Will judge rescue the justice system?

The COVID-19 crisis is a news tsunami that washes over every other story, covering them with a flood of new and ever-changing pandemic information.

We miss some things.

We don’t pay attention to others. Or enough attention, anyway.

Like the wrecking of our justice system.

Not long ago, Attorney General William Barr, who acts more like President Donald Trump’s personal attorney instead of the nation’s highest ranking law enforcement official, announced that he was moving to drop the department’s case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Flynn, a former Army general, was an early supporter of Trump.

He pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents investigating Russian meddling in the election, and he admitted lying as well to Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Russian officials.

In court he said, “I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong. I accept full responsibility for my actions.”

There was no dispute about the lying. Even Trump agreed.

Back in 2017 Trump tweeted:

I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the vice president and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!

Now, Barr says that investigators “did not have a basis for a counterintelligence investigation against Flynn.”

Asked in a television interview if he was doing the president’s bidding in the Flynn case, Barr said, “No, I’m doing the law’s bidding. I’m doing my duty under the law, as I see it.”

A group of almost 2,000 former Justice Department employees signed an open letter saying Barr had “assaulted the rule of law.”

In an op-ed for the New York Times, Mary B. McCord, former acting assistant attorney general for national security, said Barr had twisted her words in trying to dismiss the Flynn case.

Even former President Barack Obama, who has remained largely silent during the Trump presidency, even as Trump launches regular twitter assaults against Obama, weighed in.

He told former aides, “There is no precedent that anybody can find for someone who has been charged with perjury just getting off scot-free. That’s the kind of stuff where you begin to get worried that basic - not just institutional norms - but our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk.”

None of Barr’s critics have the authority to prevent what he’s doing, however.

Except, maybe, one.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan has delayed acting on the Justice Department’s request to drop the Flynn case.

In its submission to the judge, the department said, “The government is not persuaded that the January 24, 2017 interview was conducted with a legitimate investigative basis and therefore does not believe Mr. Flynn’s statements were material even if untrue.”

In other words, lying to the FBI doesn’t matter.

Vice President Mike Pence, to whom Flynn also lied, actually said he would welcome Flynn’s return to the Trump administration.

Judge Sullivan doesn’t seem to be buying it.

Not yet, anyway.

Sullivan said third-parties will be able to file “friend of the court” briefs in the case before he decides what to do.

He’s asked former district court judge, John Gleeson, who successfully prosecuted mafia dons, to argue against the Department of Justice’s decision to drop charges against Flynn.

Hopefully, Sullivan will keep the case alive.

Hopefully, he’ll rescue the justice system.

Hopefully, he’ll remember something