Michael Flynn Hires DOJ Critic Sidney Powell as New Counsel

Then-national security adviser to President Donald Trump, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, arrives to a swearing in ceremony of White House senior staff in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Jan. 22, 2017. Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images

Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn hired attorney Sidney Powell, a prominent critic of the Justice Department, to be his new counsel. Powell confirmed her new role to The Epoch Times on June 12.

Flynn fired his defense counsel last week.

Powell is a critic of the investigation and final report by special counsel Robert Mueller. In 2014, she authored a book featuring a scathing critique of the Justice Department titled: “Licensed to Lie, Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice.”

In a statement from her office, Powell said that Flynn will still continue to work with the government.

“Attorney Powell is honored to represent General Flynn and he will continue to cooperate with the government in all matters,” the June 12 statement said.

The Epoch Times has learned that Powell will ask for a 90-day extension in the upcoming status report with the court because there is “a lot of information to process.” Flynn’s sentencing has been delayed on multiple instances.

Trump’s opponents used the case against Flynn to add fire to allegations that President Donald Trump colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election. The allegations proved to be unsubstantiated after multiple investigations by Congress, the FBI, and Mueller.

Flynn pleaded guilty to providing false statements to the FBI during a January 2017 interview, as part of a deal to cooperate with Mueller’s team and federal prosecutors.

Flynn also pleaded guilty to lying about his foreign lobbying disclosures, regarding the extent to which his work benefiting the Turkish government was overseen by that government. Foreign lobbying paperwork violations are seldom prosecuted. Flynn said the work started in August 2016. He shut down his lobbying firm in November 2016.

As part of the deal, Flynn was only charged with lying to the FBI and not with lying about the lobbying disclosures.

His two associates in the Turkey deal, Bijan Rafiekian and Kamil Ekim Alptekin, face charges for conspiring to act as unregistered foreign lobbyists and for lying about foreign lobbying disclosures. Alptekin was also charged with lying to the FBI.

Selectively Edited

A transcript in Mueller’s Russia report was selectively edited to artificially buttress the narrative that Trump was obstructing the special counsel investigation.

The Mueller report quotes a transcript of a Nov. 22, 2017, voicemail message from the president’s attorney, John Dowd, to the attorney for former national security adviser Michael Flynn. A full version of that transcript released on May 31 in the court proceeding in Flynn’s case shows that Mueller’s team selectively edited the transcript for the Mueller report.

The edited version in Mueller’s report conceals Dowd’s sympathetic tone at the outset of the message, cuts out language that would show that Dowd discussed two separate matters, and omits the fact that Dowd specifically cautioned Flynn’s attorney that he wasn’t requesting any confidential information.

In response to the edits, Dowd said, in a statement to an attorney who noted the discrepancy on Twitter: “It is unfair and despicable. It was a friendly privileged call between counsel—with NO conflict. I think Flynn got screwed.”

Petr Svab and Ivan Pentchoukov contributed to this report