The Washington D.C. Circuit Court of appeals has ruled 8-2 General Michael Flynn will not have his case dismissed as the Department of Justice has requested and must move forward with yet another hearing.
Flynn update - here is the order denying the mandamus.
— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) August 31, 2020
The case goes back to Judge Sullivan.
The opinion ends with these words:
"we expect the District Court to proceed with appropriate dispatch." ?? pic.twitter.com/CQouaOhGzq
#Flynn Appeals court denies former National Security adviser @GenFlynn’s effort to force a judge to immediately dismiss charges. 61 page opinion. ORDER attached. @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/RVCQFvaUfp
— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) August 31, 2020
The decision comes three weeks after the full court conducted a hearing on August 11 about whether the case should be dismissed or sent back to Judge Sullivan for a decison. During that hearing Flynn's attorney, Sidney Powell, called for the case to be dismissed. Previously a panel of the judges ruled 2-1 his case should be dismissed. That decision was vacated when it was decided the full court should hear the argument for dismissal.
"Gen. Flynn is a defendant without a prosecutor,” Powell told the judges. "A court can't continue a prosecution on its own."
In June, the Department of Justice called for the case against Flynn to be dismissed after new evidence surfaced showing the FBI essentially made up a case against him without evidence and after agents argued it should have been closed.
"After a considered review of all the facts and circumstances of this case, including newly discovered and disclosed information appended to the defendant’s supplemental pleadings, ECF Nos. 181, 188-190,1 the Government has concluded that the interview of Mr. Flynn was untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn—a no longer justifiably predicated investigation that the FBI had, in the Bureau’s own words, prepared to close because it had yielded an 'absence of any derogatory information.' Ex. 1 at 4, FBI FD-1057 “Closing Communication” Jan. 4, 2017 (emphases added). 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. Moreover, we not believe that the Government can prove either the relevant false statements or their materiality beyond a reasonable doubt," the motion to dismiss states.
We now wait for a decision from Judge Sullivan.