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.
However, I just saw Dan Bongino’s interview of Sydney Powell (Flynn’s lawyer) and she says that Sullivan has dealt with co-erced defendants who have withdrawn guilty pleas before. She doesn’t know what’s driving him here
*************
Bongino’s the best.
I’m sure Powell does know what is driving Sullivan here imo.
Doesnt matter now as Kanavanugh was truly worth the fight as he has sided with Trump on immigration SCOTUS cases as an example, at the very least. He’s more vocal than Gorsuch.
More than a few judicial pronouncements are written by judge’s law clerks who freely consult with their like minded law professors. Does anyone really think that Ginsberg actually formulates and writes her own opinions?
Iroic that Obama probably hired him because he was a dem.
How cool that Flynn went against BHO with an important issue and then he fired him
“When a judge has to hire a trial lawyer to defend himself, that judge is in deep do-do.”
Why does he need a trial lawyer when this is now all appeal court level stuff. Nothing against your post, this does not make sense.
And accused him of treason IIRC
“Federal rules do not allow prosecutors to unilaterally dismiss any criminal case. They need “leave of court” before a charge can be withdrawn.”
They need leave of court only so the Judge can insure that the dismissal is not being filed in order to prejudice the rights of the Defendant in some way. No other reason and no other investigation by the court is necessary or permitted.
Or is he in a bit of a bind because he has given Flynn an opening to sue him for violating his civil rights, which would normally be extreme, but Sullivan’s express contempt for Flynn is extreme. Sullivan is obviously in on the deepstate cabal
****************************
Yep, good facts.
+1
Flynn should give this 2 more weeks. Announce that he expects dismissal by then. If it does not come he should call a press conference and speak his mind with the knowledge that Trump would pardon him.
Does Sullivan have the legal authority to continue it on his own under U.S. law and the rules of the court?
Can he sentence Flynn anyway, when as far as the DOJ is concerned, the case aganist him was fraudulent?
If h sentences Flynn, when he no longer has the legal authority, then what?
Is his conduct grounds for pursuing sanctions aganist him for misconduct from the bench?
It’s more than that. He’s lawyering up.
“Doesnt matter now as Kanavanugh was truly worth the fight as he has sided with Trump on immigration SCOTUS cases as an example, at the very least. He’s more vocal than Gorsuch.”
Not doing so good on 2nd Amendment cases, though, and to my mind that is more important than immigration.
Hi.
It is good to see federal judges lawyering up.
I wonder if FISA court judge Contrares will be lawyering up soon?
5.56mm
Note that it is Sullivan who has hired the attorney, not the federal court that he represents. He knows that the law is on to him.
In that case, hang him from the ceiling of his own courtroom.
FOIA the judge and get his information. Calls, emails, and bills.
If it were a republican, it would have already happened.
Only taxpaying little people pay for defending against the corruption of “public servants”. The misnomer is the claim they are public servants when the reality is they suck on the teats of the public while never being held personally accountable.
I cannot find it right now, but one of the sources in the Sheryl Attkisson lawsuit against the DOJ for spying on her went on a twitter spree against this Judge. It was pretty wild.
The source said Judge Sullivan had committed many illegal acts getting his sons out of criminal charges and that the Judge was involved in skimming grant money from Howard University and buying art, which hangs in his chambers (”no FBI agent will get a search warrant for a federal judge’s chambers...”)
I do not know how to find this thread, but if someone does find it, it may provide the clues as to why Judge Sullivan is lawyer-ing up.
A federal judge hiring a trial lawyer at taxpayer expense.
We truly live in Bizarro World.
Another one we can thank POTUS for. He sure smokes them out. Federal judges hiring lawyers, Romney joining the 47%, etc.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.