Court orders case against former US aide to be dropped
A US appeals court has directed a federal judge to drop a criminal case against president Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn for lying to the FBI, handing a victory to the Justice Department in another twist to the politically charged case.
In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in favour of Mr Flynn and the Trump administration in preventing District Judge Emmet Sullivan from exercising his discretion on whether to grant the department’s motion to clear Mr Flynn, who twice pleaded guilty.
The ruling prevents Judge Sullivan from hearing arguments at a July 16 hearing from retired judge John Gleeson, whom he appointed as a “friend of the court” to argue against dropping the case.
“In this case, the district court’s actions will result in specific harms to the exercise of the executive branch’s exclusive prosecutorial power,” wrote Judge Neomi Rao, who was appointed by Mr Trump.
A source said the ruling will probably be appealed to a larger panel of the federal appeals court.
Mr Flynn, a retired army lieutenant general, was one of several former Trump aides who were charged under former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation that detailed Moscow’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.
He twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with Russia’s then-ambassador, Sergey Kislyak.
He then switched lawyers to pursue a new scorched-earth tactic in which the FBI was accused of entrapping him, and asked the judge to dismiss the charge.
Mr Trump, who has signalled a possible pardon for Mr Flynn, has attacked the case and lamented his former aide has been “tormented”.
The ruling is likely to anger Democrats, who have accused Attorney General William Barr of improperly meddling in criminal cases to help benefit Mr Trump’s friends and political allies.
Judge Robert Wilkins, an Obama administration appointee, dissented. He said the Justice Department’s U-turn on the case raised questions that merited further scrutiny by the District Court.
“In 2017, the then-Acting Attorney General told the Vice President that Flynn’s false statements ‘posed a potential compromise situation for Flynn’ with the Russians,” Judge Wilkins wrote.
“Now, in a complete reversal, the government says none of this is true.
“This is no mere about-face; it is more akin to turning around an aircraft carrier.”
After the Justice Department took the highly unusual step of seeking to abandon the case, Judge Sullivan appointed Judge Gleeson to argue against the Justice Department’s request.
He also asked Judge Gleeson to consider whether Judge Sullivan should hold Mr Flynn in contempt for lying when pleading guilty.
Judge Sullivan has said he cannot serve as a “rubber stamp” and must carefully review the facts in this “unprecedented” request.
In the majority opinion, the appeals court called Judge Sullivan’s appointment of Judge Gleeson “troubling”.
It said it was granting Mr Flynn’s petition to get the case dismissed to “prevent the judicial usurpation of executive power”.
Judge Gleeson had urged Judge Sullivan to proceed with sentencing Mr Flynn and accused the department of “gross abuse of prosecutorial power” in a bid to “provide special treatment to a favoured friend and political ally of the president of the United States”.
A Justice Department spokeswoman said the department was “pleased” with the court’s decision.