Judge Prolonging Michael Flynn’s Court Case Hires Lawyer, As Appeals Court Demands Explanation
Richard Moorhead
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The judge prolonging Michael Flynn’s court case after the Department of Justice announced its intentions to drop the process crime charges against the retired Army general has hired a high-powered D.C. lawyer to defend himself against the scrutiny of the appeals court system.
Judge Emmet Sullivan hired former Brett Kavanaugh attorney Beth Wilkinson on Saturday. Some legal scholars are questioning the need for a federal judge to hire a lawyer to navigate the federal judiciary, especially for a court case in which the Justice Department has already dropped its initiative to prosecute Flynn for lying to the FBI. The case against Flynn fell apart when misconduct on the part of the FBI agents investigating him was exposed, revealing that the agency was seeking to set him up from the beginning.
Yet Sullivan refused to end the court proceedings involving Flynn after prosecutors withdrew their case. The Democrat-aligned federal judge has weighed holding Flynn in contempt of court for changing his initial guilty plea, and now is taking the unprecedented step of essentially assuming the role of the prosecution. Sullivan has appointed a third-party lawyer to make arguments against the federal government’s decision to drop charges.
Flynn lawyer Sidney Powell has filed a writ of mandamus to stop Sullivan’s prolonged, extrajudicial prosecution of the former White House National Security Advisor. A federal appeals court demanded that Sullivan answer for his extremely unusual and arguably unprecedented judicial actions, which essentially serve as usurping the role of prosecution for the judge himself.
Perhaps sensing that he may be stripped from the case for his judicial usurpation, Sullivan has sought legal representation of his own, perhaps aggressively seeking to punish Flynn to the extent that he’s legally able. In any case, the Justice Department’s dismissal of charges against Flynn represent nothing less than full exoneration, regardless of the Democrat proclivities of a federal judge who has proved even more obstinate in pursuing a weak case against the former Trump administration official than the legitimate prosecutors.
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