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Prosecutors said Mr. Flynn, President Trump’s first national security adviser, had “chosen to reverse course” on cooperating and accepting guilt after they had previously argued for a lenient sentence.
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors recommended on Tuesday that President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn be sentenced to up to six months in prison for lying to investigators in the Russia inquiry, a reversal that came after he backed off his cooperation deal and began suggesting that he had not committed any crimes.
The recommendation is a setback for Mr. Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general and former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency whose guilty plea marked a stunning downfall. He went on to provide extensive information to prosecutors, who in turn recommended leniency in late 2018. But Mr. Flynn grew increasingly antagonistic over the past year, and they revised their position.
“Far from accepting the consequences of his unlawful actions, he has sought to blame almost every other person and entity involved in his case, including his former counsel,” prosecutors wrote. “The defendant has also chosen to reverse course and challenge the elements and circumstances of his false statements to the F.B.I.”
Mr. Flynn had pleaded guilty in late 2017 to lying to the F.B.I. about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States and faced up to six months in prison. Mr. Flynn’s decision to help the special counsel’s office was an important milestone for investigators trying to determine whether any Trump associates had conspired with Russia’s 2016 election interference. Prosecutors once praised Mr. Flynn’s assistance, saying it “was particularly valuable because he was one of the few people with long-term and firsthand insight regarding events and issues under investigation.”
Citing his cooperation ahead of his initial sentencing in December 2018, prosecutors did not push for prison time. At the sentencing, he decided to postpone the proceeding so he could testify against a former business associate, Bijan R. Kian, in hopes of getting the most lenient punishment possible.
But Mr. Flynn’s cooperation took a stark turn. He fired his well-respected lawyers and hired Sidney Powell, a truculent former federal prosecutor, who embraced right-wing conspiracy theories suggesting Mr. Flynn had been a target of a politically biased F.B.I. cabal and accused prosecutors of misconduct in his case.
Mr. Flynn then changed his story on the eve of Mr. Kian’s trial, where Mr. Flynn was critical to the government’s case. Though a jury convicted Mr. Kian, a federal judge later threw out the charges, saying prosecutors failed to make a strong enough case. Mr. Flynn “ultimately hindered their prosecution,” according to the government’s sentencing memo.
And Ms. Powell had asked a judge to dismiss the charges against Mr. Flynn.
The efforts were risky and possibly self-defeating, and Mr. Flynn’s gambit ultimately failed. Judge Emmet G. Sullivan rejected Mr. Flynn’s many claims against prosecutors late last year, effectively ending his chances of getting his conviction thrown out, something his supporters had hoped would happen. Still, some hope that Mr. Trump will pardon Mr. Flynn, whom the president has said was treated badly.
Mr. Flynn’s lawyers, led by Ms. Powell, say he has fully cooperated with the government.
But in their memo, prosecutors pointed out his “apparent failure to accept responsibility” and “his failure to complete his cooperation in — and his affirmative efforts to undermine” the trial of Mr. Kian, who was charged with violating foreign lobbying laws.
Mr. Trump said he fired Mr. Flynn in February 2017 after finding out he lied to the vice president and other top White House officials about his conversations with Sergey I. Kislyak, then the Russian ambassador to the United States.
As part of his plea agreement, Mr. Flynn not only admitted that he lied to F.B.I. agents when they interviewed him in January 2017 about his discussions with Mr. Kislyak.
He also acknowledged that he made false statements about his lobbying work on behalf of Turkey. “The defendant monetized his power and influence over our government, and lied to mask it,” prosecutors said.
They also highlighted the severity of Mr. Flynn’s crime. They said he lied repeatedly to F.B.I. agents as a high-ranking White House official about whether he discussed sanctions with Mr. Kislyak before Mr. Trump assumed office — potentially conducting foreign policy while President Obama was still in power.
Prosecutors noted that others who pleaded guilty to lying to investigators in the Russia inquiry — including the former foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos and Alex van der Zwaan, a lawyer — were sentenced to prison, and they were private citizens. As a longtime government employee, Mr. Flynn should have known better, they suggested.
“Neither defendant was a high-ranking government official, held a position of trust vis-à-vis the United States, held a security clearance, had a special understanding of the impact of providing misleading information to investigators or denied responsibility for his unlawful conduct,” prosecutors wrote.
Judge Sullivan has already signaled he is unlikely to take a favorable view of Mr. Flynn’s actions. In addition to rejecting Mr. Flynn’s accusations against prosecutors last month, Judge Sullivan rebuked him at his first sentencing, expressing “disgust” at Mr. Flynn’s efforts to mislead federal investigators and dismissing suggestions he had been treated unfairly.
Mr. Flynn’s sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 28.
