Posted on 06/12/2020 9:18:26 AM PDT by jazusamo
A divided federal appeals court on Friday seemed reluctant to order the judge presiding over former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s prosecution to dismiss the case ahead of scheduled arguments in the trial court next month.
During a Friday hearing before a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, two judges expressed reservations about preventing U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan from ruling on the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) motion to dismiss Flynn’s criminal case.
Sullivan drew attention last month when he took the unusual step of appointing a retired federal judge to argue against dropping the charges and to explore the possibility of holding Flynn in contempt for perjury, with a hearing scheduled for July 16.
Flynn responded by asking the D.C. Circuit to order Sullivan to drop the case and block the court-appointed counsel from pressing for Flynn’s continued prosecution.
But at least two members of the three-judge panel on Friday appeared wary of removing Sullivan’s authority to consider additional perspectives and issue his own ruling — which could include granting DOJ’s request to drop the charges.
“We have Judge Sullivan, who is an old hand, he’s an excellent trial judge,” said Judge Karen Henderson, a George H.W. Bush appointee. “And he may say, to himself at least, you know, I asked for advice, and I'm ignoring it. And I'm granting the motion to dismiss. Shouldn't he be allowed to do that?”
Judge Robert Wilkins, an Obama appointee, also seemed reluctant to intervene in the pending trial court proceedings. The view of Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee who posed probing questions to counsel on both sides, was more difficult to read.
– Developing
Think Judge Henderson was giving some weak lip-service there to Sullivan. Later she closed about the DOJ abuse.
That appeared more decisive IMHO and I listened to most of the hearing which went on for quite a while.
Prayers up for General Flynn and our Republic.
This is all a Deep State Conspiracy so Trump will pardon Flynn before the election. We have no laws or justice in the country anymore.
I listened to the whole thing. I love Sidney but she was a little bit flustered. DOJ guy was good, sharp. Sullivan hack was typical hack - even tried, like Wilkins and Henderson - do the soft sell - let it proceed - Sullivan may just dismiss. To me that’s a con job just so Gleason can spew his garbage into the public square.
I puked in disgust when Wilkins did a direct, inflammatory insert of White Officer/Black victim DOJ not forthright crap. Talk about speaking to the listening audience. Disgusting. But he’s an Obama extension, so not surprising.
Amen!
Wilkins' questioning was deliberate narrative engineering.
I was disappointed that deputy solicitor general Jeffrey Wall – who did an otherwise stellar job – responded to Wilkins' poisonous race-baiting on technical points of law instead of recognizing the trap and rejecting the premise.
Fatal flaw.
As RatRipper suggests, after all the fine legal arguments, there are just too many violations of fundamental principles at stake for Henderson.
If the writ is denied, the violation of those principles will be reviewed by this court's elders. The issue for Henderson will be whether he can craft a plausible legal argument that protects Sullivans yet honors those principles; an easy question for most of us.
It wasn’t a fatal flaw. I expect there will be action from two of the three judges leading to Judge Sullivan either boxed in or urged to get behind this case with a perfunctory hearing in July.
But if I was on the Court of Appeals I would make sure Judge Sullivan has no room to stray and force the hand to dismissal.
I see a bagpipe performance coming up. This was supposed to be a slam dunk heard it right here for days. Instead the FBI is in open rebellion to the President, Barr is a wind bag and the Military leadership takes to the air too insult the President and Rino senate is going to trash him over Military Base Names.
Everything is running smooth as silk. I am about beyond caring anymore.</s>
This has become a circus.
It should be an easy decision for this 3 Judge panel.
Exculpatory evidence was withheld.
Flynn was threatened that his son would be prosecuted
And Flynn was illegally investigated.
We live in a Banana Republic.
They framed him. They not only framed him to get him fired, they framed him to prosecute him.
—
Agree. The Barr DOJ needs to start dumping manure on the Deep State judges and shouldn’t stop until they cry uncle. That’s the only thing that will force a dismissal. Otherwise, they will just drag this out past the election. Sadly, it’s quite clear many in the DOJ are just fine with Flynn being assaulted under color of law.
