Posted on 05/23/2020 2:46:59 PM PDT by CaptainK
Veteran trial lawyer Beth Wilkinson is helping guide U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan as a federal appeals court questions his plan to probe the U.S. Justice Department’s decision to dismiss the case against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn despite his admission he lied to the FBI.
Sullivan refused to immediately dismiss the charge against Flynn, a retired Army general who served for just weeks in Trump’s White House, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is now weighing whether the longtime Washington federal trial judge overstepped his authority.
The appeals court set a June 1 deadline for Sullivan to respond to a petition from Flynn’s lawyers that seeks the immediate dismissal of the case. Sullivan, meanwhile, has appointed an outside lawyer, John Gleeson, a former federal judge in Brooklyn, to make arguments against the Justice Department’s bid to ditch the prosecution. Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about his communications with the Russian ambassador to the U.S., but he later hired new lawyers to help him withdraw his acknowledgement of wrongdoing.
Wilkinson, a co-founder of the litigation boutique Wilkinson Walsh, confirmed Saturday she had been retained by Sullivan, who has served on Washington’s federal trial court since 1994. The Washington Post first reported Wilkinson’s role advocating for the judge.
Wilkinson has long been in the spotlight in Washington legal circles and beyond as a successful defense-side trial lawyer advocating for major U.S. companies. She left the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in 2016 to start the boutique, which has offices in Washington, New York and Los Angeles.
She has frequently taken on high-profile assignments. In 2018, she was hired by Brett Kavanaugh, then a U.S. Supreme Court nominee, to help shepherd him through confirmation proceedings at which he had been accused of a decades-old sexual misconduct allegation. Kavanaugh, who denied the claim, was confirmed to the high court.
More recently, Wilkinson was retained by Summer Zervos in a suit in New York state court that accuses Trump of lying in his denials that he did not grope and kiss her without consent in 2007. The case is pending.
In the D.C. Circuit now, Wilkinson is counsel to Cheryl Mills, a former aide to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a dispute over a deposition in a public-records case. One of Sullivan’s colleagues on the bench, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, said the plaintiff—the conservative advocacy group Judicial Watch—could depose Clinton and Mills.
.Sullivan’s move to appoint Gleeson, now a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton, to oppose the Justice Department’s move to dismiss was seen by some observers as an assertion of independence of the courts as a co-equal branch of government. Still others said Sullivan had assumed too powerful a role, and that he should have dismissed the case at the Justice Department’s request.
Legal scholars are divided over how much power Sullivan holds to scrutinize the Justice Department’s charging decisions. Federal rules do not allow prosecutors to unilaterally dismiss any criminal case. They need “leave of court” before a charge can be withdrawn.
At one time, Flynn was prepared to be punished, but he agreed to further cooperate with the special counsel’s Russia investigation in an effort to secure a non-jail sentence. During Flynn’s first scheduled sentencing, Sullivan raised the prospect that Flynn might go to prison for lying to federal agents.
Timothy Shea, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and a former close adviser to Barr, asked Sullivan to dismiss the case against Flynn on the ground that prosecutors no longer believe there was a strong basis to justify the FBI’s 2017 interview that is central to the false-statements claim. Former Justice Department officials have disputed the government’s claim there was no ground to interview Flynn.
Maybe she’s a defense lawyer for him. Could be the Judge was in on the scam. Barr could be investigating him.
The tax payers for one. If we still had a Constitution. If we still had a legal system. This would be illegal. The Judge, as trier of fact would have no interest in the case. But in the Age of Affirmative Action and Political Correctness which we now live , anything goes. Rules change by the second. There is one rule and law and another rule and law for the other.
She is the wife of David Gregory.
Yep.
That could be true, but it seems a reach to me given currently public information.
My best guess is that the judge is an egomaniac, and doesn’t wish to just release someone who pled guilty in his court. However, I just saw Dan Bongino’s interview of Sydney Powell (Flynn’s lawyer) and she says that Sullivan has dealt with co-erced defendants who have withdrawn guilty pleas before. She doesn’t know what’s driving him here.
Your Answer is option A/ These maggots are gettin’ paid via your Federale taxes. As always —FOLLOW THE MONEY!
Really? A federal judge hires a lawyer? Unheard of. Ever.
Can only be for one purpose, Sullivan feels a need to be defended? That thought has me thrilled. Hot air from his bosses and public opinion breathing onhis neck thrills me.
IMHO. Payment to the lawyer by the tax payers wouldn’t sit well with the Appellant court,and successfully challenged.
He's got 10 days from the Circuit Court's order. I believe his deadline is June 1st, which is the Monday after Memorial Day. That's only 9 days away. Get crackin' Judge!
Since when does a judge lawyer up?
How is this any different then filing an amicus brief, which the circuit court told him was not allowed?
The Hack Judge is too ignorant to write his own response.
Ignorant of the Law.
He could not write a response in a year, much less 10 days.
Agree. So much for the brilliant judge Sullivan. He’s a pawn here and no more.
The Hack Judge is too ignorant to write his own response.”
This is at least part of it.
He should have hired Andrew Weissmann to write for him since Weissmann had lots of practice writing for the senile Mueller.
Actually, Flynn *IS* a Democrat!
His “sin” is that he is not a part of the Deep State. Also that he is truly patriotic (not fake patriotic) and he worked for Trump and opposed corruption.
Who the heck do you think?? WE, THE TAXPAYER, ALWAYS, AND I MEAN ALWAYS GETS STUCK with this crap!!! Every stinking million that is spent on wrong prosecutions, illegal funding, illegal spending, ILLEGAL payments to crooked so-called law makers, illegal payments to foreign nations and nationals, illegal payments to foreign government agents/spies/leaders/military, you freaking name it and WE, the TAXPAYERS, have ALWAYS got stuck with it. Of all the illegal spending and just flat wasting of our tax dollars, is probably HIGHER THAN OUR NATIOINAL DEPT OF 26 TRILLION bucks wasted. We could probably have built a brand new nation, new buildings, bridges, roads, stocked our military, furnished the navy with all brand new carriers and subs and ships, built tons of new jails for all the criminals in Sodom on the Potomac, you name it THEY have WASTED!!!!!! IT!!!!!! The entire belt way needs to be nuked and about 35 of the 50 state houses nuked as well and start over. We could just start a brand new nation on what they have wasted. I am stick up to my chin with career politicians. The assholes (cuse my french ladies) should all be put up against a wall and stoned with rocks!!! Shooting is too good for them and a waste of good ammo. Just stone their sorry asses just like the old Israelites were instructed to do. I am sick of politicians. Absolutely sick of liberals, socialists, communist, whinebag dimocrats, stupid is as stupid does politicians. SICK OF THEM!!!! All this and I still haven’t got it off my chest. A perfectly, absolutely wonderful Republic of the people, for the people and by the people, ruined by politicians, like the stinking Rockefellers, Kennedys, Klintons, Roosevelts, etc.
Memorial Day is this Monday a week earlier than normal!!
Impeach this bastard
Then disbar his racist azz
Because he wants a legal mind better than his own to put forward the absolutely best case possible?
That right there should have gotten him kicked off the trial.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.