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Judge Emmet G. Sullivan will consider whether to find former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn in criminal contempt of court after the Department of Justice (DOJ) moved last week to drop its prosecution of Flynn for lying to the FBI. Sullivan issued an order Wednesday appointing retired judge John Gleeson as amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) to argue against the DOJ’s motion to dismiss the case, as well as to advise the court on whether it should begin contempt proceedings. New Flynn Filing – Judge Sullivan appoints retired Judge John Gleeson as amicus "to present arguments in opposition to...

Sixteen former Watergate prosecutors have notified Emmet Sullivan, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, that they intend to file an "amicus curiae" ("friend of the court") brief in the case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn after the Department of Justice (DOJ) moved to dismiss the charges against him. Flynn had previously pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators, but he moved to withdraw that plea earlier this year, followed by the DOJ decision last week. Sullivan, however, has not yet approved the DOJ's motion and made the unusual move this week of...

The Constitution limits the jurisdiction of federal judges to actual cases and controversies. They may not offer advisory opinions or intrude on executive or legislative powers, except when the other branches have exercised them in an unconstitutional manner. Federal judges are umpires deciding matters about which litigants disagree. If the litigants come to an agreement, there is no controversy. The case is over. Many judges disapprove of this limitation on their power. Not happy being umpires, they want to be commissioner of baseball. Thus courts have arrogated to themselves powers the Constitution explicitly denies them. They have invented exceptions to...

D.C. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan issued an unusual order Wednesday appointing a law firm partner "to present arguments in opposition to the government's motion to dismiss" the matter -- and to consider whether the court should hold Flynn in contempt for perjury. The partner, retired federal judge John Gleeson, has openly criticized the Trump administration's handling of Michael Flynn's case, raising concerns that he was selected to improperly bolster Sullivan's efforts to keep the Flynn case alive even though both the government and defendant want it dismissed. Sullivan has previously suggested Flynn may have committed treason, in a bizarre...

The U.S. Constitution makes clear that the judiciary has no business second-guessing prosecutorial decisions. That’s what Michael Flynn judge Emmet Sullivan decided to do. On May 13, Judge Emmet Sullivan issued a blatantly biased and unconstitutional order in the long-lasting Michael Flynn criminal case. To preserve the rule of law and our constitutional separation of powers, the Department of Justice has no choice now but to seek a writ of mandamus from the D.C. Circuit Court ordering the criminal charge against Flynn dismissed and reassigning the case to another judge. On Tuesday, Judge Sullivan shocked court watchers when he entered...

Most relevant part of article" Sullivan said he was seeking Gleeson's recommendation on whether Flynn should face a criminal contempt charge for perjury because he testified under oath that he was guilty of lying to the FBI but then reversed course and said he had never lied.

The Justice Department’s move to dismiss the prosecution of former national security adviser Michael Flynn does not need to be the end of the case — and it shouldn’t be. The Justice Department has made conflicting statements to the federal judge overseeing the case, Emmet G. Sullivan. He has the authority, the tools and the obligation to assess the credibility of the department’s stated reasons for abruptly reversing course. The department’s motion to dismiss the Flynn case is actually just a request — one that requires “leave of the court” before it is effective. The executive branch has unreviewable authority...

US District Judge Emmett G. Sullivan unquestionably knows that when a federal defendant pleads guilty but then asks to be relieved of his fate, it is up to the court to decide the merit of his argument — no matter who supports it, including a prosecutor who has switched sides. Sullivan is presiding over the case in which former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty twice to serious federal crimes and is ready for sentencing. The fly in the ointment is a recent request by Attorney General William Barr that basically says: Never mind. Ignore those guilty pleas; Flynn...

Donald Trump’s most lasting legacy will be his appointments to the federal bench. In his tenure so far, the Senate has confirmed 193 judges, 51 of whom were circuit judges. All were nominated by President Trump. Indeed, President Trump and the Senate have confirmed federal appellate judges faster than any other president in U.S. history. For all judges, President Trump’s rate is the second fastest. The Senate returns to Washington next week, and on the agenda is another stellar judicial nominee, Judge Justin Walker. Walker is the quintessential Trump appointee. He’s young, he has impeccable legal credentials, and he has...

The federal judge presiding over retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn’s case issued a surprise order telling the former national security adviser’s previous attorneys to conduct another search of their entire case archive after it was revealed they failed to turn thousands of documents over to Flynn’s new defense team. The ruling by Judge Emmet Sullivan was made public Tuesday afternoon after Robert Kelner and Stephen Anthony, Flynn’s former lawyers at the powerhouse firm Covington & Burling, claimed there were 6,800 records they had only just now unearthed and turned over to Flynn’s current defense team, which has been led by...

