Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn has fired his legal team as he awaits sentencing for lying to the FBI about his conversations with a top Russian official, according to a new filing Thursday from his long-time attorneys.
The lawyers, Robert Kelner and Stephen Anthony, offered no explanation for their abrupt dismissal in a two-page motion delivered to the federal judge who will mete out Flynn’s punishment stemming from his 2017 guilty plea to Robert Mueller’s prosecutors.
In their filing, the attorneys said Flynn had notified them that “he is terminating Covington & Burling LLP as his counsel and has already retained new counsel for this matter.”
They did not identify Flynn’s new legal team and declined comment when asked by POLITICO who now represents the former senior Trump aide, who landed in legal trouble after lying about the subject of conversations he had with high-ranking Russian officials during the 2016 transition.
Flynn is awaiting sentencing in his case, and the next joint status report from his legal team and the Justice Department is due June 14. In their letter, Kelner and Anthony noted U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan has the power to deny their motion to withdraw as lawyers if it would slow trial or harm the integrity of the case but suggested there was no reason for him to do that.
“As only sentencing remains in this case, sentencing has not yet been scheduled and General Flynn has already retained new counsel, withdrawal at this time would not be prejudicial to any of the parties or otherwise inconsistent with the interests of justice,” the attorneys wrote.
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine