Flynn judge delays again, keeps case alive

The endless prosecution of retired General Michael Flynn, former National Security Adviser to President Trump, continues as Judge Emmet Sullivan yesterday appealed an order by the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. that told him to dismiss the case.

The judge asked the three-judge panel to have the order reviewed en banc, which may delay the dismissal until after the election.

“If the review is granted,” says CNBC, “all active judges on the appeals court would rehear Flynn’s argument that the case needs to be dismissed by Sullivan, without any delay or input from outside parties, as Sullivan has allowed.”

One outside observer, while not surprised by Sullivan’s latest delay, called it “ridiculous.”

“Not surprising but totally ridiculous,” says Jenna Ellis, a Team Trump lawyer. “Sullivan is NOT a party. He actually has no standing to petition for en banc. He should be removed from the bench entirely after his egregious conduct.”

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has said that they are dropping the prosecution of Flynn because of FBI misconduct in the investigation. They filed to have the case dismissed, which motion was denied by Sullivan, who took the unprecedented step of asking an outside attorney to become the prosecutor in the case.

The Flynn legal team and the DOJ then appealed the decision to the D.C. Court of Appeals, which told the judge to dismiss the case, in a 2-1 decision.

“Sullivan previously argued that he has the right to scrutinize the Justice Department’s request to drop the case and has considered whether he could even sentence Flynn over their objections,” says CNN. “He also has pointed to several unresolved issues in the trial court proceedings, and asked whether he could punish Flynn for claiming under oath he was both innocent and guilty.”

Sullivan has been criticized for not being impartial throughout the trial.

Sullivan became unhinged when Flynn started to indicate that he would withdraw his plea, and find other attorneys to represent him.

At a hearing, Sullivan said to Flynn: “Arguably you sold your country out,” suggesting that Flynn could have been subjected to “treason” charges.

“I’m not hiding my disgust, my disdain,” the judge said.

Federal prosecutor Brandon Van Grack told the judge: “The government has no reason to believe the defendant committed treason.”

“David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor who now does criminal defense work, told CNBC, ‘Given the judge’s comments, it was not unheard of for Flynn’s lawyers to seek a continuance of the sentencing hearing.’”

For Flynn, that delay has helped him find new lawyers and exculpatory evidence that was persuaded the DOJ to drop the case.

Flynn and his new lawyers, however, never thought it would take this long to just get the case dismissed.  

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