I don’t disagree that there is plenty to be pissed off about. I am too.
However, this fiasco may provide us with a window into Barr’s true intentions.
Barr has a pretty good idea of what took place and part of that involved Flynn. “If” there is a conspiracy against Trump (we know there was) and the court continues to drag out the prosecution of an innocent man, Barr has a legal and ethical obligation to notify the court of ALL EXCULPATORY INFORMATION.
If you read the DOJ filing(s) they have relied on matters of law without disclosing the “rest of the story” even as much more of that has emerged.
What is a stronger argument to free an innocent man?
“Your honor, we move to dismiss because we do not find a predicate for our charge nor do we believe we could win the case at trial” OR “Your honor, we have an ongoing investigation that will show that the defendant was the victim of a criminal conspiracy by the government to frame him for a crime he did not commit”?
They have all but said it publicly, but they have not really spelled it out in the motions to dismiss.
Flynn was framed. They need to just come out and say it - ongoing investigation be damned. This IS NOT what the appeals court is considering in the motions and briefs.
Henderson (Bush Sr): Let’s just get along and let Sullivan’s kangaroo process unfold however he wants because he’s a member of our club. Will vote to deny writ.
This was all theater today. No doubt they had already hashed out this deal. Henderson joins Team Coup and they punt. The recent spate of Bush associates attacking Trump almost certainly was designed to nudge Henderson in the direction of Team Coup.
If Sullivan had just asked for legal guidance on how to proceed then he might have been given some leeway although judges are supposed to have the expertise themselves to research the law.
Perhaps the Appeals Court will, instead of the Writ of Mandamus, order Sullivan to withdraw his request for amicus and proceed based on motions before Sullivan’s court.
I was shocked when Sullivan’s counsel suggested that the amicus would ensure that there were two parties to the process, completely ignoring the defense. What Sullivan is proposing is that there be three parties to the dispute, one of them chosen by the judiciary. How very creative.
“- let it proceed - Sullivan may just dismiss. To me that’s a con job”
That was my exact read on Beth Wilkerson trying to soft-pedal a way out for Sullivan. I wasn’t buying but I can’t say the appeals panel won’t.
They could sit on this until July 11th and then just watch to see what Judge Sullivan does but they absolutely shouldn’t.
They should give him no more rope than needed to hand himself and sign the order of dismissal.
If you mean reviewed by the full DC Circuit, Flynn is screwed. That court is what the Ninth Circus used to be.
Henderson is a she, and it was clear from her questioning that she is Harriet Miers. Not a rocket scientist, if you catch my drift. She's not in the same neighborhood of the vacinity of thinking about "fundamental principles."
If you mean reviewed by the full DC Circuit, Flynn is screwed.
Agreed, and Henderson likely does as well; thus, he would recognize the possibility it will be decided by the USSC.
I feel the same way after the last few months and especially the last few weeks. As I was saying to my husband, we had communists, anarchists, riots etc in the 60s. However then, we still had many many patriots in positions of leadership still in the country. Now we see people bowing, kneeling, corporations donating multimillions of dollars to a false front organization that desires communism, perversion, violence, and gives most of the donations to the democrat party. Judges bought off, politicians bought off, those we thought were on our side acting like complete cowards, universities and public schools promoting hatred of America and communism. My hope is pretty much gone. I’m glad I’m older but like you just feel heartsick for our kids and grandkids. They really have never even seen the real America that we grew up with. Christians are praying for God to intervene and that is the only way things can be saved. It cant be just political, it has to be hearts turned and these freaking blinders taken off the 50+% of the country that is totally brainwashed.
The older woman judge asked why not let this play out until the next hearing on July 16.
The judges were basically asking why are you bothering us with this?
Remember this is the DC (deep state) circuit court.
What’s unusual is for a judge to begin to take up the mantel of a prosecutor which is unconstitutional. The DOJ has dropped the charges. There is no longer a case to adjudicate.
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