Posted on 05/23/2020 2:46:59 PM PDT by CaptainK
Veteran trial lawyer Beth Wilkinson is helping guide U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan as a federal appeals court questions his plan to probe the U.S. Justice Department’s decision to dismiss the case against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn despite his admission he lied to the FBI.
Sullivan refused to immediately dismiss the charge against Flynn, a retired Army general who served for just weeks in Trump’s White House, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is now weighing whether the longtime Washington federal trial judge overstepped his authority.
The appeals court set a June 1 deadline for Sullivan to respond to a petition from Flynn’s lawyers that seeks the immediate dismissal of the case. Sullivan, meanwhile, has appointed an outside lawyer, John Gleeson, a former federal judge in Brooklyn, to make arguments against the Justice Department’s bid to ditch the prosecution. Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about his communications with the Russian ambassador to the U.S., but he later hired new lawyers to help him withdraw his acknowledgement of wrongdoing.
Wilkinson, a co-founder of the litigation boutique Wilkinson Walsh, confirmed Saturday she had been retained by Sullivan, who has served on Washington’s federal trial court since 1994. The Washington Post first reported Wilkinson’s role advocating for the judge.
Wilkinson has long been in the spotlight in Washington legal circles and beyond as a successful defense-side trial lawyer advocating for major U.S. companies. She left the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in 2016 to start the boutique, which has offices in Washington, New York and Los Angeles.
She has frequently taken on high-profile assignments. In 2018, she was hired by Brett Kavanaugh, then a U.S. Supreme Court nominee, to help shepherd him through confirmation proceedings at which he had been accused of a decades-old sexual misconduct allegation. Kavanaugh, who denied the claim, was confirmed to the high court.
More recently, Wilkinson was retained by Summer Zervos in a suit in New York state court that accuses Trump of lying in his denials that he did not grope and kiss her without consent in 2007. The case is pending.
In the D.C. Circuit now, Wilkinson is counsel to Cheryl Mills, a former aide to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a dispute over a deposition in a public-records case. One of Sullivan’s colleagues on the bench, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, said the plaintiff—the conservative advocacy group Judicial Watch—could depose Clinton and Mills.
.Sullivan’s move to appoint Gleeson, now a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton, to oppose the Justice Department’s move to dismiss was seen by some observers as an assertion of independence of the courts as a co-equal branch of government. Still others said Sullivan had assumed too powerful a role, and that he should have dismissed the case at the Justice Department’s request.
Legal scholars are divided over how much power Sullivan holds to scrutinize the Justice Department’s charging decisions. Federal rules do not allow prosecutors to unilaterally dismiss any criminal case. They need “leave of court” before a charge can be withdrawn.
At one time, Flynn was prepared to be punished, but he agreed to further cooperate with the special counsel’s Russia investigation in an effort to secure a non-jail sentence. During Flynn’s first scheduled sentencing, Sullivan raised the prospect that Flynn might go to prison for lying to federal agents.
Timothy Shea, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and a former close adviser to Barr, asked Sullivan to dismiss the case against Flynn on the ground that prosecutors no longer believe there was a strong basis to justify the FBI’s 2017 interview that is central to the false-statements claim. Former Justice Department officials have disputed the government’s claim there was no ground to interview Flynn.
It actually seems obvious. The judge is being blackmailed. Just like Roberts.
I will say it one more time. If this Judge can’t defend his own legal decisions then he has no business being a judge. This right here should be the end of his life as a judge.
Did the judge hire a lawyer in order to write all his legal decisions involving Flynn? Of course not.
I’ve served as a law clerk for a judge who was the subject of several mandamus petitions, and I have never heard of the trial judge hiring a lawyer. But then again I have never seen an appellate court ask the trial judge to respond to the petition. Usually they ask the opposing party (procedurally called the “real party in interest”) to file a response.
It makes some sense. The judge probably hasn’t written a brief in years, and his law clerks have never written one other than in law school.
