Free Republic

For Democrats to succeed with their 2024 presidential campaign strategy of imprisoning the current front-runner in the race, they need a massive assist from key judges. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan has done everything in her power to speed up the process for one of the complicated cases Democrats have filed against former President Donald Trump. Whereas the standard federal fraud and conspiracy case takes about two years to get to trial, controversial Special Counsel Jack Smith and Chutkan have worked in concert to get the trial started in March, a breathtaking seven months after Trump’s indictment. Likewise, D.C. Circuit...

The Supreme Court on Monday announced it will hear a case that could significantly scale back federal agencies’ authority, with major implications for the future of environmental and other regulations. The justices next term will consider whether to overturn a decades-old precedent that grants agencies deference when Congress left ambiguity in a statute. Named for the court’s decision in Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, the Chevron deference has become one of the most frequently cited precedents in administrative law since the decision was first handed down in 1984. It involves a two-step test: First, judges decide if Congress...

Judicial Watch Issues Statement on Appeals Court Decision Blocking Hillary Clinton Testimony Today I made the following statement about the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit regarding the request of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s and her former Chief of Staff, Chery Mills to avoid testifying under oath about Clinton’s emails. The court granted Clinton’s request to avoid testimony but denied Mills’. Today’s extraordinary Appeals Court decision protecting Hillary Clinton from having to obey a court order requiring her to testify about her emails is contrary to longstanding precedent and undermines...

According to a report on Fox News, Judge Emmet Sullivan has canceled the scheduled July 16 hearing for General Flynn. According to the Fox reporter, this is the first step in dismissing the case.

Just a headline for now. Gwjack

Finally, a semblance of sanity has been restored to the law and Constitution in the misbegotten prosecution of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Wednesday ordered the controversial lower court judge, Emmet Sullivan, to follow the law by dismissing the false statements case wrongfully brought by the original federal prosecutors who were either incompetent or corrupt — maybe both. As evidence emerged that Gen. Flynn was set up and framed by malevolent actors at the FBI —fired Director James Comey, fired Assistant Director Andrew McCabe and fired counterintelligence...

Everyone needs to cool their heels on this Flynn dismissal order for a bit. While we are all very happy that the three-judge panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ordered District Judge Emmet Sullivan to end his abusive treatment of General Flynn in its order Wednesday, it is a tad too soon to just assume Sullivan will simply accede to the order and dismiss the case. General Flynn himself is on with Rush Limbaugh confirming this is the case as I write this, in fact. Sullivan is clearly a tool of the deep state, and we must remember...

BREAKING: Newly Released Strzok Notes Implicate Obama and Biden DIRECTLY Ordering Sham Flynn InvestigationThe Justice Department released Peter Strzok notes from 1/4/2017 regarding the Flynn-Kislyak calls. Last month it was revealed 2020 Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden was in a January 5, 2017 Oval Office meeting discussing General Flynn’s phone calls with Russian Ambassador Kislyak with Obama, Yates, Comey, Rice and Brennan. Now we know that Obama and Biden were directly involved in the sham Flynn investigation. Strzok’s newly released notes also suggest the secret Oval Office meeting on January 5 was the reason the Flynn investigation was not closed....

The three judges on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals have approved a writ of mandamus ordering Judge Emmet Sullivan to dismiss the case against Michael Flynn. [pdf here]The panel ruled 2-1, that U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan overstepped his authority in not accepting the unopposed motion and questioning prosecutors’ decision. This is a big victory for the Flynn defense team. Not sure what Sullivan will do now.Judges Karen Henderson and Neomi Rao supported the writ, judge Robert Wilkins did not. Henderson was the surprise vote.Writing the majority opinion Judge Neomi Rao noted, “in this case, the district court’s...

A federal appeals court on Wednesday ordered a judge to grant the Department of Justice's (DOJ) unusual move to drop charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn. A three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals approved Flynn's petition to intervene in the case after a district court judge had tapped an outside counsel to argue against the DOJ's move.

