Michael Flynn
The team made the request during its first appearances in federal court this week, setting the stage for possible future clashes with the prosecution during the Monday status conference.
Flynn entered a guilty plea for making false statements to government agents in 2017 and has been cooperating with the government prior to his sentencing, which is expected sometime later this year.
In June, Flynn fired the attorneys who cut his plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller's team.
Flynn's new lead attorney Sidney Powell told Judge Emmet G. Sullivan that "there are more moving pieces in this representation than there are the movements in an old-fashioned Swiss watch and a lot of information to process that I've actually not even completely obtained possession of yet."
"We'd like to proceed to get security clearances so that we may fully converse with our client," Powell said.
Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said he didn't know whether any classified information existed in Flynn's case, recommending that Powell consult with the classified information security officer in court that day.
But U.S. Attorney Brandon Van Grack with the special counsel's office said there was no classified discovery provided to defense counsel.
Van Grack said prosecutors had not revealed it on the record, but "there is no classified discovery in this case." And he downplayed how much information the defense team had to wade through, saying discovery consisted of 20,000 pages of documents and telling the judge that "we're not talking terabytes of data or millions of records from the government."
However, "there's information beyond discovery I suppose and would expect that defense counsel would want to review," he said.
Powell said she believed "most of the information I will need to review may be classified" despite the government's claims, including yet-unknown classified documents.
Sullivan joked, "Oh, all right, now you've piqued the government's interest."
Van Grack replied that the court should ask for specificity about what classified information Flynn's attorneys wanted access to.
Sullivan had a sidebar conversation with the classified information security officer before making his decision.
"I don't know what the information is, the government doesn't know, and, at this point, rather than get involved in this issue, I'm going to leave it up to defense counsel, government's counsel, and our classified information security officer to determine the next steps," Sullivan said. "And if the court needs to get involved, the court will get involved."
Beyond the beginnings of a discussion over access to classified information, the status conference covered other ground in the Flynn case.
Powell said Flynn is still planning on testifying for the government in a case against his former business partners in July, telling Sullivan that she was helping her client prepare to take the stand and that the "cooperation is fully ongoing."
Sullivan also shut down Powell's request to loosen Flynn's travel restrictions. The retired three-star general is currently restricted to part of Rhode Island and the D.C. area.
The judge also again delayed Flynn's sentencing, with agreement from the prosecution and the defense, instead setting another status conference for the end of August to revisit the issues in the case first.
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