Judge Raises Suspicions With Appeals Court About DOJ Motives For Dropping Flynn Charges
Lawyers for a federal judge raised suspicions in a court filing Monday about the motives behind the Department of Justice’s move to drop perjury charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
“It is unusual for a criminal defendant to claim innocence and move to withdraw his guilty plea after repeatedly swearing under oath that he committed the crime,” noted the brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on behalf of U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who presided in the Flynn case. It is “unprecedented” for the DOJ to take action to dismiss a case years after two different federal judges accepted the plea, the brief added.
The “unusual developments in this case provide at least a plausible ‘reason to question’ the ‘bona fides’ of the government’s motion,” lawyers argued.
Sullivan should not be required to act as a “mere rubber stamp” for Attorney General William Barr’s strategy, and should be allowed to rule in the case to protect the “integrity of the judicial process,” the brief warned.
https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/michael-flynn-emmet-sullivan-william-barr-075422698.html
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