Appeals court orders Flynn case dismissal, after years-long legal saga
By: Brooke Singman (Fox News)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A federal appeals court orders the lower court to dismiss the case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn; David Spunt reports.
A federal appeals court on Wednesday ordered a lower court to allow the case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to be dismissed, as requested by the Justice Department -- likely ending the years-long legal saga stemming from the Russia investigation.
The abrupt ending came in a 2-1 ruling and order from judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
This was the result of an appeal from Flynn's lawyers asking for a so-called writ of mandamus -- essentially an order telling a government official to carry out a certain duty -- directing Judge Emmet Sullivan to approve the DOJ's motion to dismiss.
Sullivan did not immediately grant that motion and instead sought to hold hearings on the matter, angering Flynn allies.
The unusual move from Sullivan to keep the case alive despite prosecutors' wishes was preceded by an unusual move from the DOJ itself to drop the charges against Flynn even after he had pleaded guilty -- saying the FBI interview that led to his charge of lying to investigators had no "legitimate investigative basis."
It's unclear whether anyone could try to appeal to the full appeals court or even to the Supreme Court in order to keep the case alive. The next step presumably would be for Sullivan to comply with the order.
Wednesday's court order was direct, ordering "that Flynn's petition for a writ of mandamus be granted in part; the District Court is directed to grant the government's ... motion to dismiss; and the District Court's order appointing an amicus is hereby vacated as moot, in accordance with the opinion of the court filed herein this date."
The accompanying decision essentially backed federal prosecutors in their move to drop the case.
"In this case, the district court's actions will result in specific harms to the exercise of the Executive Branch's exclusive prosecutorial power. The contemplated proceedings would likely require the Executive to reveal the internal deliberative process behind its exercise of prosecutorial discretion, interfering with the Article II charging authority," Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, wrote in the decision.
Judge Robert Wilkins, dissenting, wrote: "It is a great irony that, in finding the District Court to have exceeded its jurisdiction, this Court so grievously oversteps its own. This appears to be the first time that we have issued a writ of mandamus to compel a district court to rule in a particular manner on a motion without first giving the lower court a reasonable opportunity to issue its own ruling."
Fox News' Tyler Olson, Bill Mears and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.
Brooke Singman is a Politics Reporter for Fox News.
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We all knew this would be the eventual outcome.
I had to put it into the record
Everyone knows what really happened. Barr and Trump are in disgrace, and no appeals court ruling will change that.
Yet again, those of us who pay attention to informative sites that provide unbiased analysis are proven correct, and those who rely on partisan hit pieces for news are wrong yet again. Remember when some here were salivating about a silly brief filed by Sullivan's hand picked whack job of an ex judge a few weeks ago? Whoops!
Sullivan just got humiliated as publicly as any district court judge can be. Deservedly so.
Yup, We sure do - it's called a frame up and that's just the beginning.
Remember - Australian diplomat Alexander Downer’s meeting with Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos at a London bar in May 2016 was the supposed justification for opening Crossfire Hurricane. We are just digging into all the shit the rats who ran the FBI & CIA pulled!
Everyone but you.
Nope, Sullivan's reach exceeded his grasp, and he overstepped his authority in a predictably political way.
This misguided case against Flynn shows why it is so important for Trump's reelection.....to rid us of these scummy far left wing judges.
While I agree that ANY judge that exhibits partisan motives and appears to rule based on partisan biases rather than the rule of law should be removed, re-electing Trump will not advance this. A federal judge can be impeached but the president cannot remove a sitting federal judge. And the power of impeachment falls to Congress.
While I agree that President Trump deserves to be re-elected (oh damn, the left is gonna come for me now) the only way to remove a left-wing judge is to have the House and a super-majority in the Senate. And to be honest, due to some of the party wishful items from either side the last thing I want is for one party to have total power.
I meant to get rid of them by attrition, and by appointing more conservative appeals and Supreme Court justices.
ok, now I understand where you are going. And good news, President Trump got to seat his 200th federal judge today. That fills all the open vacancies. Would love to have another Supreme Court justice added to the list (but not wishing death on any current sitting judge).
New evidence shows Biden blatantly lied when he emphatically denied ever playing a part in the investigation. Now we find out he is the who made the bullshit suggest to use the Logan Act asa pretext to keep after him, after Comey told Obama, Biden etc Flynn's was a "legit conversation." Obama, of course, directed that "the right" people be assigned to the new investigation.
Lying is another thing Democrats have obviously stop pretending to care about once they settled on good ole Plagiarizing Joe as their nominee.
To me, this was when it got really sketchy and the judge's bias was fully revealed. He not only appointed an amicus nobody asked for (and with no interest in the case) but then directed him to compose a brief with a specific point of view, with the intention of treating it as evidence supporting a ruling. It's hard to be less impartial than that.
Only half wits and poorly educated morons believe that the appeals court just threw out the Flynn case on its merits, this was a ruling on the biased partisan Justice department with the Presidents fixer Barr demanding the Flynn case be thrown out and an appeals court with Trump appointees claiming that if they didn't do what corrupt Barr wanted them to then it "will result in specific harms to the exercise of the Executive Branch's exclusive prosecutorial power". Oh no! Sentencing a criminal who admitted his guilt twice would make the halls of justice crumble! What fucking spineless losers.
So this had nothing to do with the merits of the case, it had everything to do with partisan politics and the sick slimy swamp that now covers the justice department and the white house. All will eventually get exposed and I'll bet many, many Trump loyalists are going to go to prison for all the corrupt actions they've been taking with the justice department and the direct attempt by Trump and his cronies to obstruct justice and accountability for any Trump ally. But I supposed I shouldn't pretend like there is even a single Trump supporter who gives a fuck about law and order, they cheer and revel in their Dear Leaders lawlessness, so no doubt they are happier than a brainless clam about this.
"The actions of the President and the Attorney General are an attack on the concept that investigations should be conducted in a nonpartisan manner," ""They are politicizing an office that for more than 200 years has remained apolitical, and are undermining confidence in our criminal justice system. We call on our elected officials – Republicans and Democrats alike – to take all appropriate action to protect the administration of justice in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere from this kind of political interference." - 135 former prosecutors
Only half wits and poorly educated morons believe that anyone other than the DOJ could prosecute that case. They dropped it! Judge Sullivan was stopped cold!