Michael Flynn
Michael FlynnReuters

President Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, said Thursday that he can “breathe freedom and liberty” for the first time in four years after Trump granted him a full pardon.

“I say thank you from the bottom of my heart. For the first time in more than four years and because of my fearless attorney, Sidney Powell, the Guardian Angel of American Justice, and thousands of good people with endless energy rallying together on my behalf, I breathe freedom and liberty today,” Flynn said in a lengthy personal statement quoted by NBC News.

“Never again should any family or individual be so viciously targeted, maligned, smeared, and threatened such has been the experience of my family and I. Not you and your loved ones, not me nor President Trump, our First Lady, and the Trump children,” he added.

“Stand with me today in renouncing this betrayal of trust that has burdened our nation and proclaim with one united voice across this land that we will never again allow the rightful power of the citizens of this country to be uprooted, undercut, usurped, or held hostage by a coup against our nation, a duly elected President or any future president of these United States.”

Trump’s pardon on Wednesday followed reports the previous night that he intended to pardon Flynn, one in a series to be issued before he leaves office.

Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to misleading the FBI about his contact with Russia. Trump asked for Flynn’s resignation ten months earlier, after it was revealed that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with the Russian Ambassador to the US.

Despite two guilty pleas from Flynn, the prosecution came under scrutiny after the release of FBI documents that indicated a plot to get Flynn to lie.

Following those revelations, Trump's Justice Department moved to drop its case against him but has since encountered hurdles in court. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in August rejected Flynn's plea to force a federal judge to drop his criminal case.