Michael Flynn fires his lawyers

President Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn fired his lawyers and hired new counsel, according to a court filing Thursday.

Flynn’s former attorneys Robert Kelner and Stephen Anthony of the firm Covington & Burling notified the court that their services were terminated.

The filing did not give a reason for their firing, but said Flynn has hired new counsel to represent him in the case brought by special counsel Robert Mueller.

“As only sentencing remains in this case, sentencing has not yet been scheduled, and General Flynn has already retained new counsel, withdrawal at this time would not be prejudicial to any of the parties or otherwise inconsistent with the interests of justice,” the attorneys wrote.

News of the changes comes ahead of Flynn’s sentencing for pleading guilty to lying about his contacts with the former Russian ambassador. He was originally scheduled to be sentenced in December 2018, but a federal judge pushed it back so Flynn could continue his cooperation with the government.

Flynn has cooperated with the government investigation into his former business partner Bijan Kian, who is charged with violating foreign lobbying laws, and has pleaded guilty. Flynn is expected to be the government’s star witness against him at the July trial in Virginia.

He has also provided the investigators with assistance about the Trump campaign’s efforts to reach out to WikiLeaks just before the 2016 election. Other cases in which Flynn is cooperating are mentioned in the court filing but redacted.

The attorney turnover is the latest in a series of explosive court filings in the court case. Prosecutors last month unsealed court documents in which Flynn claimed he received communications from “persons connected to the administration of Congress” that was an effort to obstruct his cooperation in the Mueller probe.

Last week, another court filing included the transcript of a November 2017 voice-mail left by former Trump attorney John Dowd asking for a “heads up” if Flynn had damaging information about the president. Mr. Dowd also reminded Flynn that the president had warm feelings for him.