US: Flynn described efforts to interfere with cooperation

Former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn told the special counsel's office that people connected to the Trump administration and Congress sought to influence his cooperation with the Russia investigation, and he provided a voicemail recording of one such communication, prosecutors said in a court filing made public.

Meanwhile, the judge in the case ordered that portions of special counsel Robert Mueller's report that relate to Flynn be unredacted and made public by the end of the month.

Thursday's order from US District Judge Emmet Sullivan is the first time a judge is known to have directed the Justice Department to make public any portion of the report that the agency had kept secret.

It could set up a conflict with Attorney General William Barr, whose team spent weeks blacking out from the report grand jury information, details of ongoing investigations and other sensitive information.

Prosecutors revealed details about Flynn's communications in a court filing aimed at showing the extent of his cooperation with Mueller's investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Flynn, a vital witness in the probe, is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts during the presidential transition period in 2016 with the-then Russian ambassador to the United States.

Prosecutors did not identify the people with whom Flynn was in touch nor did they describe the exact conversations.

But they said Flynn recounted multiple instances in which "he or his attorneys received communications from persons connected to the Administration or Congress that could have affected both his willingness to cooperate and the completeness of that cooperation."