WASHINGTON (CN) — A federal judge has agreed to postpone Michael Flynn’s sentencing originally slated for Dec. 18 after both sides requested a delay until the release of a Justice Department internal report on the investigation into Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign.
In what the Justice Department called an “extraordinary reversal,” President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser last month claimed that after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI two years ago he is, in fact, innocent.
A new legal team Flynn brought on in June is arguing that the Justice Department investigated their client in a manner “so shocking to the conscience and so inimical to our system of justice that it requires the dismissal of the charges [sic] for outrageous government conduct.”
Both parties are now holding out for a report from the Justice Department’s inspector general on the agency’s compliance with legal requirements and policies during its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
“The parties expect that the report of this investigation will examine topics related to several matters raised by the defendant. As widely reported by the media, that report is expected to issue in the next several weeks,” a motion jointly filed on Nov. 26 explains.
Flynn clocked more than 100 hours cooperating with federal investigators after pleading guilty in December 2017.
In a docket order granting the motion, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan on Wednesday morning gave no indication of a future sentencing date likely now to be in 2020.
Last year, Sullivan expressed disdain for the former Trump senior adviser, telling Flynn: “Arguably you sold your country out.”
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