Name: Russia on appeal: Michael Flynn's case back in court after Justice Department's move to drop charges
Brand: salon.com
SKU: salon-com-168
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Russia on appeal: Michael Flynn's case back in court after Justice Department's move to drop charges

preview

Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr--All 10 judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit&nbsp;will hear oral arguments Tuesday about against&nbsp;President Donald Trump's first national security adviser&nbsp;, who in 2017&nbsp;&nbsp;to lying to the FBI .&nbsp;&nbsp;was upended this May when the&nbsp;Department of Justice . U.S. District&nbsp;Judge Emmet Sullivan , but Flynn's personal lawyers took the matter to&nbsp;the court of appeals ahead of a decision.In&nbsp;a , a three-judge panel&nbsp;led by Trump appointee Neomi Rao&nbsp;ruled in Flynn's favor. However,&nbsp;the&nbsp;appellate court chose to&nbsp;rehear the case "en banc"&nbsp;before its full panel of judges: the&nbsp;three judges from the initial ruling, plus their&nbsp;seven&nbsp;colleagues.&nbsp;Of the 10 judges, seven were&nbsp;appointed by Democratic presidents and&nbsp;three by&nbsp;Republicans.The&nbsp;hearings, scheduled to begin Tuesday, will&nbsp;determine the&nbsp;course of action available to Sullivan. Experts have laid&nbsp;out .&nbsp;Will the judges side with the Justice Department and&nbsp;dismiss the case&nbsp;outright? Will&nbsp;they kick the case back&nbsp;to&nbsp;Sullivan&nbsp;given Flynn could still appeal his decision through other channels? Or will&nbsp;the court reassign the matter to a different judge should it decide&nbsp;that Sullivan&nbsp;can no longer rule on the contentious case with impartiality?"The court has asked the parties to focus on the issue of whether there is any other adequate remedy besides a writ of mandamus," former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade told Salon, referencing&nbsp;the initial&nbsp;order handed down to Sullivan by the&nbsp;three-judge&nbsp;panel.Mandamus is&nbsp;"a rare last resort," McQuade, who argued that&nbsp;Flynn still has&nbsp;"a perfectly adequate remedy" through appeal, said."Unless Flynn or DOJ can explain why that route is inadequate, I would fully expect the en banc court to deny the writ of mandamus and send the case back to Judge Sullivan to decide the motion to dismiss," McQuade said."The rule requiring 'leave of court' for dismissal is to protect defendants from harassment and the public from corrupt decisions to go easy on powerful people," she added.&nbsp;"I am almost certain the court will deny the writ of mandamus and send the case back to Judge Sullivan."Though the question at hand is narrow, the&nbsp;case has become about much more than&nbsp;Flynn's fate. Trump&nbsp;and his allies,&nbsp;including Attorney General William Barr, have commandeered&nbsp;the case as&nbsp;a vehicle to counterattack alleged "deep state" officials over accusations that federal agents acted improperly when they&nbsp;investigated counterintelligence threats&nbsp;in 2016.Further, Flynn's guilty pleas&nbsp;play&nbsp;a central role in the "QAnon" conspiracy theory, which casts the former three-star general — who served under former President Barack Obama — as a martyr,&nbsp;persecuted&nbsp;for his inside knowledge of&nbsp;the previous administration's alleged efforts to undermine Trump.A number of the QAnon flock even believe Flynn may be "Q" himself, with some&nbsp;adding&nbsp;three "gold star" emojis to their Twitter pages as&nbsp;a nod to the retired general's military rank. Flynn fueled the&nbsp;rumors after Barr moved to dismiss his case, tweeting&nbsp;a July 4 video of himself and a group of family and friends .&nbsp;Several individuals tagged in the&nbsp;tweet have added the gold stars to their&nbsp;profiles, including&nbsp;&nbsp;.But Barr's move&nbsp;, with nearly 1,200 former Justice Department prosecutors and officials&nbsp;&nbsp;to encourage Sullivan to hear the case out, in addition to&nbsp;other legal experts."There is nothing in the public record to justify this dismissal," McQuade told Salon at the time.&nbsp;"Flynn lied to the FBI about undermining U.S. foreign policy with Russia."Barr, for his part, told&nbsp;&nbsp;in May that&nbsp;"people sometimes plead to things that turn out not to be crimes."Roger Sollenberger was a staff writer at Salon (2020-21). Follow him on Twitter&nbsp;.MORE FROM

Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr--All 10 judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit&nbsp;will hear oral arguments Tuesday about against&nbsp;President Donald Trump's first national security adviser&nbsp;, who in 2017&nbsp;&nbsp;to lying to the FBI .&nbsp;&nbsp;was upended this May when the&nbsp;Department of Justice . U.S. District&nbsp;Judge Emmet Sullivan , but Flynn's personal lawyers took the matter to&nbsp;the court of appeals ahead of a decision.In&nbsp;a , a three-judge panel&nbsp;led by Trump appointee Neomi Rao&nbsp;ruled in Flynn's favor....

public

SollenbergerRC

The original online source for news, politics and entertainment | Find us on Instagram & TikTok: salonofficial | Subscribe to our newsletters linked in bio.

Russia on appeal: Michael Flynn's case back in court after Justice Department's move to drop charges

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS