A federal judge on Tuesday said that the Department of Justice (DOJ) doesn't have to release transcripts of any conversations former national security adviser Michael Flynn had with Russian officials, after initially ordering the agency to make those transcripts public.

Judge Emmet Sullivan last month ordered that the DOJ publicly file those transcripts as well as a transcript of a voicemail left for one of Flynn's lawyers by Trump attorney John Dowd.

ADVERTISEMENT

While the DOJ included the Dowd transcript in a court filing last Friday, it did not provide any of Flynn's conversations with Russian officials, saying that no other audio recordings were being considered as part of Flynn's sentencing.

"The government further represents that it is not relying on any other recordings, of any person, for purposes of establishing the defendant’s guilt or determining his sentence, nor are there any other recordings that are part of the sentencing record," the court document read.

Sullivan, a Clinton appointee, indicated Tuesday that he will not push forward with his efforts to obtain those transcripts.

"Upon consideration of the government's submissions in response to those orders, the government is not required to file any additional materials or information," Sullivan wrote.

Flynn drew scrutiny over his contacts with Russian officials during the Trump transition and left the administration a month after entering the role in early 2017.

He pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to FBI agents about his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Flynn also cooperated with Mueller's probe into Russia's election interference.

The former Trump administration official was initially set to be sentenced in December but pushed it off after Sullivan was highly critical of Flynn and suggested he could face prison time.