Flynn's lawyers charge FBI manipulated transcript

Michael Flynn (Courtesy Gage Skidmore)

Lawyers for Michael Flynn allege in a motion filed Thursday that the Justice Department manipulated the former national security adviser's FBI interview transcript to charge him with lying and is withholding exculpatory evidence.

Flynn's attorney Sidney Powell asked in a 37-page motion that the case be thrown out "for outrageous government misconduct."

Powell alleged FBI officials manipulated the 302 form used by agents to report Flynn's interview regarding his conversations with former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, Fox News reported.

"Those changes added an unequivocal statement that 'Flynn stated he did not' — in response to whether Mr. Flynn had asked Kislyak to vote in a certain manner or slow down the UN vote [on sanctions]," Powell wrote.

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"This is a deceptive manipulation because, as the notes of the agents show, Mr. Flynn was not even sure he had spoken to Russia/Kislyak on the issue. He had talked to dozens of countries."

Powell also alleged that agents added the statement: "or if Kislyak described any Russian response to a request by Flynn."

"That question and answer does not appear in the notes, yet it was made into a criminal offense," Powell wrote. "The draft also shows that the agents moved a sentence to make it seem to be an answer to a question it was not."

As part of Robert Mueller's special counsel probe, Flynn ultimately pleaded guilty to making false statements regarding the conversations during his interview.

Powell also raised concerns about text messages between lead FBI investigator Peter Strzok and his then-paramour, former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who served as special counsel to FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

The text exchange took place after publication of the unverified, anti-Trump dossier funded by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee that was used by the Obama administration to obtain warrants to spy on the Trump campaign.

Powell's court filing said Strzok informed Page he was discussing with a colleague using the dossier, now that it had been published, "as a pretext to go interview some people."

According to the texts, in the next two weeks, there were "many meetings" between Strzok and McCabe to discuss "whether to interview National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and if so, what interview strategies to use."

Powell alleged that on Jan. 23, 2017 – the day before the FBI interviewed Flynn at the White House – "the upper echelon of the FBI met to orchestrate” strategies that would have Flynn talk "in such a way as to keep from alerting him from understanding that he was being interviewed in a criminal investigation of which he was the target."

"In short, they planned to deceive him about the entire scenario, and keep him 'unguarded,'" Powell claimed.

She alleged that under former FBI Director James Comey's direction, McCabe "personally called Flynn to pave the way for the uncounseled conversation."

Powell claimed the government is hiding evidence "of the original 302, other exculpatory texts, and other forms of information completely."

Prosecutors have denied the claim, insisting "the government has exceeded its discovery and disclosure obligations in this matter," providing Flynn with thousands of pages of documents.

Earlier this month, prosecutors called the defense's filings a "fishing expedition."