Justice Department settles lawsuit from Trump ally Michael Flynn for US$1.2 million

The US Justice Department has settled for roughly US$1.2 million a lawsuit from Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser to US President Donald Trump who pleaded guilty during the Republican’s first term to lying to the FBI about his conversations with a top Russian diplomat and was later pardoned.

Court papers filed on Wednesday do not reveal the settlement amount, but a person familiar with the matter, who spoke to Associated Press on condition of anonymity to disclose nonpublic information, confirmed the total as about US$1.2 million.

The settlement resolves a 2023 lawsuit in which Flynn sought at least US$50 million and asserted that the criminal case against him amounted to a malicious prosecution.

It also represents a stark turnabout in position for a Justice Department that during the Biden administration had pressed a judge to dismiss Flynn’s complaint.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, a former personal lawyer for the president, has been a vocal critic of the Russia investigation in which Flynn was charged, and the Justice Department in the last year has launched investigations into former officials who took part in that inquiry.

The Justice Department cast the settlement as an “important step in redressing” what it says was a “historic injustice” of the Russia investigation that shadowed Trump for much of his first term.