Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was contacted by persons he said spoke about disrupting the Russia investigation. File Photo by Mike Theiler/UPI |
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May 17 (UPI) -- Former national security adviser Michael Flynn said people linked to the Trump administration and Congress tried to interfere with the Justice Department's Russia investigation, a new filing from special counsel Robert Mueller shows.
The newly unredacted court papers could amount to the first concrete evidence that someone in the Trump administration tried to impede the Mueller investigation, which looked into accusations that the president's campaign colluded with Russians to intercede in the 2016 U.S. election.
The papers show Flynn, Trump's national security adviser for about a month in 2017, had received phone calls from persons in Congress and Trump's government about disrupting the department's inquiry, led by Mueller.
"The defendant informed the government of multiple instances, both before and after his guilty plea, where either he or his attorneys received communications from persons connected to the administration or Congress that could've affected both his willingness to cooperate and the completeness of that cooperation," the papers said. "The defendant even provided a voicemail recording of one such communication. In some of those instances, the SCO was unaware of the outreach until being alerted to it by the defendant."
The revelations appeared in an addendum to Flynn's sentencing memo with fewer redactions, filed Thursday.
The documents don't name the persons who contacted Flynn and no other details were provided. Much of the document remains redacted. They say Mueller's office was "unaware of the outreach until being alerted to it by the defendant."
Mueller did say Trump's personal lawyer called Flynn's attorney in November 2017 to address Flynn's decision to cooperate with the investigation.
"[I]t wouldn't surprise me if you've gone on to make a deal with ... the government," the attorney said in the voicemail message, Mueller said. "[I]f there's information that implicates the president, then we've got a national security issue [so] ... we need some kind of heads up. Just for the sake of protecting all our interests if we can ... [R]emember what we've always said about the president and his feelings toward Flynn and, that still remains."
Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Jay Sekulow said they never spoke with Flynn or his attorney.
The 400-page Mueller report concluded in March there was insufficient evidence to show collusion between the campaign and Russia, and raised questions as to whether Trump obstructed justice by trying to derail the Justice Department investigation.
Flynn is awaiting sentencing after he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak before Trump took office. He could spend as many as six months in prison.
