Politics - News Analysis

Watch Disgraced Gen. Michael Flynn Face Chants Of ‘Lock Him Up’ As He Leaves Courthouse

In a surprise development, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has asked that his sentence be delayed.

Flynn was in court in Washington, D.C. Tuesday morning to be sentenced for lying to the FBI about conversations he had with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The delay will give Flynn the opportunity to cooperate further with the government, especially given the harsh words Judge Emmet Sullivan had for Flynn during his hearing, at one point wondering whether he could be charged for treason.

“Arguably, you sold your country out. The court’s going to consider all that.” Judge Sullivan told Flynn. “But I’m not hiding my disgust, my disdain for this criminal offense.”

“I’m going to be frank with you — this crime is very serious,” Sullivan told Flynn. He noted that the crimes had been committed by a high-level security official, “in the West Wing” of the White House.

The judge also said he would take Flynn’s 33 years of military service into consideration, but expressed dismay that “all along, you were an unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the national security adviser to the United States.” He was referring to Flynn’s links to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government and his late registration as a foreign agent with the Justice Department.

Flynn’s failure to register as a foreign agent was a felony that might have carried a 10-year sentence if he had been convicted, special counsel attorney Brand Van Grack told Sulllivan. But he provided substantial assistance in the indictment announced Monday of his former business associates, who were charged with crimes connected to a federal investigation into Turkey’s illegal lobbying effort to pressure the U.S. to expel an enemy of Erdogan’s.

Sullivan also asked Van Grack if there were other charges, besides the foreign agent registration and false statements, that could have been brought against Flynn. He wondered whether interfering with elections qualifies as “treasonous activity on his part?”

As Flynn left the courthouse, onlookers chanted “lock him up,” hailing back to the Republican National Convention when Flynn suggested locking Hillary Clinton in jail, and chanting, “lock her up.”

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