Not so fast on dropping charges against Michael Flynn...

[ibeplato]

Judge Emmit Sullivan still has to approve, and the DOJ's filing doesn't support its claim that they've uncovered new evidence.

-------
TO JUSTIFY DISMISSING MIKE FLYNN’S PROSECUTION, TIMOTHY SHEA CLAIMS INFORMATION DOJ HAS ALWAYS HAD IS “NEW”

May 7, 2020/14 Comments/in 2016 Presidential Election, Mueller Probe /by emptywheel
As noted earlier, the government has officially asked Judge Emmet Sullivan to drop the prosecution against Mike Flynn. Sullivan is not required to do so, particularly not after Flynn pled guilty twice and given that Sullivan has fully briefed sentencing memoranda before him.

This post will try to lay out the shoddiness of the argument they make to support that move. In a follow-up, I will show how Judge Sullivan already dismissed much of this argument. Finally, I will show that some of what DOJ relies on to claim they’ve discovered “new” information is actually utterly damning to the Trump White House, making it fairly clear Trump endorsed what Flynn had done.

As I always say, it is a fool’s errand to predict what Sullivan might do. But this argument is not one that I imagine will impress Sullivan, particularly given the past events in this prosecution.

https://www.emptywheel.net/2020/05/07/to-justify-dismissing-mike-flynns-prosecution-timothy-shea-claims-information-doj-has-always-had-is-new/

[SheltieLover]

1. K&R

[riversedge]

2. .....Except Shea never actually describes what is "new".....................

.....Except Shea never actually describes what is “new.”

He cites a bunch of exhibits, many of which have already been entered into this case. Zero of the documents he cites were new to DOJ, at all. Indeed, prosecutors dealt with almost all of the documents in their response to Sidney Powell’s Brady demand, at a time when Bill Barr was already Attorney General, so even Judge Sullivan already knew of them, and Bill Barr’s DOJ already accounted for most of them in this prosecution.

Moreover, Shea simply cites to them as exhibits. He doesn’t describe how DOJ purportedly discovered them. He doesn’t claim that Rod Rosenstein, who authorized this prosecution, didn’t know of the documents when he authorized this prosecution. He doesn’t explain why previously classified documents — which were always accessible to prosecutors and Rosenstein — count as new.

While he cites to prosecutors’ past mention of US Attorney Jeffrey Jensen’s review of the case, which is where these documents that were always known came to take on new relevance, he doesn’t mention it specifically, and he sure as hell doesn’t explain how it came to be that Jensen was appointed to review the case.

All of which is to say that the entire premise of this filing — that there is information that is new to DOJ (as opposed to newly in Flynn’s possession) — has no basis in fact and is demonstrably false with respect to a number of things Shea points to.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

3. I hope the judge takes Billy Barr's Dirt Services (formerly, DoJ) to the woodshed.