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Retired General Michael Flynn had only served a little more than three weeks as a national security adviser in 2017. But the legal consequences worried the courts until today. Now, a federal judge has implemented current President Donald Trump’s Flynn pardon. The criminal case against Flynn is off the table.
Judge Emmet Sullivan did not want to leave the matter uncommented. In 43 pages he explains in a statement that he is legally obliged to suspend the process. At the same time, he said: Under normal circumstances and without Trump’s intervention, there would have been no acquittal. The arguments on Flynn’s side were too weak for that. Trump’s pardon was “unusually broad” and in no way meant that Flynn was innocent.
In the course of the investigation into possible Russian influence in the 2016 US presidential elections, the so-called Russia affair, he had admitted that he had lied to the Federal Police FBI.
He is also said to have lied to Vice President Mike Pence about the matter. Flynn was the only one to plead guilty to FBI Special Investigator Robert Mueller’s investigation. Shortly before a verdict was expected at his trial, Flynn in January requested to withdraw his confession.
Criticisms also of the approach of the Ministry of Justice
In May, the Justice Ministry called for an end to the proceedings in a very unusual step. One is not convinced that Flynn’s hearing in January 2017 was based on a legitimate investigation, he said, among other things. Judge Sullivan also criticized this approach, saying it “did not meet the standards.”
Democrats had also condemned Flynn’s November pardon. The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Democrat Adam Schiff, accused the president of having “abused” his powers to pardon. Trump would reward “friends and political allies” and protect those who lied for him.
