Michael Flynn and the Justice Department have agreed to settle a lawsuit filed over allegations that Flynn, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, was politically targeted in a 2017 case in which he initially pleaded guilty.
The parties notified a federal judge in Florida on Wednesday that they had reached a settlement. The amount was not disclosed. Flynn had sued for $50 million in 2023, alleging malicious prosecution and abuse of process.
A judge had previously dismissed Flynn’s lawsuit in 2024. Flynn’s lawyers filed an amended complaint last June, alleging that the United States “unjustly and politically targeted General Flynn because of his legitimate ties to the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump.”
Flynn celebrated the settlement, praised Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Justice Department, called the first case against him a “Russian hoax FBI court” and claimed it was “a prosecution that should never have been brought.”
He added that the settlement “goes a long way toward demonstrating that the current Department of Justice, under the leadership of President Trump, Attorney General Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Blanche, and other dedicated department leaders, is committed to holding partisan actors accountable for their wrongdoing.”
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment on the settlement.
Flynn was one of Trump’s top surrogates in 2016 and was appointed national security adviser during Trump’s first term. However, his tenure was short-lived. He resigned less than a month after it was revealed that he had lied to Vice President-elect Mike Pence and administration officials about conversations he had with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak during the transition period.
Flynn then lied about his conversations with the FBI, which is a federal crime. He pleaded guilty in late 2017 to charges brought by then-special counsel Robert Mueller.
Mr. Flynn initially cooperated with Mr. Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, but later withdrew. He withdrew his guilty plea after prosecutors indicated their intention to seek a prison sentence.
The Justice Department moved to drop charges against Flynn in 2020, and President Trump pardoned him later that year.
At the time, Trump’s defenders used the Flynn case to criticize Mueller’s tactics as special counsel, painting Flynn as being railroaded by the FBI and the so-called deep state.
President Trump has repeatedly referred to Mueller’s investigation as a “Russian hoax.”
