Flynn ready to be sentenced in Russia probe, his lawyer and special counsel tell court
President Donald Trump's former national security adviser, retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, is ready to be sentenced later this year for pleading guilty to lying to the FBI in the Russia probe, according to a status report his lawyer filed jointly Monday with special counsel Robert Mueller.
After months of delays, Judge Emmet Sullivan is now likely to move swiftly to schedule Flynn's sentencing date, which the parties requested for Nov. 28 or the following week.
Sullivan has said it would occur within about 60 days of the two sides agreeing they are ready to proceed with a presentencing report and court date for Flynn, the former intelligence officer who spent three decades in the military before entering the political ring.
Friends and relatives have said the former Defense Intelligence Agency director and confidant of Trump, who at 2016 campaign rallies led chants of "Lock her up!" about Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, is eager to face the judge and accept his fate following his dramatic guilty plea on Dec. 1.
Flynn told the first judge presiding over his case that he would fully cooperate with Mueller's investigators looking at Russian influence operations in the 2016 presidential campaign and he has kept a low profile publicly ever since.
"He's paralyzed, he can't do anything. He just wants this to go away," historian and commentator Michael Ledeen, a close confidant of Flynn, told ABC News over the weekend.
But it remains unclear the extent of his subsequent cooperation, which one knowledgeable source said occurred mostly immediately following his December court appearance.
Mueller's assessment of the value of the cooperation by Flynn -- who had at times testified in Congress as DIA director alongside Mueller when he led the FBI -- is likely to influence Sullivan's judgment at sentencing.
Under federal guidelines, Flynn could face up to six months in prison for lying to the FBI about his conversations with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the transition period from election day in 2016 to Trump's inauguration in January 2017. But court observers say if Flynn satisfactorily cooperated with the special counsel, it will likely mean he receives little if any prison time.
