Should Charges Should Be Dropped Against Michael Flynn? Full DC Appellate Court To Consider Question

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the full appellate panel will take a second look at the Justice Department decision to drop all charges against Michael Flynn, President Trump’s first national security adviser, who pleaded guilty twice to lying to FBI investigators.

The court set arguments for Aug. 11.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who tried to block Justice from dropping the charges without a hearing, requested the rehearing after a divided three-judge panel sided with the administration, saying Sullivan was wrong to appoint a retired federal judge to argue against the effort to undo Flynn’s guilty plea.

Flynn pleaded guilty twice to lying to federal agents about his contacts with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the transition period before Trump took office. Attorney General William Barr told a House hearing this week there was no basis for agents to question Flynn in the first place, and, therefore, there was no basis for charges to have been brought against him.

“My obligation is to be fair to the individual,” Barr said.

The initial 2-1 appellate decision blocked Sullivan’s plan to hear arguments on the government’s decision. Appellate Judge Robert Wilkins dissented, calling the action unprecedented and premature. The majority said Sullivan overstepped his role.

Trump hailed the May decision, calling it “great.” He later told reporters Flynn had been treated “horribly.”

Attorneys for Flynn had criticized Sullivan’s planned hearing as an abuse of the justice system.

Flynn, 61, was the highest-ranking Trump adviser convicted in the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. He admitted lying to the FBI and to Vice President Mike Pence. Initially he cooperated with the investigation but later sought to withdraw from his plea agreement.

Barr ordered the case reviewed and then sought to drop the charges.

Some 1,100 former prosecutors ripped the decision as appearing "to serve President Trump’s personal political interests, rather than the interests of the public.”

Trump maintained Flynn was set up by anti-Trump agents within the FBI and special counsel’s office who were out to get him.

“They want to scare everybody into making up stories that are not true by catching them in the smallest of misstatements,” Trump tweeted in 2018.

The investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller found Russia had meddled in the 2016 election to try to sway the result in Trump’s favor. There was evidence the interference was led by the military intelligence agency, GRU, but it was unclear whether the meddling had an effect on the final result.