Top FBI lawyer Dana Boente is asked to resign following criticism over his handling of the Mike Flynn case and the signing of FISA warrants

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s top lawyer who signed off on warrants allowing the surveillance of Michael Flynn resigned at the request of the Justice Department after he was criticized on Fox News.

Dana Boente, the FBI’s general counsel, submitted his resignation on Friday, ending a 38-year career at the Department of Justice, according to NBC News.

His resignation takes effect at the end of June. 

Boente’s departure was sought by people at the ‘highest level of the Justice Department’ rather than FBI Director Christopher Wray, it was reported.

Boente has been the subject of fierce criticism from pro-Trump commentators on Fox News and its sister network, Fox Business Network, for his role in the Flynn investigation.

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Dana Boente, the FBI's general counsel, submitted his resignation, which will take effect at the end of June

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Boente was pressured to resign by the Justice Department amid criticism of him from Fox Business Network's Lou Dobbs (left), who has accused him and FBI Director Christopher Wray of blocking evidence that clears former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn (right)

In a recently leaked memo, Boente wrote that none of the evidence that has come to light in the Flynn case exonerates him.

In recent weeks, Lou Dobbs, a Fox Business Network host, has criticized Boente and the FBI, alleging their attempts to investigate and prosecute Flynn amounted to 'an attempt to overthrow the president.'

During his April 27 broadcast, Dobbs said: 'Shocking new reports suggest FBI General Counsel Dana Boente was acting in coordination with FBI Director Christopher Wray to block the release of that evidence that would have cleared General Flynn.' 

'Few people have served so well in so many critical, high-level roles at the Department,' Wray said in a statement about Boente.

'Throughout his long and distinguished career as a public servant, Dana has demonstrated a selfless determination to ensure that justice is always served on behalf of our citizens.' 

Flynn, a retired general, was fired as national security adviser by the Trump administration over talks he had with Russia’s ambassador during the presidential transition in late 2016 and early 2017.

After Donald Trump’s election victory in November 2016, Flynn, who was tapped to be the incoming national security adviser, was known to have held conversations with Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to Washington.

Flynn was fired after it was learned that he lied to the vice president, Mike Pence, about his discussions with Kislyak. Flynn at the time claimed that he and Kislyak did not discuss US sanctions against Moscow.

In reality, Flynn asked Kislyak to urge his bosses in the Kremlin not to retaliate against the US for sanctions.

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Wray released a statement praising Boente. The FBI chief has also come under criticism from President Trump and his allies over his handling of the Flynn case

In the final days of the Obama administration, the US imposed sanctions on Russia over its alleged meddling in the 2016 elections. Russia has denied the allegation.

The Justice Department began an investigation of Flynn, which ultimately resulted in him pleading guilty to making false statements to the FBI.

Boente had signed one of the warrants that allowed the FBI to continue to conduct surveillance activities against Flynn, according to NBC News.

The warrants, known as FISA warrants, were renewed several times and needed to be approved by a judge.

Boente was serving as deputy attorney general before Rod Rosenstein’s confirmation in April 2017 when he approved an application to extend a surveillance warrant allowing officials to monitor the communications of Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

Flynn agreed to cooperate with the FBI’s investigation into alleged Russian meddling, but he eventually reneged on that agreement and withdrew his guilty plea.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department moved to drop the charges against Flynn following mounting pressure from the Republican president and his political allies on the right.

The move drew furious criticism from congressional Democrats and others who accused the department and Attorney General William Barr of politicizing the US criminal justice system by bending to Trump’s wishes and improperly protecting his friends and associates in criminal cases.

Flynn was one of several former Trump aides charged under former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation that detailed Moscow’s interference in the 2016 US election to boost Trump’s candidacy and contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russia. Trump’s longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone and his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort both were convicted and sentenced to multi-year prison terms.

The Justice Department said in its filing it was no longer persuaded that the FBI’s January 24, 2017, Flynn interview that underpinned the charges was conducted with a ‘legitimate investigative basis’ and did not think his statements were ‘material even if untrue.’

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In 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI about his December 2016 conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak (pictured above in July 2017 in Washington, DC)

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President Donald Trump (left) shakes hands with Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak during talks with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (not in picture) in the Oval Office at the White House in May 2017

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Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about the call, although his lawyers then sought to toss the case and the Justice Department sought to drop charges

‘A crime has not been established here. They did not have the basis for a counterintelligence investigation against Flynn at that stage,’ Barr said in a CBS interview.

Asked about the fact that Flynn pleaded guilty, Barr said: ‘Well, people sometimes plead to things that turn out not to be crimes.’

In a filing, Flynn’s lawyers agreed with the department’s motion to dismiss the charges.

It marked the latest instance of the department under Barr, a Trump political loyalist, changing course under public pressure from the president to go light on one of his allies.

In February, Barr and other senior department officials abandoned a tough sentencing recommendation by their own career prosecutors in Stone’s case after Trump publicly lashed out at the prosecution team. The prosecutors quit the case in protest.

Shortly before the Flynn motion was filed on Thursday, career prosecutor Brandon Van Grack withdrew from the case and other related legal matters. He remains a Justice Department employee, a department spokeswoman said.

The federal judge presiding over the case would still need to approve DOJ’s request.

Boente was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2015 to lead Virginia’s Eastern District.

Home to the Pentagon and the CIA, the district often prosecutes terrorism, espionage and national security cases.

Boente oversaw several high-profile corruption cases, including the prosecution of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, whose conviction on corruption charges was later thrown out by the Supreme Court.

Eastern District prosecutors also were involved in the probe of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, which ended without charges, a lingering source of outrage for Republicans.