Decide Sullivan appointed a retired decide from Brooklyn, John Gleeson, to critique the federal government’s request and assist consider whether or
Decide Sullivan appointed a retired decide from Brooklyn, John Gleeson, to critique the federal government’s request and assist consider whether or not Mr. Flynn’s contradictory statements below oath amounted to prison contempt of court docket. Mr. Flynn’s protection lawyer then requested the appeals court docket to drive Decide Sullivan to instantly dismiss the cost, arguing that her shopper had been abused, and a panel ordered the decide to elucidate himself.
Defending Decide Sullivan’s choice to nominate a “buddy of the court docket” to critique the federal government’s new place, Ms. Wilkinson — a well known trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor who helped characterize Justice Brett Kavanaugh throughout his Supreme Court docket affirmation struggle — cited a number of circumstances during which judges have taken that step to make sure they might have adversarial arguments to think about when the prosecution and the protection had aligned.
The Justice Division and legal professionals for Mr. Flynn have argued that Decide Sullivan has little selection however to drop the case, citing a 2016 opinion by the Court docket of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that stated that the judiciary “usually lacks authority to second-guess” govt department choices about whether or not to cost or drop a case. However within the new submitting, Ms. Wilkinson argued that the 2016 case was completely different for a number of causes.
Amongst them, the trial decide within the 2016 case had already decided concerning the subject in dispute, however Decide Sullivan has not. That case didn’t contain a defendant who had already pleaded responsible, as Mr. Flynn has. And, Ms. Wilkinson argued, the prosecution’s abrupt reversal within the Flynn case prompt there could be one thing irregular, justifying the decide rigorously scrutinizing it.
The division’s movement to dismiss the cost, she famous, “featured no affidavits or declarations supporting its many new factual allegations; it was not accompanied by a movement to vacate the federal government’s prior, opposite filings and representations; it cited minimal authorized authority in assist of its view on materiality; and it didn’t point out the March 2017 statements relating to Mr. Flynn’s work for Turkey that have been related conduct for his responsible plea.”
Ms. Wilkinson additionally famous that Decide Sullivan wanted to resolve the contempt-of-court subject, other than deciding whether or not to dismiss the false-statements cost in opposition to Mr. Flynn, and argued that it could be extra environment friendly for him to evaluate all the problems collectively.
However the Justice Division transient argued that Decide Sullivan had no foundation to independently scrutinize whether or not Mr. Flynn lied below oath to the court docket, as a result of even when he did, that must be handled because the crime of perjury — which solely the Justice Division can prosecute — moderately than as contempt of court docket.
Katie Benner contributed reporting.