‘Egregious abuse of power’: Michael Flynn cites FISA report in motion to dismiss case against him

The legal team for retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn cited the Justice Department watchdog’s bombshell report on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse as the former Trump national security adviser seeks to have the government’s case against him dismissed.

“Even though the investigation pertains to the abuses of the FISA process, not the FBI and DOJ’s misconduct regarding Mr. Flynn, the IG report simultaneously documents at least some of FISA process abuses and misconduct against Mr. Flynn,” lead defense counsel Sidney Powell told a federal court last week. “The IG report is replete with exculpatory evidence that, had it been known to Mr. Flynn, he never would have pled guilty.”

Flynn, 61, pleaded guilty in December 2017 for lying to investigators about his conversations with then-Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak, but last week he told the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., that “in truth, I never lied” and “I am innocent of this crime." Powell, a former federal prosecutor, took over representing Flynn last summer.

Powell said “the case against Mr. Flynn should be dismissed immediately for this egregious abuse of power and trust” laid out in Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report.

Powell pointed to a revelation that showed the intelligence briefing the FBI gave to Trump’s team in August 2016 during the presidential campaign was actually a “pretext” to gather evidence to help in the counterintelligence investigation into Trump’s campaign. The FBI agent who led that briefing, known as “SSA 1” in Horowitz’s report but believed to be FBI supervisory special agent Joseph Pientka, was the same man who accompanied fired FBI special agent Peter Strzok in their controversial interview of Flynn in January 2017.

Flynn’s defense team considers the January 2017 interview to be a setup by then-FBI Director James Comey and disputes the accuracy of the FBI interview notes from...

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