Federal judge dismisses case against Michael Flynn after Trump pardoned him

[sabra]

Source: Business Insider

The federal judge overseeing the US's case against former national security advisor Michael Flynn issued an order officially dismissing the case on Tuesday.

Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to one count of lying to the FBI as part of the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election. Flynn initially cooperated with prosecutors but later shifted course, fired his entire defense team, and hired a combative and controversial lawyer, Sidney Powell, who accused the FBI and Justice Department of entrapment and political persecution, and asked that a court dismiss the case against him.

Earlier this year, the Justice Department also made the highly unusual decision to try to toss out its own case against Flynn, prompting the resignation of one of the prosecutors working on it. The move drew widespread backlash as DOJ veterans accused Attorney General William Barr of using the department as a shield for Trump and his allies and a sword against his enemies.

Sullivan halted the DOJ's efforts to drop the case and said that because of its political nature, he wanted third parties to weigh in as he considered the motion. In June, a three-judge appellate-court panel ordered Sullivan to toss out the Flynn case. But the full panel later reexamined the Flynn case and in August denied Flynn's motion to dismiss it.

Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/federal-judge-dismisses-michael-flynn-case-trump-pardon-2020-12

[wryter2000]

1. Infuriating but correct

If Flynn was pardoned, the case against him is moot. That's what the decision was. I don't suppose it made Judge Sullivan happy.

[Pantagruel]

2. Trump pardons

confessed traitor highlighting the need for reform of Presidential pardon power.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. WaPo indicated some other info from the ruling

Michael Flynn judge says pardon doesn’t mean ex-national security adviser is innocent

By Spencer S. Hsu and Ann E. Marimow
Dec. 8, 2020 at 1:54 p.m. EST


A federal judge dismissed Michael Flynn’s prosecution Tuesday after President Trump’s pardon, but said the act of clemency does not mean the former national security adviser is innocent of lying to FBI agents about his talks with the Russian government before Trump took office.

In formally ending Flynn’s three-year legal saga, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said he probably would have denied the Justice Department’s controversial effort this year to drop the case, which Democrats and many legal experts said appeared to be an attempt by Attorney General William P. Barr to bend the rule of law to help a Trump ally.

Sullivan expressed deep skepticism about the Justice Department’s stated reasons for abandoning the case, criticizing it for applying a different set of rules to Flynn, who twice pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador during special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe of 2016 election interference.

The judge also said he was troubled by the government’s “dubious” rationales as well as aspects of its “ever-evolving justifications” that ignored applicable law, appeared to be irrelevant or to contradict prosecutors’ previous statements. “President Trump’s decision to pardon Mr. Flynn is a political decision, not a legal one. Because the law recognizes the President’s political power to pardon, the appropriate course is to dismiss this case as moot,” Sullivan wrote, adding: “However, the pardon ‘does not, standing alone, render [Mr. Flynn] innocent of the alleged violation.’ ”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/michael-flynn-case-dismissed/2020/12/08/31abb5de-0975-11eb-a166-dc429b380d10_story.html

[SWBTATTReg]

4. Flynn will forever have this stain on his what-little-remains of his integrity and honor,

no matter what happens...he already declared a 'guilty' verdict, and now all of a sudden he's innocent?

Filthy traitor...

[Bev54]

5. WTF??

Didn't he just allow a number of amicus briefs?

[OneCrazyDiamond]

6. If the case is dismissed

how can he be pardoned?

[onenote]

9. The pardon is reason for the dismissal.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

13. But a pardon admits guilt

Dismissed cases do not.

[bluestarone]

7. I can say with confidence that THIS judge

Did NOT want to do this!!!! The judge tried everything to put this ASSHOLE in jail! My hats off to this judge

[samnsara]

8. we will never forget and we will all vow to make him live out the rest of his life in shame

[intrepidity]

11. Shame? What shame? He's a hero in his circles, in that alt-reality

He doesn't live in, nor care, about "our" reality over here.

[SunSeeker]

10. Sullivan didn't let DOJ dismiss the case, thus forcing the pardon (and acknowledgement of guilt!).

Barr tried to avoid the necessity of a pardon, and tried to make it look like Flynn didn't do anything wrong. But Sullivan didn't let him get away with bullshit and refused to let Barr dismiss the case.

[Baitball Blogger]

12. Can a president pardon a murderer before he's even found guilty?

Sounds like a terrible precedent.

People can be targeted and killed, intentionally, with the plan to pardon the murderer if he gets caught.

What happens next? The criminal justice departments starts prosecuting innocent people?