Updated May 23, 2017 11:07:56

Photo: Michael Flynn resigned in February after less than a month in the job. (Reuters: Carlos Barria)

Former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn will plead the fifth amendment against self-incrimination by refusing to hand over documents to a Senate panel investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election.

In a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mr Flynn's attorneys said an "escalating public frenzy against him" and the Justice Department's appointment of a special counsel had created a legally dangerous environment for him to cooperate with the Senate investigation.

"The context in which the committee has called for General Flynn's testimonial production of documents makes clear that he has more than a reasonable apprehension that any testimony he provides could be used against him," the attorneys wrote.

While refusing to testify is allowed under the fifth amendment of the US Constitution, criminal charges for contempt could be brought if the documents are not supplied.

Senators Richard Burr and Mark Warner, the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate panel, said in a statement they were disappointed by Mr Flynn's decision, but would "vigorously pursue" his testimony.

The Senate Intelligence Committee had requested Mr Flynn provide a list of all meetings and communications he had with Russian officials from January 16, 2015 through to January 20, 2017.

Mr Flynn was also asked to provide all records of his communications with the Trump campaign that "were in any way related to Russia" over the same period.

Michael Flynn's resignation from national security post has the potential to threaten careers all the way to the top.

The committee first requested documents from Mr Flynn on April 28, but he declined to cooperate with the request. It then issued a subpoena.

Mr Flynn's legal team said he was rejecting the subpoena because the committee spurned his offer in a May 8 letter, "to give a full account of the facts and to answer the committee's questions, should the circumstances permit, including assurances against unfair prosecution".

"We stated that, absent such assurances, General Flynn would respectfully decline your request for an interview and for production of documents," they said.

Mr Trump appointed Mr Flynn as his top national security aide in January, but he was forced to resign after less than a month on the job for failing to disclose the content of his talks with Russia's ambassador to the US and then misleading Vice-President Mike Pence about the conversations.

The retired US Army lieutenant general and top military intelligence chief is a key figure in both the FBI investigation headed by special counsel Robert Mueller and in separate Senate and House inquiries.

Why has Flynn chosen to plead the fifth?

Mr Flynn's letter to the Senate committee stressed that his decision to invoke his constitutional protection was not an admission of wrongdoing.

Instead, it argued it was a response to the current political climate in which Democratic members of Congress were calling for his prosecution.

Senator James Lankford, a Republican member of the intelligence committee, said on Twitter that Mr Flynn was within his rights to invoke the Fifth Amendment of the US constitution.

Washington lawyer Nina Ginsberg said that if Mr Flynn turned over any personal records in response to the committee's subpoena, he would waive his Fifth Amendment rights regarding those documents and have to testify about them.

Ms Ginsberg also noted that the committee faces new complications from the Justice Department's move last week to appoint Mr Mueller as special counsel in the Russia inquiry.

If the intelligence committee wants to give Mr Flynn immunity, it will likely have to enter into discussions with Mr Mueller to determine whether the move could impede the FBI's case.

"The committee could decide to go ahead and not worry about Mueller," Ms Ginsberg said, but that could create new legal complications for Mr Mueller's probe.

It was not clear what the committee would do if Mr Flynn decided not to comply with its request, but a Congressional Research Service report has outlined three main options for the committee going forward.

It could seek criminal prosecution through the executive branch, asking the courts for a civil judgment and using a dormant power of "inherent contempt" to detain and imprison an individual.

The latter option has not been used in 75 years, the report said, with Congress more often relying on the criminal contempt statute recently.

Mr Flynn has previously sought immunity from what he described as "unfair prosecution" to cooperate with the committee.

The US intelligence community concluded in January that Moscow tried to sway the November vote in Mr Trump's favour.

Russia has denied involvement and Mr Trump insists he won fair and square.

AP/Reuters

Topics: world-politics, government-and-politics, security-intelligence, defence-and-national-security, foreign-affairs, united-states

First posted May 23, 2017 06:09:48