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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Feds Want Flynn Sentencing Kept on Back Burner

Prosecutors told a federal judge Tuesday that they need more time to settle on a sentencing date for President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

WASHINGTON (CN) – Prosecutors told a federal judge Tuesday that they need more time to settle on a sentencing date for President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Citing only the status of the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the joint status report requests that Sept. 17 be the deadline for another update.

The 1-page report is signed by prosecutor Zainab Ahmad and defense attorney Robert Kelner with the firm Covington & Burling,.

Having pleaded guilty back in November to one count of lying to federal investigators about his contacts with former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, Flynn has been cooperating quietly for the last nine months with Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

At a hearing in July, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan appeared weary of the delays in Flynn’s case.

Voicing concern for the resources of the probation office, which ordinarily prepares a presentencing report once a sentencing date is set, Sullivan directed the parties to set a sentencing date 60 days out from Aug. 24, which was the deadline for the joint status report filed today.

The parties have already sought two 60-day delays in Flynn’s sentencing, though they asked the court to begin preparing a presentencing report on July 2.

At the hearing last month, Sullivan said he wanted to avoid the possibility of the probation office needing to prepare two reports.

Defense attorney Kelner had said back then that he did not believe the facts in the case would change significantly.

Both the defense and prosecution meanwhile have kept mum about why they keep delaying Flynn’s sentencing.

Kelner however told the court during the July 10 hearing that his client is “eager” to move forward with sentencing, but said that prosecutors had indicated they were not yet ready to sentence Flynn.

Categories / Criminal, Government, Politics, Trials

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