Former President Donald Trump’s national security adviser Michael Flynn leaves the U.S. Courthouse E. Barrett Prettyman on June 24, 2019 in Washington, DC.
Alex Wroblewski | fake pictures
A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected his order that a trial judge dismiss the criminal case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn, saying he will listen to the arguments on the matter again.
The ruling is a blow to both retired Lt. Gen. Flynn and the Justice Department, which has asked the trial judge to drop the charge against him for lying to FBI agents about his talks with a Russian diplomat over the weeks. prior to the inauguration of the President. Donald Trump.
Flynn pleaded guilty in late 2017 to that charge.
But for more than a year, he has tried to undo that guilty plea, and recently found the support of the Justice Department in that effort.
The judge in the case, Emmet Sullivan, of the US District Court in Washington, DC, has not acted on the department’s motion to dismiss the case.
Instead, Sullivan appointed an outside attorney to argue that the case should continue and proceed to Flynn’s sentencing. The judge also allowed outside parties to influence the question of whether to dismiss the case.
Flynn’s lawyers objected to Sullivan shuffling over the dismissal request and related action, and asked an appeals court to compel him to suspend the dismissal.
A panel of three judges at the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington in late June ordered Sullivan to dismiss the case after hearing arguments from the judge’s attorneys, Flynn and prosecutors.
But Sullivan asked the full appeals court to reconsider that order.
The appeals court agreed to do so on Thursday, saying that a majority of 10 judges who considered Sullivan’s request voted to approve it.
The order overrides the three-judge panel’s order for Sullivan to mitigate Flynn’s case.
The full list of judges in the appeals court established oral arguments for the so-called reconsideration hearing en banc on August 11.
The court said both sides should be read to address the question of whether “there are no other appropriate means to achieve the desired relief.”
His order implies that at least some appeals court judges believe that Sullivan should have an opportunity to rule on the dismissal request before an appeal is heard about his refusal to do so.
Sullivan’s lawyer, Beth Wilkinson, in her oral argument for a bench hearing, had said that the appeals panel’s decision that the case should be dismissed before Sullivan ruled “marks a dramatic break from the precedent that threatens the orderly administration of justice. “
Flynn’s attorneys replied that the three-judge panel had acted appropriately.
Wilkinson rejected CNBC’s request for comment on Thursday.
Flynn’s attorney, Sidney Powell, and a Justice Department spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The White House declined to comment.
Flynn served as Trump’s first national security adviser in just several weeks. He was fired in February 2017 after lying to Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of his pre-opening discussions with Sergey Kislyak, who at the time was the Russian ambassador to Washington.
Flynn had falsely claimed, to both the FBI and Pence, that he and Kislyak had not discussed the sanctions imposed on Russia by the Obama administration in retaliation for Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
When asked on July 13 if he could forgive Flynn, Trump said, “I don’t have to make a decision … until I find out what’s going to happen.”
Earlier this month, the president granted clemency to Roger Stone, a former Trump campaign aide whose 40-month term was commuted by Trump.
Stone was convicted last fall at trial for lying to Congress, obstruction, and witness tampering.
Trump was furious that his friend Stone was the victim of a “Russia hoax,” and has expressed the same opinion regarding the Flynn case.
Both Flynn and Stone were charged as part of the investigation into Russian interference by former special adviser Robert Mueller in the 2016 election.
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