Retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, center, arrives for sentencing at federal court in Washington, with attorney Robert Kelner, right, Dec. 18, 2018. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., declined Tuesday to press for the public release of transcripts of discussions President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn had with the Russian ambassador to the United States during the presidential transition.

Judge Emmet Sullivan last month ordered the Justice Department to turn over transcripts of Flynn's conversations with Russian officials, along with the transcript of a voicemail recording one of Trump's personal attorneys left with a defense lawyer for Flynn. But at Friday's deadline, federal prosecutors provided only the transcript of the voicemail, flouting the portion of Sullivan's order related to Flynn's talks during the transition with Sergey I. Kislyak, who at the time was Russia's ambassador to the United States.

Prosecutors said they did not need to file transcripts of those discussions because they ultimately were not vital to the case against Flynn, who pleaded guilty in late 2017 to lying to the FBI about his conversations with Kislyak.

“The government further represents that it is not relying on any other recordings, of any person, for purposes of establishing the defendant's guilt or determining his sentence, nor are there any other recordings that are part of the sentencing record,” prosecutors wrote.

Sullivan, in a two-sentence order Tuesday, said he'd decided not to require the public release of transcripts after considering prosecutors' response.

In their filing Friday, prosecutors provided the transcript of a voicemail a personal attorney for Trump left with Flynn's defense lawyer, Covington & Burling partner Robert Kelner, in November 2017 after Flynn withdrew from a joint defense agreement with the president.

Much of the transcript had previously been disclosed in the 448-page report prepared by Special Counsel Robert Mueller III's team, summarizing his office's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The transcript provided Friday confirmed that John Dowd was the Trump attorney who'd left the voicemail with Kelner.

Dowd left Trump's defense team in March 2018.

In the voice message, Dowd spoke in halting tones of Trump's “feelings toward Flynn.”

According to the Mueller report, Kelner returned the call the following day. “Flynn's attorneys reiterated that they were no longer in a position to share information under any sort of privilege,” the Mueller's report states. “According to Flynn's attorneys, the president's personal counsel was indignant and vocal in his disagreement.”

Mueller's office scrutinized Dowd's voicemail as part of its investigation into whether Trump and his associates sought to obstruct the investigation, which also delved into possible ties between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. The special counsel found no evidence of coordination between the campaign and Russia but did not clear Trump of obstruction.

“If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,” Mueller said last week, in his first public remarks on the two-year probe.