Tipsheet

The Second Act of the Flynn Case Has Begun...and It's a Total Circus

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  June 11, 2020 5:15 AM

I, for one, am shocked that some retired judge who is working for the law firm representing the Department of Justice’s top Trump resister, Sally Yates, said that Michael Flynn committed perjury and is a bad, bad, man (sarc.). John Gleeson laid out his case for his besieged colleague Judge Emmet Sullivan over the fiasco that has become the Michael Flynn case (via WaPo):

Michael Flynn committed perjury and his guilty plea of lying to the FBI should not be dismissed, a court-appointed counsel told a federal judge Wednesday.

In a formal briefing to the judge overseeing Flynn’s case, former New York federal judge John Gleeson argued that though Flynn committed perjury by first admitting under oath to lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts and then seeking to rescind his guilty plea, Trump’s former national security adviser should not face a contempt hearing but instead be punished as part of his sentence.

“Flynn has indeed committed perjury in these proceedings, for which he deserves punishment, and the Court has the authority to initiate a prosecution for that crime,” Gleeson wrote in an 82-page opinion. “I respectfully recommend, however, that the Court not exercise that authority. Rather, it should take Flynn’s perjury into account in sentencing him on the offense to which he has already admitted guilt. This approach — rather than a separate prosecution for perjury or contempt — aligns with the Court’s intent to treat this case, and this Defendant, in the same way it would any other.”

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan had paused Flynn’s case to hear from outside groups and appointed Gleeson to argue against the Justice Department’s May 7 motion to immediately drop its prosecution of the retired three-star general. Flynn was the highest-ranking Trump adviser convicted in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections.

Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, now remains in legal purgatory as the case against him has fallen apart in recent weeks. Flynn pleaded guilty to “lying to the FBI” charges, which were politically motivated. The entire reason he was targeted was exposed as a hoax. This is a joke of a court case now.

The former general was part of the Trump-Russian collusion circus act that engulfed the Obama DOJ. The entire counterintelligence probe launched by the FBI was based on the unverified and thoroughly debunked Trump Steele dossier, aka Trump dossier, which was a Democrat-funded opposition research project. The document was compiled by ex-MI6 spook Christopher Steele, and it was used to secure a FISA spy warrant against Carter Page, a former Trump campaign official, the spy operation against the campaign proper, and used to draw Flynn into this nightmare. 

Flynn also had phone conversations with former Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, which were routine for an incoming administration. The FBI had zero evidence to investigate Flynn; there was no collusion. The FBI was actually done investigating Flynn, but disgraced FBI official James Comey wanted a scalp. He was going to get Flynn no matter what. The agents who interviewed Flynn also admitted that they felt Flynn didn’t lie to them. 

Before Flynn decided to formally withdraw his guilty plea, his lawyer, Sidney Powell, said that there were documents that point to a plot to entrap her client. Well, the DOJ under AG William Barr details this plot in their motion to dismiss the criminal charges against Flynn which set off this second act in the case.

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Sullivan had accused Flynn of being a traitor. Now, with no prosecutor, who resigned, and both parties now pushing to drop the case, Sullivan dug in and refused. He decided to allow every anti-Trump lawyer the ability to file amicus briefs and appointed Gleeson to fight the DOJ motion and see if perjury charges could apply. What a clown show. As other legal commentators noted, you can’t just export prosecutorial duties to outside groups. In fact, even liberal lawyer Jonathan Turley argued that Flynn could have a legitimate malicious prosecution lawsuit against the FBI. 

Flynn’s team countered by filing a writ of mandamus, which seeks to remove Sullivan from the case and drop all charges. Arguments for the dismissal of this Flynn fiasco will be on Friday, June 12. 

The other aspect to this is why was Flynn dragged before the Special Counsel? The FBI was pretty much done looking into this guy, and then ex-Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein decided to appoint Robert Mueller to take over the FBI’s investigation and rehashed the Logan Act portion that was part of the initial probe into Flynn’s dealings. Why? There are legitimate questions concerning the Mueller probe regarding whether it was set up to give a nice swampy polish to an FBI probe that had gone off the rails. There’s also speculation that Judge Sullivan wanted to drag this case out for as long as possible, past the 2020 election, and hope a Democratic DOJ would drop the motion to dismiss. Sullivan did hire an attorney to respond to the writ, which legal commentators noted was unusual. The DC Court of Appeals had ordered Sullivan to respond personally to Powell’s petition, which was the most drastic option that could have come down from the courts. It’s also a rare outcome, a sign that there are more than enough legal minds that are curious as to why Sullivan won’t drop the case.

Regardless of what Gleeson says, it doesn’t negate the fact that Flynn is a victim of this collusion myth. Also, this guy, in a past opinion, even said that the government has the ultimate power to drop a case it has brought before the court. 

This is the last stand for the Trump-Russian collusion peddlers. They’ll put up a fight. In the meantime, given the evidence of prosecutorial overreach, the FBI is reviewing the Flynn investigation for misconduct.