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Court appears reluctant to order judge to immediately drop criminal case against Michael Flynn
Source: Washington Post
Court appears reluctant to order judge to immediately drop criminal case against Michael Flynn
By Ann E. Marimow and Spencer S. Hsu
6/12/2020, 3:31:00 p.m.
A federal appeals court in Washington expressed reluctance Friday to order a judge to immediately dismiss the criminal case against President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, suggesting it will allow the judge to question whether the Justice Department’s decision to drop the prosecution is “in the public interest.”
Flynn, joined by the Justice Department, wants the appeals court to force U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan to quickly close the matter and put a stop to the judge’s examination of the retired three-star general’s politically-charged case.
But Judges Karen Henderson and Robert Wilkins of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit seemed skeptical of Flynn’s argument that Sullivan cannot review the Justice Department’s abandonment last month of the long-running prosecution. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents about his pre-inauguration contacts with Russia’s ambassador.
“Courts have said he’s not a ‘mere rubber stamp,’?” Henderson said of Sullivan’s independent judicial authority. “There’s nothing wrong with him holding a hearing; there’s no authority I know of that says he can’t hold a hearing.”
Wilkins agreed, citing past cases in which the Supreme Court upheld the power of judges “to perform an independent evaluation” of the government’s action.
-snip-
By Ann E. Marimow and Spencer S. Hsu
6/12/2020, 3:31:00 p.m.
A federal appeals court in Washington expressed reluctance Friday to order a judge to immediately dismiss the criminal case against President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, suggesting it will allow the judge to question whether the Justice Department’s decision to drop the prosecution is “in the public interest.”
Flynn, joined by the Justice Department, wants the appeals court to force U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan to quickly close the matter and put a stop to the judge’s examination of the retired three-star general’s politically-charged case.
But Judges Karen Henderson and Robert Wilkins of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit seemed skeptical of Flynn’s argument that Sullivan cannot review the Justice Department’s abandonment last month of the long-running prosecution. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents about his pre-inauguration contacts with Russia’s ambassador.
“Courts have said he’s not a ‘mere rubber stamp,’?” Henderson said of Sullivan’s independent judicial authority. “There’s nothing wrong with him holding a hearing; there’s no authority I know of that says he can’t hold a hearing.”
Wilkins agreed, citing past cases in which the Supreme Court upheld the power of judges “to perform an independent evaluation” of the government’s action.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/justice-department-bid-to-abandon-michael-flynns-conviction-goes-before-appeals-court/2020/06/11/dc4580c4-ac00-11ea-a9d9-a81c1a491c52_story.html
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