But I wonder who is paying the lawyer. Is he paying her out of his pocket, or is she working for free? I should hope the government isn’t paying her.
Of course, the fact that he is hiring a lawyer to advocate against a criminal defendant before his court—not to mention that he has already appointed another lawyer to argue against the defendant—just highlights everything wrong with what he has done. It is a fundamental element of due process in this country that the tribunal be impartial. Plainly, Judge Sullivan is not.
It’s a very strange situation where the prosecutor is now the judge.
I wonder if Sullivan can appeal an enjoinment or Writ to SCOTUS thereby causing further delay.
It’s all about the delay because of the GAG ORDER.
General Flynn is not allowed to discuss matters of the case until the case is dismissed.
If he can’t discuss the case, then he can’t use what he knows to go after Obama and Hillary.
He has the goods on them.
It’s no longer about putting him in jail, it’s about shutting him up until after the election..
Yes ever hear of Alcee Hastings impeached federal judge...
You are low class, like I thought. If you know the due date is June 1 and you still wrote what you wrote, tells me you have nothing better to do with your time. Pity your family.
You sound confident. I’ll go with your answer.
“Looks like Obama’s lackey is hiring a deep state attorney to write his response causing more delay.”
Appeal Court already set a deadline for any response from Judge Sullivan by June 1st.
That is not changing. His lawyer should be advising Emmet Sullivan to give up the ghost and sign a dismissal before but the Deep State probably demands some cover and a written response to try and delay the inevitable bitchslap which will shortly follow from the Appeals Court.
I’ve thought that Sullivan does have a gun to his head, and has to deliver.
Who hired this attorney, the court or Sullivan personally?
Just what is her charge here?
Why did you not spell out CV?
GFY and get lost!
You are missing important legal procedural matters.
Start with #122 and get caught up.
Of course, I know the June 1 response date. But that’s not the end of it.
Start with #122 or sooner and read from there. You may learn something. I doubt you will contribute anything because it’s apparent you have no legal background or experience. But at least learn something.
I’m not a lawyer or even well versed in the law but this seems bizarre.
He better put what he knows in a secret lawyers office..
Yes, he is likely to get Epsteined, if he tries to expose corruption.
> “The circuit court should totally de nigh him from using any lawyer.”
That will probably not happen before June 1.
The point is the appellate order is not procedurally in line with the Writ.
The appellate order is a shot across Sullivan’s bow. It gives him a chance to dismiss and render moot before they take him to task.
But he’s not doing it, why?
Because the Deep State mafia are holding a gun to his head, why?
Because of the GAG ORDER.
The gag order requires Flynn to keep silent about the case. Why is this important?
Because General Flynn has incriminating evidence on Obama, Hillary, and many others.
They need him to shut up. They would like him dead or in jail, but they lost those options. So they need him to be silent, how?
Keep the Gag Order in place, how?
Keep the case from being dismissed, how? It’s impossible right?
Delay dismissal by any means possible. Use court procedural tactics.
June 1 is just the start.
You missed a key part of the discussion led by Sydney Powell herself.
The Appellate order was not to respond to the Writ motion. It was to explain the legal reasoning Sullivan is using in not dismissing the case.
In effect, the order requires Sullivan to lay his cards on the table.
In effect, the appellate court is giving Sullivan a chance to bow out by dismissing the case and thereby render the Writ matter moot.
Someone has decided the Judge will not bow out.
By responding June 1, the appellate court will take time to review what is surely expected to be a long response. Then they must ask Sullivan to respond to the motion for a Writ of Mandamus which triggers court rules of notice, calendar, reply etc.
By getting into the weeds of procedural delaytactics, the Deep State buys time for countermoves.
Makes sense.
I was reading the Last Resort story about the judge hiring the lawyer and there was speculation about why. I read of all the connections the lawyer had with Hillary & Obama’s higher ups, then I realize the lawyer was a conduit between the judge & Obama. Need to keep communications open but not public or even behind closed doors. Too many leaks possible, but with a lawyer there is a closed protected untraceable line of communication.
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