WASHINGTON — The Justice Division is dropping its prison case in opposition to Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s first nationwide safety adviser, who had beforehand pleaded responsible to mendacity to F.B.I. brokers about his conversations with a Russian diplomat, a division official mentioned on Thursday.
The extraordinary transfer comes amid a sustained assault by Mr. Flynn’s attorneys on prosecutors and the F.B.I., accusing them of egregious conduct. In current days, Mr. Flynn’s attorneys mentioned the Justice Division had uncovered new paperwork that pointed to misconduct.
In a potential signal of disagreement with the Justice Division determination, Brandon L. Van Grack, the division lawyer who led the prosecution of Mr. Flynn, abruptly withdrew from the case on Thursday. Mr. Flynn’s attorneys have repeatedly attacked Mr. Van Grack by title in court docket filings, citing his “unbelievable malfeasance.”
Mr. Flynn first pleaded responsible in late 2017 to mendacity to investigators and cooperated extensively earlier than transferring to withdraw his plea and fight the case in court. He had also entered a guilty plea a second time in 2018 at an aborted sentencing hearing.
And in a highly unusual step, Attorney General William P. Barr assigned an outside prosecutor to review the Justice Department’s case. As part of that review, prosecutors turned over documents starting last month that Mr. Flynn’s lawyers said proved the former general had been framed by the F.B.I.
Mr. Flynn’s case grew out of an investigation by law enforcement officials who had reason to suspect that he constituted a national security threat. They learned that he had lied in January 2017 to other White House officials about conversations during the presidential transition with the Russian ambassador to the United States, and they warned the White House that Russia could have blackmailed Mr. Flynn, then the Trump administration’s highest-ranking national security official.
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