A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday directed a federal judge to drop the criminal case against President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn as demanded by the Justice Department, preventing a judicial review of the propriety of the request. In a split decision, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in favor of Flynn and the Trump administration in preventing U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan from exercising his discretion on whether to grant the department’s motion to clear Flynn, who twice pleaded guilty.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that the Trump administration can move forward with expanding a procedure for quickly deporting undocumented immigrants while a lawsuit against the program moves forward. A three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a preliminary injunction against the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) new rule that significantly expands the number of undocumented immigrants who can be deported without being able to make their case to an judge or accessing an attorney. The panel majority ruled that a group of nonprofits had legal standing to bring the lawsuit but that immigration law...

There is an old adage among lawyers: “If the facts are on your side, pound the facts; if the law is on your side, pound the law; if you have neither the facts nor the law, pound the table.” John Gleeson, the attorney and retired federal judge who was appointed by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to argue that federal prosecutors should not be permitted to dismiss their case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, is using a sledgehammer to pound paper. On Wednesday, Gleeson filed a 72-page brief (an oxymoron, to be sure) that was stunningly feeble on...

Oral arguments are set to take place this week, when U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan will have to explain why he has not signed off on the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss its case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. The hearing marks another extraordinary turn in an extraordinary -- and seemingly interminable -- case that has brought pressure upon both the Justice Department and the judge overseeing it. After calling into question the DOJ’s choice to drop Flynn’s prosecution, Sullivan is now in the position of defending his own decision. ~snip~ Rule 48(a) of the Federal Rules...

Former Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker reacted on “Sunday Morning Futures” to a federal appeals court directing the judge hearing the case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to respond to a petition by Flynn for the charges against him to be thrown out. “There is no discretion of Judge [Emmet] Sullivan to not dismiss the case once the Department of Justice has decided to no longer pursue those charges,” Whitaker said in an exclusive interview on “Sunday Morning Futures.” “I think ultimately it’s going to be a strange proceeding when the appeals court gets their filing from the...

A funny thing happened on the way to the gallows. It was discovered that the condemned man was actually innocent. But the sentence would be carried out, reasoned the hanging judge, because the partisan mob must not be left disappointed. (It would also be a waste of good lumber.) A metaphorical story, yes. But the underlying facts bear a disturbing resemblance to the treatment of Gen. Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser. In early 2017, the retired three-star general was deviously set up and framed by James Comey’s FBI for a crime he did not commit. Thereafter, he...

With the Senate back to business in Washington, D.C., this week, the body moved ahead with what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said is his top priority -- confirming judges -- this time with the Senate Judiciary Committee holding a tense hearing for a Trump nominee named to a powerful slot on the nation's second-highest court. The committee Wednesday considered the nomination of Judge Justin Walker to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, also known as the D.C. Circuit, the first step to confirming the 37-year-old judge after he was nominated early last month. The...

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday agreed to an accelerated schedule for the next round of legal battles between the House Oversight and Reform Committee and President Trump over obtaining the president's financial records. A three-judge panel on the appeals court will hear oral arguments on July 12 to determine whether the accounting firm Mazars can hand over Trump's financial records to House Democrats. The court also set a series of deadlines spanning June and July for parties to submit filings arguing their positions in the case. The order comes one day after lawyers for Trump and House...

The Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to approve Greg Katsas, one of President Trump’s White House lawyers, for a spot on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., overcoming complaints from Democrats who said they feared putting a Trump ally on the court that hears many big federal law cases. Mr. Katsas now moves to the Senate floor for final confirmation after the 11-9 party-line committee vote. Mr. Katsas served as deputy White House counsel since January, advising the president on his travel ban policy, his voter integrity commission, the challenges to Mr. Trump’s business arrangements under the Constitution’s...

Case could head to Supreme CourtIn a win for gun rights advocates, a federal appeals court on Thursday decided to let stand a ruling that found it is unconstitutional to require firearms owners prove a “good reason” in order to be permitted to carry a concealed handgun in the nation’s capital. The D.C. government had petitioned for the full D.C. Circuit to rehear the case en banc, but the court declined to revisit the 2-1 decision handed down earlier this year noting that none of the 10 judges who considered the matter requested a vote on it.