Justice Department bid to drop criminal case against Michael Flynn returns to court
Source: Washington Post
Legal Issues
Justice Department bid to drop criminal case against Michael Flynn returns to court
By Ann E. Marimow
August 11, 2020 at 9:32 a.m. EDT
The legal and political battle over the Justice Department's effort to drop its prosecution of President Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn returned to court Tuesday.
The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is considering whether U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan must immediately sign off on the government's move to undo Flynn's guilty plea.
A divided three-judge panel in late June ordered Sullivan to close the case and said he was wrong to appoint a retired federal judge to argue against the government's position. But the full court, sitting Tuesday with 10 judges, agreed to take a second look at the unusual case that tests the power of the judiciary to check the executive branch.
In May, Sullivan refused to go along with the government's request to drop charges against Flynn, who twice pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents about his contacts with Russia's ambassador in Washington before Trump took office in 2017. Instead, Sullivan appointed retired New York judge John Gleeson to oppose the Justice Department's request.
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Ann Marimow
Ann Marimow covers legal affairs for The Washington Post. She joined The Post in 2005 and has covered state government and politics in California, New Hampshire and Maryland. Follow https://twitter.com/amarimow
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/justice-department-bid-to-drop-criminal-case-against-michael-flynn-returns-to-court/2020/08/10/af06f540-db24-11ea-8051-d5f887d73381_story.html
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