Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s lawyers argued in a new sentencing memo Wednesday that he should serve no prison time for allegedly lying to the FBI, citing “retaliation and vindictiveness” by federal prosecutors. Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to giving false statements to investigators as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. His lawyers argue that Flynn deserves leniency because he “dedicated his life to serving his country.” Flynn’s lawyers’ filing, addressed to U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan, argues that Flynn was coerced by prosecutors and inept lawyers into making false statements. “There should be no sentencing,” his defense writes. 

The filing comes just a week after Flynn’s defense team filed a motion in federal court seeking to withdraw the former three-star general’s guilty plea. “The government’s stunning and vindictive reversal of its earlier representations to this Court are incredible, vindictive, in bad faith, and breach the plea agreement,” wrote Flynn’s lead counsel, Sidney Powell, along with her co-counsel. After that motion, Sullivan delayed Flynn’s sentencing by about a month, now scheduled for Feb. 27.