Justice Department will drop case against Michael Flynn

The Justice Department moved Thursday to drop the criminal case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, The Associated Press first reported.

Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to charges of lying to the FBI, but earlier this year, said he wanted to withdraw his plea because he was pressured into giving it. The DOJ sided with Flynn in a Thursday filing, deciding to drop his charges "after a considered review of all the facts and circumstances of this case, including newly discovered and disclosed information." Flynn's January 2017 interview with the FBI was "untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn," the DOJ determined, saying it was "conducted without any legitimate investigative basis."

Flynn didn't last long on President Trump's staff — he was fired shortly after it appeared he lied to Vice President Mike Pence and the FBI about the nature of his conversations with then-Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak. But documents unsealed in the past few weeks revealed the FBI may have set out to get Flynn to lie in the first place, posing questions about his actual guilt and whether Trump would extend him a pardon.

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