the government to turn over sensitive classified materials she alleged would show her client was targeted for political reasons and that prosecutorial rules were broken in pursuing him.

Flynn’s list of complaints cover many of the same topics that his allies and family members have been pressing for years and center on the claim of an anti-Trump conspiracy inside the FBI.

“Our ethical obligation requires us to go back and look at everything,” Powell said in court. She cited her interest in obtaining an internal DOJ memo that found Flynn wasn’t a Russian agent and other materials widely discussed in conservative media circles that would undercut the entire premise of the Mueller investigation.

Sullivan, a judicial appointee of both GOP and Democratic presidents, appeared to cast doubt on Powell’s arguments, noting at one point Flynn was never charged with being a Russian agent.

But Sullivan nonetheless scheduled an Oct. 31 hearing on Flynn’s request to get the materials. For its part, DOJ maintains that Flynn shouldn’t be given access to any classified materials and argues that it’s not aware of any relevant documents that must be disclosed under the court’s rules.

