According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, an outside lawyer appointed by the D.C. federal court has found that former national security adviser Michael Flynn “committed perjury in first pleading guilty and then attempting to withdraw his guilty plea.”
John Gleeson said that Flynn “has indeed committed perjury in these proceedings, for which he deserves punishment, and the Court has the authority to initiate a prosecution for that crime.”
“I respectfully recommend, however, that the Court not exercise that authority. Rather, it should take Flynn’s perjury into account in sentencing him on the offense to which he has already admitted guilt,” Gleeson said, according to WSJ. “This approach—rather than a separate prosecution for perjury or contempt—aligns with the Court’s intent to treat this case, and this Defendant, in the same way it would any other.”
“The facts surrounding the filing of the Government’s motion constitute clear evidence of gross prosecutorial abuse. They reveal an unconvincing effort to disguise as legitimate a decision to dismiss that is based solely on the fact that Flynn is a political ally of President Trump,” Gleeson wrote.
Read the full report over at The Wall Street Journal.