There is one valid argument for Trump to pardon Flynn: Sullivan is bringing this before the entire Appellate Court. It’s packed with leftists. They could very easily rule against the Executive in this case, upturning the Constitution and the separation of powers. With Roberts on SCOTUS, anything’s possible after that.
“There is one valid argument for Trump to pardon Flynn: Sullivan is bringing this before the entire Appellate Court. It’s packed with leftists.”
One reason I’ve heard this doesn’t matter is the chief judge of the circuit wrote the Fokker opinion that Flynn’s attorneys cited for the mandamus relief. Also from the Forbes article:
“One week ago, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 9-0 decision, authored by Justice Ginsburg, that took judges to task for similar amicus antics. Her opinion for the Court in U.S. v. Sineneng-Smith upbraided the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for violating a basic aspect of legal proceedings called the “party presentation principle.” In a nutshell, this concept dictates that judges must decide the case as presented by the parties before them. They are not to go out questing for dragons to slay (or issues to tackle) that the parties have not brought before them.”
It needs to be adjudicated first, unfortunately. Flynn is left hanging for a while longer, but the government needs to find a way to work within the law - without Trump forcing it.
DOJ is stepping up a little. The judiciary needs to do the same.