The Department of Justice will appeal to the Supreme Court after it was ordered to hand over sealed documents from former special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation to Congress. The department on Friday asked the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to stay its ruling while it petitions the high court. "Whether and under what circumstances Congress may resort to the courts to seek grand jury materials generated in a criminal investigation in aid of an impeachment inquiry is plainly a question of great significance to all three branches of government, as well as to the functioning of the grand jury...

The federal judge overseeing the trial of longtime Trump associate Roger Stone on Thursday denied his motion for a new trial that was based on a claim of juror bias. Federal District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Stone's lawyers failed to demonstrate that a woman selected as a juror was biased against President Donald Trump, failed to disclose those views during jury selection and should not have been allowed to serve. "The defendant has not shown that the juror lied; nor has he shown that the supposedly disqualifying evidence could not have been found through the exercise of due...

On Saturday, American Thinker pointed out that Democrat-run jurisdictions, at both the state and the local level, seem to be enjoying a little too much the power that a public health emergency has put into their hands. One of the examples was the order Mayor Greg Fischer issued in Louisville, Kentucky. He banned all Easter services, including drive-ins, and explicitly instructed his police department to write down the license plate numbers of people attending a drive-in Easter Sunday service. The On Fire Christian Center sought an emergency temporary restraining order in the United States District Court for the Western District...

Well, at least one federal judge has some common sense. Louisville Kentucky Mayor, Greg Fischer, attempted to ban drive-in Easter church services and use local police to arrest and detain any non-compliant parishioners. The church quickly sued Mayor Greg Fischer and the city of Louisville on Friday, arguing the mayor’s directive for churches to forgo gatherings to help slow the spread of COVID-19 violated Constitutional rights and their religious liberty. The judge agreed. District Court Judge walker issued an emergency restraining order banning the city from “enforcing; attempting to enforce; threatening to enforce; or otherwise requiring compliance with any prohibition...

A judge in Louisville, Kentucky issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) that would stop Mayor Greg Fischer from preventing a church from having a drive-in Easter service. According to the First Liberty Institute, a religious law group, the TRO was filed on Friday in the US District Court for the Western District of Kentucky on behalf of On Fire Christian Church located in Louisville. Judge Justin Walker granted the order on Saturday, preventing the city from "enforcing; attempting to enforce; threatening to enforce; or otherwise requiring compliance with any prohibition on drive-in church services at On Fire," according to court...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Louisville-based church was granted an injunction in response to the city's crackdown on drive-in services. Earlier this week, On Fire Christian church sued Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and the city of Louisville, arguing the mayor's action to stop drive-in services at churches was a violation of constitutional rights. Advertisement According to court documents obtained by WLKY, Kentucky District Judge Justin Walker issued a temporary restraining order Saturday, which says the city is banned from stopping On Fire Christian Church from holding the services. "The Court enjoins Louisville from enforcing; attempting to enforce; threatening to enforce; or...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration's effort to resume federal executions got a boost on Tuesday from a U.S. appeals court, which tossed a district judge's injunction that blocked four death penalty sentences from being carried out. The 2-1 ruling by a three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit could pave the way to the Justice Department carrying out the first execution of federal death row inmates since 2003, although other issues remain to be litigated. The two judges in the majority, Greg Katsas and Neomi Rao, were both appointed to the...

President Trump continues his record-breaking transformation of the federal judiciary with the selection of Judge Justin Walker -- a young, brilliant conservative legal mind and everyday American -- for the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Walker, a new federal trial judge in Louisville, Kentucky, is a first-generation college graduate, an outside-the-beltway legal powerhouse, and a committed constitutionalist who understands a judge’s modest, but critical, role is to interpret the law as written -- not how that judge wishes it were written if he were a senator. Very few Trump could pick for this sought-after seat would...

The full D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will review a ruling upholding President Trump's authority to use appropriated funding from Congress to build a wall to secure the southern border. The U.S. House, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is appealing a lower-court decision in its lawsuit against Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The Democratic-led House alleges Trump's declaration of a national emergency to tap military funds for a border usurps Congress's constitutional authority to appropriate funds. The American Center for Law and Justice filed a brief in support of the president. Not only have Pelosi and her "extreme" colleagues "refused to...

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will rehear arguments in two Trump administration cases over a House subpoena to White House counsel Don McGahn and funding for a southern border wall. The court vacated previous rulings in both cases on Friday, according to Politico. Arguments for each are scheduled for April 28 in front of the full D.C. Circuit. House lawmakers petitioned the court last week to revisit a lawsuit to force McGahn through subpoena to testify to Congress. A divided three-judge panel ruled on Feb. 28 that the Judiciary could not decide what amounted to a political debate between...