Michael Flynn Forced to Sell His Home to Pay Legal Bills From Mueller Witch Hunt

Michael Flynn, the retired Army general and ex-Trump national security adviser who pleaded guilty last year to lying to FBI agents about his Russian contacts, has put his Virginia home up for sale to pay mounting legal fees, friends and family members told ABC News.

Flynn's 13-year-old, three-bedroom townhouse in Old Town Alexandria outside Washington, which he bought three years ago, was listed for sale in December with an asking price of $895,000 — money he will use to pay his high legal defense debts, his brother Joe Flynn said Monday.

The retired three-star general and former Defense Intelligence Agency director withdrew to his hometown of Middletown, R.I., last year after he was dismissed by President Donald Trump 24 days into his role as national security adviser, later becoming embroiled in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

Flynn pleaded guilty on Dec. 1 to lying to FBI agents about his contacts with Russian officials. He misled agents during a White House meeting early in 2017.

"I'm not going to sugarcoat it, this has been a trying experience” for Flynn and his wife, Lori, his youngest brother told ABC News. "It has been a crucible and it's not over."

Mueller is digging into whether Trump's presidential campaign colluded with Russian government efforts to disrupt or influence the 2016 election.

The investigators led by the former FBI director — once a colleague of Flynn's — scrutinized the general's contacts with Russians, such as the Kremlin’s ambassador in Washington, to whom he spoke about fighting ISIS and possibly other matters at the president-elect’s direction during the post-election transition.

According to two sources familiar with the meetings, Comey told lawmakers that the FBI agents who interviewed Flynn did not believe that Flynn had lied to them, or that any inaccuracies in his answers were intentional. As a result, some of those in attendance came away with the impression that Flynn would not be charged with a crime pertaining to the Jan. 24 interview.

Nine months later, with Comey gone and special counsel Robert Mueller in charge of the Trump-Russia investigation, Flynn pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements to the FBI in that Jan. 24 questioning.

What happened? With Flynn awaiting sentencing — that was recently delayed until at least May — some lawmakers are trying to figure out what occurred between the time Comey told Congress the FBI did not believe Flynn lied and the time, several months later, when Flynn pleaded guilty to just that.

None of those congressional investigators has an answer; they're baffled by the turn of events. But they know they find the Flynn case troubling, from start to finish.

WITCH HUNT!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 27, 2018