A federal appeals court has ordered the prosecution of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn to be dismissed.
In a surprise ruling, the DC circuit court of appeals overruled district judge Emmet Sullivan and has ordered him to accept the justice department’s motion to dismiss the criminal case against Flynn.
Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in 2017, but the justice department filed a motion last month to dismiss the criminal charges against him, prompting accusations of political bias.
The justice department’s motion to dismiss the charges against Flynn came after Trump repeatedly accused federal investigators of unfairly targeting his former adviser.
Trump sent a tweet celebrating Wednesday’s “great” ruling. The president similarly celebrated last month, when the justice department filed a motion to dismiss the criminal charges against Flynn.
Critics accused Trump and attorney general William Barr of politicizing the department and undermining the rule of law.
Flynn had become a cause celebre among the far right, with many of Trump’s most ardent supporters arguing the former national security adviser had been a victim of the “deep state”.
However, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contact with the former Russian ambassador to the US, and he became a cooperating witness in Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and the Trump campaign’s links with Moscow. Flynn was the only White House official charged in Mueller’s investigation.
Earlier this year, Sullivan had declined to immediately dismiss the case against Flynn, seeking instead to evaluate on his own the departments unusual dismissal request. Sullivan appointed a former federal judge, John Gleeson, to review the justice department’s motion to dismiss the charges.
Gleeson submitted a court filing on his findings earlier this month, accusing the DoJ of engaging in “highly irregular conduct to benefit a political ally of the president.”
Gleeson argued the motion to dismiss should be denied because there was “clear evidence of a gross abuse of prosecutorial power” on the part of the justice department.
A three-judge panel of the DC circuit court of appeals issued Wednesday’s 2-1 decision to overrule Sullivan and order him to dismiss the criminal charges against Flynn.
However, that is likely not the end of the former national security adviser’s legal saga. Sullivan could still ask for the full bench of the appeals court to review the issue, which could result in a different ruling.
Wednesday’s 2-1 opinion was authored by Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, and joined by Karen LeCraft Henderson, who had asked skeptical questions of lawyers for Flynn and the justice department during arguments earlier this month.
source https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/24/michael-flynn-trump-judge-court-case
0 تعليقات