Sidney Powell, an attorney for former national security adviser Michael Flynn, told a federal judge Tuesday that she had spoken with President Donald Trump about the case and briefed Jenna Ellis, a legal adviser to Trump’s reelection campaign, the Wall Street Journal reports. Powell said she asked the president “not to issue a pardon and gave him a general update on the status of the litigation.” A pardon would end Flynn’s legal jeopardy, although he appears on the verge of winning outright dismissal of his case after the Justice Department this year reversed course and asked the court to drop the case. Tuesday’s hearing considered whether trial judge Emmet Sullivan would sign off.
In the past, presidents have avoided becoming involved in criminal cases to preserve the Justice Department’s reputation for independence. Trump has departed from those norms, frequently making comments about criminal cases. Flynn’s case remains the last unresolved matter stemming from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. It relates to statements Flynn made in January 2017 about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. before Trump’s inauguration. He was forced out of the administration in its first month over his statements to other officials about his contacts with the Russians. In response to the unusual actions by the government walking away from a case after securing a defendant’s guilty plea, Sullivan appointed John Gleeson, a retired federal prosecutor and judge, to make arguments about whether Flynn perjured himself and whether the court could force the government to go to trial over its objections. On Tuesday, federal prosecutor Kenneth Kohl, a prosecutor from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., defended the government’s decision to drop the case, saying that political interference from the White House didn’t play any role in the decision to drop the case.