Justice Department settles lawsuit from Trump ally Michael Flynn for $1.2 million, AP source says
he seal of the Dept of Justice is shown on the podium, Aug. 1, 2023, at an office of the Department of Justice in Washington. (AP Photo/J.
Scott Applewhite, File) 2026-03-25T21:09:11Z WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has settled for roughly $1.2 million a lawsuit from Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser to 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 Wednesday do not reveal the settlement amount, but a person familiar with the matter, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to disclose nonpublic information, confirmed the total as about $1.2 million.
The settlement resolves a 2023 lawsuit in which Flynn sought at least $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 participated 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. “This Department of Justice will continue to pursue accountability at all levels for this wrongdoing.
Such weaponization of the federal government must never be allowed to happen again,” a spokesperson said.
The settlement is the latest turn in the long-running legal saga involving Flynn, one of six Trump associates charged as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
That investigation found that Russia had interfered in the election on Trump’s behalf and that the Trump campaign eagerly welcomed the help, but it ultimately found insufficient evidence of a criminal conspiracy.
Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general who vigorously campaigned at Trump’s side, served for weeks as his first national security adviser before being pushed out of his position.
He remained a Trump ally even after agreeing to cooperate with Mueller’s team and wa
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