Posted on 05/21/2020 2:06:17 PM PDT by gwjack
A federal appeals court on Thursday ordered the judge handling the criminal case of President Donald Trump’s former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, to respond to a request by Flynn’s lawyers to dismiss the case.
The order came two days after Flynn’s lawyers asked the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to drop the case and assign any future court proceedings to another judge.
The Department of Justice two weeks earlier made the surprise move to abandon its own prosecution of Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the weeks before Trump’s inauguration.
But U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan did not immediately grant the DOJ’s motion to dismiss its case. Instead, he appointed a former federal judge to argue against the request, and submitted a schedule to allow third parties to submit arguments in the case.
Flynn’s lawyers had argued to the appeals court that Sullivan’s moves “reveal his plan to continue the case indefinitely, rubbing salt in General Flynn’s open wound from the Government’s misconduct and threatening him with criminal contempt.”
Sullivan has 10 days to respond to the appeals court’s order. Sidney Powell, an attorney for Flynn, did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the order.
Flynn had appeared in Sullivan’s courtroom in December 2018 to be sentenced, but the retired lieutenant general opted to delay the proceeding after Sullivan warned Flynn may face jail time if he was sentenced before completing his cooperation with then-special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators.
Months later, Flynn dismissed his legal team and hired Powell, a vocal Mueller critic, who soon began efforts to undo the criminal case. Powell accused prosecutors of withholding exculpatory information from Flynn, a claim that the Justice Department for months repeatedly denied.
The Justice Department’s request this month to dismiss the charge against Flynn was signed by Timothy Shea, the interim U.S. attorney for D.C. at the time, and not by any of the prosecutors who had handled Flynn’s case up to that point.
The dismissal request has been highly controversial. Former prosecutors say it smacked of favoritism toward an ally of Trump, and some have specifically accused Attorney General William Barr of manipulating the justice system to help the president. Trump has frequently criticized the case against Flynn.
cool!
always very educational to hear information from someone who knows what they are talking about based on first hand experience!
And once Lt General Flynn has his case dismissed by Sullivan, then he can tell the new Director of National Intelligence Ratcliffe “where all the bodies are buried” related to the Deep State. Also, I’ve said this from day one after Flynn’s firing by Obama in 2015 (?): “Flynn has something on Obama.” And Obama is now really going to be sweating like the pig he is.
I’d rather they just granted the request.
> “What happens if all parties involved know that the judge is playing a stalling game to drag this out to the election?”
This is a legitimate concern but it was addressed upthread and also in comments at the source.
This is not an invitation to respond, this is an ORDER to respond. In effect, Judge Sullivan has to put his cards on the table. Because it seems obvious he has no basis for what he’s doing, the Writ of Mandamus will follow soon after his expected vacuous response.
Now it may be this Judge finds a way to back out of the mess he’s created by ruling or dismissing making the response to the Appeals order MOOT.
But it was the Obama-Clinton Mafia that pushed him into it to begin with.
The Judge is in a world of hurt whichever way he moves.
I remember some real nasty gangs in LA finding judges and beating the living sh*t out of them. Many ask how could such a thing happen? It doesn’t matter, these judges ruled for criminal gangs all the time after their lives were put at risk.
The more civilized way of controlling judges is to compromise them and then put them on the mafia payroll as long as they are complying.
My point was, why would the appellate court prolong the process knowing that Sullivan's goal was to prolong the process?
-PJ
You’re right. The appeals court is obviously not amused at what Sullivan has done. In fact, as I see it the whole of the legal universe is collectively expressing a bug “Huh?”.
More like Bailiff, whack his pee-pee!
As Sydney Powell stated and appellate court never grants mandamus without letting the other side be heard.
wow, that is an incredibly slanted news report. just wow.
The information on the substantial exculpatory information that was uncovered and the contents of the motion to dismiss aren’t even covered. Fake news at its finest - lying by omission.
Is CNBC’s story of the Flynn saga anything like we know it to be.
They cannot resist finding fault with President Trump.
It’s a disease of the Left, from which they will eventually die.
And the timing a wk ago of scotus decision.
? “... or they will respond to the petition on the judge’s behalf using lawyers on staff”
That would have the DOJ responding against themselves. Does not compute.
Let’s take the discussion over here as this was posted first.
My comment:
The United States Department of Justice and the judge would formally be parties, albeit both potentially represented by attorneys working for the same organization. In practice, the apparent conflict is excused on the basis of the attorneys being administratively separate and isolated from potential political pressures.
I supported it directly. If you don't see it that's your problem.
The exculpatory evidence is now in the public domain.
The FBI agents on the case did not believe Flynn lied, and were putting the case down.
Struck ressurected it on a political basis.
Notes in the file indicated the FBI / Justice had an entrapment motive, rather than discovering a crime
CNBC never mentions any of that.
Not just an indication. Read the order and the only conclusion is that the Circuit Court will grant the petition and order Sullivan Sullivan to sign the order dismissing the case.
If the Circuit Court really wants to turn the knife, they can sign the order themselves.
Except for the 9th Circuit. . they seen to relish being over-turned.
You are overthinking this situation. The case is OVER. It will end on June 1 or 2, unless Sullivan signs the order dismissing the case before then.
Doing something under duress is a defense. The case is OVER.
The case is over, but don't underestimate the Democrats' willingness to keep the ball in play just to run out the clock hoping the other side makes an error.
Kavanaugh?
Impeachment?
Shutdowns?
For Democrats in the minority, it's not about the end result, it's about keeping the game going and trying to force a Republican error they can exploit.
Prior to President Trump, the strategy mostly worked. Lott? Frist? Boehner? Jeffords "power sharing?" Strom Thurmond's birthday?
Republicans want things over quickly, and Democrats want the process to run for as long as they can manipulate it.
-PJ
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