Newly Released FBI Notes Differ From Flynn Interview Report; Flynn Says He Would Not Have Taken the Plea

The White House Government Transparency Task Force on Wednesday released fully unredacted handwritten notes taken by FBI agents Peter Strzok and Joe Pientka during their Jan. 24, 2017, interview of then-national security adviser Michael Flynn, alongside the bureau’s typed FD-302 summary of that interview. The notes and the 302 differ on two points prosecutors later used to charge Flynn with making false statements: what he said about his December 2016 calls with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak after the Obama administration imposed sanctions and expelled 35 diplomats, and how many calls he recalled placing that day from the Dominican Republic. The 302 was entered into FBI systems more than 20 days after the interview and is stamped as a draft. The FBI declassified the packet July 30; the task force published it Sept. 9. The FBI did not comment.

On the sanctions conversation, the typed 302 quotes Flynn as saying, “Not really. I don’t remember. It wasn’t, ‘Don’t do anything.’” Pientka’s contemporaneous notes record the same exchange as “Not really. I don’t remember. Hey don’t do anything,” with additional shorthand that there was no “long drawn out” discussion “about don’t do anything.” Flynn’s written statement said inserting “It wasn’t” turned an uncertain recollection into the denial used to accuse him of lying. On the number of calls, the 302 states Flynn “remembered making four to five calls that day about this issue” and had connectivity problems. Strzok’s notes read, “If so, don’t remember. If so, lousy place to make phone calls.” Pientka wrote that Flynn did not remember making four or five calls and, “If I did, lousy place to call.” On a second charged topic — whether Flynn asked Kislyak to delay or defeat a U.N. Security Council vote on Israeli settlements — the notes and the 302 align: both agents recorded Flynn saying no.

Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to one count of making false statements under 18 U.S.C. § 1001. He later sought to withdraw the plea after hiring Sidney Powell, arguing the 302 had been edited by Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who was not in the room. Text messages released in 2020 showed Strzok telling Page he was “trying not to completely re-write” the report. Flynn has said prosecutors threatened to charge his son. The Justice Department moved to dismiss the case in May 2020, stating continued prosecution would not serve the interests of justice and that the interview lacked a legitimate investigative purpose. President Donald Trump pardoned Flynn in November 2020. Judge Emmet Sullivan then dismissed the case as moot. In March 2026 the Justice Department settled Flynn’s malicious-prosecution lawsuit for $1.25 million. Redacted versions of the notes reached the defense after the plea; Flynn said Wednesday that Wednesday’s release was the first time he saw the documents without blackouts.

On Just the News Wednesday night, Flynn said he would not have taken the deal if he had seen the unredacted notes first. “Had I seen that evidence that you have broken, no way in the world,” he said. “In fact, they would have had no ground to stand on to charge me with anything, and they knew it. They knew it from the beginning.” He said there was “a lot of new information that I was not aware of” and that FBI representations to the court “didn’t reflect hardly anything of what was actually the truth.” He attributed the plea in part to “the seriousness of what they were going to do going after my son for no reason at all” and said the episode “has to be exposed” and that “we have to bring these people to account.” In a separate Substack statement he called the case manufactured and pointed to earlier records showing agents preparing to close the Crossfire Razor file before Strzok intervened, and to notes from then-FBI official Bill Priestap asking whether the goal was to get the truth or “get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired.” Strzok has previously denied wrongdoing.

The criminal case against Flynn is closed. A presidential pardon and a Rule 48 dismissal ended the prosecution; the civil suit is settled. There is no pending motion to vacate the original plea because the conviction was withdrawn. Remaining legal activity is not a personal reopening of Flynn’s information. Federal prosecutors in Fort Pierce, Florida, are running a grand jury examining whether officials in the Russia-collusion investigation and later actions against Trump formed a conspiracy. The Associated Press reported new subpoenas this week. Reporting has placed Strzok, Page, and former CIA Director John Brennan among earlier targets; former FBI Director James Comey has been subpoenaed in that inquiry. No charges have been announced. That probe, not a new plea withdrawal, is the live forum in which the newly unredacted notes can be used.