The Justice Department has settled for roughly $1.2 million a lawsuit with Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser to President Donald Trump who pleaded guilty during the Republican’s first term to lying about phone conversations with a top Russian diplomat but was later pardoned. Court papers filed Wednesday do not reveal the settlement amount, but a person familiar with the matter, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to disclose nonpublic information, confirmed the total as about $1.2 million. The settlement resolves a 2023 lawsuit in which Flynn sought at least $50 million and asserted that the criminal case against him amounted to a malicious prosecution. It also represents a stark turnabout in position for the Justice Department.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has commuted the death sentence of a 75-year-old man who was set to be executed this week even though he was not in the building when the victim was killed during a 1991 robbery. Ivey on Tuesday reduced Charles “Sonny” Burton’s sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Burton was sentenced to death for the shooting death of Doug Battle during a 1991 robbery. However, another man shot Battle when Burton had left the building. The shooter’s death sentence was later reduced on appeal to life imprisonment. Ivey said she thought it would be “unjust” to execute Burton, considering that the shooter was spared the death penalty.