Daily US Times: A federal appeals court ordered Judge Emmet Sullivan to dismiss the case against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn on Wednesday, a possible conclusion to a long-running political fight.
The Justice Department moved last month to dismiss the case against him despite Flynn twice pleading guilty for lying to the FBI about his conversations with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition.
Sullivan did not immediately act, instead of asking for a review of the decision.
If the ruling goes unchallenged with further appeals, it exonerates Flynn after he sought to change his plea and claimed innocence.
Flynn’s case has become a touchstone for President Donald Trump and his supporters in their criticism of the FBI’s Russia investigation and special counsel Robert Mueller’s criminal prosecution of several Trump campaign associates.
Trump, Flynn’s legal team and conservative allies seized in late April on the disclosure of a hand-written note from a top FBI official outlining how agents may either refer Flynn for prosecution for illegally negotiating with a foreign government or “get him fired”, or “get him to lie”.
Trump used the document to argue that the charges against Michael Flynn should be dropped and he should be “exonerated”. He also suggested that he’s considering a full pardon for Flynn.
On Wednesday, the three-judge panel on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals decided the trial judge, Sullivan, didn’t have enough reason to question the DOJ’s prosecution decisions in this case. They also said Sullivan having a third-party attorney weigh in on Flynn’s case, the former judge John Gleeson, isn’t needed anymore.
DC appeals court Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, wrote in the majority opinion, that Sullivan “fails to justify the district court’s unprecedented intrusions on individual liberty and the Executive’s charging authority”.
Appeals court Judge Robert Wilkins disagreed with the decision of Rao and Judge Karen Henderson to short-circuit the Flynn case in the trial court immediately.
It’s possible the case could continue on in future appeals, given how it is largely about the power of the judiciary, a weighty subject in a case other appeals court judges may take interest in.
Shortly after the ruling, Flynn’s legal team made public a new document in his case file that may contribute to ongoing political discussions about the early Russia investigation.
The filing is a handwritten note that would now have little effect in his court case, but can be touted by conservatives that have sought to tie Biden to the 2017 decision to investigate Flynn.
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