Michael Flynn has fired his lawyers and replaced them with new representation, a seemingly significant development as President Trump‘s first national security adviser awaits sentencing for lying to FBI agents about his contacts with the Russian ambassador.
A court filing Thursday revealed that Flynn had notified his attorneys Robert Kelner and Stephen Anthony that he is “terminating Covington & Burling LLP as his counsel and has already retained new counsel for this matter.”
It was not immediately clear why Flynn has replaced his lawyers, or with whom. Anthony and Kelner declined to comment in an email when asked by The Hill for more information about the developments.
Kelner and Anthony wrote in the filing Thursday that Judge Emmet Sullivan has the power to deny their motion to withdraw as counsel but argued their removal “would not be prejudicial to any of the parties or otherwise inconsistent with the interests of justice.”
In December 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and agreed to cooperate in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Michael Flynn has fired his lawyers and replaced them with new representation, a seemingly significant development as President Trump‘s first national security adviser awaits sentencing for lying to FBI agents about his contacts with the Russian ambassador.
A court filing Thursday revealed that Flynn had notified his attorneys Robert Kelner and Stephen Anthony that he is “terminating Covington & Burling LLP as his counsel and has already retained new counsel for this matter.”
It was not immediately clear why Flynn has replaced his lawyers, or with whom. Anthony and Kelner declined to comment in an email when asked by The Hill for more information about the developments.
Kelner and Anthony wrote in the filing Thursday that Judge Emmet Sullivan has the power to deny their motion to withdraw as counsel but argued their removal “would not be prejudicial to any of the parties or otherwise inconsistent with the interests of justice.”
In December 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and agreed to cooperate in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Flynn provided significant assistance in the probe, and Mueller has recommended he serve a lenient sentence.
Flynn was supposed to be sentenced last December but chose to delay it after Sullivan excoriated him for his crimes in court and suggested he was prepared to sentence the former national security adviser to jail time.
Flynn also cooperated in the investigation of his former business partner Bijan Kian, who has been charged with acting as an unregistered foreign agent of the Turkish government. Kian pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to face a trial in July; Flynn is expected to testify against him.
