Family members and backers of Michael Flynn (pictured) have also suggested that he could withdraw his guilty plea or get a pardon from President Donald Trump. | Susan Walsh/AP Photo Mueller prosecutors still not ready to see Flynn sentenced

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office is asking a federal court to continue postponing setting a sentencing hearing for Michael Flynn, the former Trump national security adviser who pleaded guilty last year to a felony count of making false statements in the course of an FBI investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

“Due to the status of the special counsel’s investigation, the parties do not believe that this matter is ready to be scheduled for a sentencing hearing at this time,” prosecutors and defense attorneys wrote in a one-page report filed on Friday with U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan.


The delay suggests that Flynn is still actively cooperating with Mueller’s office, that prosecutors believe his testimony could be useful at some future trial, or that the sentencing process might disclose some aspect of the investigation that Mueller still wishes to keep secret.

Each routine deadline in the case triggers considerable speculation and anticipation, particularly on the part of Flynn’s supporters, who contend that he was railroaded or tricked into pleading guilty through deception perpetrated by the FBI or others. Some, including Republican lawmakers, have suggested that FBI reports on Flynn’s interview with agents may have been altered.

Family members and supporters of Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general and former Defense Intelligence Agency chief, who was fired by President Donald Trump after just 25 days as national security adviser, have also suggested that Flynn could withdraw his guilty plea or get a pardon from Trump. However, Flynn’s attorneys have remained mum about the case.

At a hearing last December before another federal judge, Rudolph Contreras, Flynn admitted under oath that he’d lied to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador to the U.S., about his lobbying during the presidential transition on a United Nations resolution critical of Israel and about his lobbying work favorable to the Turkish government.

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Contreras later recused himself from the case. No reason was given by the court, but he reportedly approved a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court warrant related to the Trump-Russia investigation. In addition, text messages exchanged between a top FBI agent later removed from that investigation, Peter Strzok, indicate that he was friendly with Contreras.

The Friday filing did indicate some progress, with the parties requesting that the court begin preparation of a pre-sentencing report examining the circumstances of Flynn’s crime, his background and the sentencing guidelines in the case. Lawyers for both sides proposed reporting back to Sullivan on the status of the case by Aug. 24.

However, in an order later Friday, Sullivan balked at starting the pre-sentence report without setting a date for sentencing. He ordered the parties to explain by Monday at noon why they wanted to bypass his usual practice of waiting for such a date before beginning the sentencing process.

While the charge that Flynn admitted to carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, defendants usually get far less than the maximum, particularly when they cooperate with prosecutors. The plea agreement contemplates a sentence of zero to six months in custody for Flynn, although Sullivan is not bound by the two sides’ agreement that a sentence in that range would be “reasonable.”