BREAKING: Trump pardons former national security adviser Mike Flynn

President Trump on Wednesday pardoned his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, bringing to end a tumultuous four-year criminal case that felled the three-star general before prosecutors reversed course and declared they had improperly pursued his case. 

Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general, had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about talking with a Russian diplomat during the 2016 Trump administration transition period.

Attorney General William Barr earlier this year asked a federal court in Washington, D.C., to allow the Justice Department to drop the case. However, the matter has since been tied up in legal proceedings. 

Trump informed the general and his lawyer Sidney Powell of the decision Wednesday afternoon, ahead of the Thanksgiving Day. 

In May, Barr recommended that U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan reverse the Flynn conviction and drop the criminal charges, after Powell had discovered several incidents of the FBI overstepping its authority in the Flynn matter and the larger Russia-Trump campaign collusion probe. 

The recommendation came an hour after the lead prosecutor in the case withdrew. The federal prosecutor, Brandon Van Grack, was also a member of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team who led the prosecution of Flynn. Van Grack resigned from the Flynn case without explanation.