BREAKING: Appeals court orders judge to dismiss charges in Flynn case

Source: By Just the News staff | JustTheNews.com | June 24, 2020

BREAKING: Appeals court orders judge to dismiss charges in Flynn case

By Just the News staff | Last Updated:
June 24, 2020 – 11:23am

The case is related to the Russia collusion probe

A federal appeals court Wednesday ordered a judge to grant the Justice Department its request to drop charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

A three-judge panel on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, in a 2-1 ruling, said the department’s decision to abandon the case against Flynn settles the matter, despite Flynn having pleaded guilty to lying in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into whether the 2016 Trump campaign colluded with Russia.

Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general, admitted lying to FBI agents in a 2017 interview, days after the president’s January 2017 inauguration, about conversations he had during the presidential transition period with the Russian ambassador to the U.S., according to the Associated Press.

However, Flynn’s attorneys withdrew their client’s plea earlier this year, following the release of declassified documents suggesting that the agents broke with protocol in the White House interview.

Attorney General William Barr asked the court in May to allow it to have the case dismissed. 

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan declined to immediately dismiss the case, seeking instead to evaluate on his own the department’s unusual dismissal request. He appointed retired federal Judge John Gleeson to argue against the department’s position and to consider whether Flynn could be held in criminal contempt for perjury, the wire service reports.

Flynn was the only White House official charged in Mueller’s investigation.

The Justice Department moved to dismiss the case as part of a broader effort by Barr to scrutinize, and even undo, some of the decisions reached during the Russia investigation.

In its motion, the department argued that Flynn’s calls with the Russian ambassador – in which they discussed sanctions the Obama administration imposed on Russia for election interference – were appropriate and not material to the underlying counterintelligence investigation.

The department also noted that weeks before the interview, the FBI had prepared to close its investigation into Flynn after not finding evidence of a crime.

However, Gleeson called the Justice Department’s request a “gross abuse” of prosecutorial power and accused the government of creating a pretext to benefit an ally of the president.

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, the wire service also reports.