IF HE'S TWEETING HE'S LYING:

In his guilty plea, Flynn admitted he had lied to agents in that interview by claiming he did not discuss US sanctions on Russia with that country's ambassador during the presidential transition period.

If the FBI lost records of this interview, it would be a big deal. But neither the FBI nor the Justice Department says this happened. Instead, they say they turned over more than sufficient evidence to Flynn, including the original notes of agents who interviewed Flynn as well as the 302 report summarizing the interview. (You can read a redacted version they filed in court here.)

Powell claims there is a missing "original 302" of the January 24 interview. She has implied the FBI may have destroyed this document and altered evidence to hide evidence of Flynn innocence. (Powell here is pushing a version of a popular theory among right wing pundits that a failure by FBI agent Peter Strozk and other FBI officials to immediately find that Flynn was lying in the January 24 interview suggests he was telling the truth. An alternative understanding is that Strozk's initial impression showed Flynn had lied convincingly.)

Prosecutors, in an October 2019 filing, do indicate that is possible that they no longer have an "earlier draft of the interview report," but they argue that doesn't matter. "[E]ven if an earlier draft of the interview report once existed," the filing reads, "there is no reason to believe it would materially differ from the interviewing agents' handwritten notes or the other drafts--all of which state that the defendant made the specific false statements to which the defendant admitted guilt."

This argument prevailed in court. In a blistering December 16 ruling, US District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan, who is known for pushing federal prosecutors turn over any arguably exculpatory evidence to defendants, excoriated Powell's arguments. Sullivan even accused Powell of plagiarism. 

Sullivan found that "there were no material changes in the interview reports, and that those reports track the interviewing FBI agents' notes." He said the material prosecutors turned over is "both consistent and clear that Mr. Flynn made false statements to the FBI." In other words, the judge found that the Justice Department not only turned over adequate records of the interview to Flynn's lawyers, but those records show that Flynn is guilty of the crime to which he pleaded guilty.

That was in December.

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