DOJ committed ‘gross abuse’ of power in asking to drop case against ex-Trump advisor Michael Flynn, says former judge tapped to review request

A former federal judge on Wednesday blasted the U.S. Justice Department for what he called “a gross abuse of prosecutorial power” in seeking to drop its criminal case against Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump‘s first national security advisor.

“The Government has engaged in highly irregular conduct to benefit a political ally of the President,” the ex-judge, John Gleeson, wrote in a scathing legal filing opposing the proposed dismissal. Trump has strongly criticized the prosecution of Flynn.

Gleeson, who was assigned by the judge in Flynn’s case to advise him on several questions, also wrote that the retired Army lieutenant general “has indeed committed perjury” in his statements to the case judge during proceedings in the case, “for which he deserves punishment.”

But Gleeson added that while federal Judge Emmet Sullivan has the power to hold Flynn in criminal contempt for perjuring himself during a plea hearing and another hearing conducted by Sullivan, the judge should “not exercise that authority.”

“Rather, [Sullivan] should take Flynn’s perjury into account in sentencing him on the offense to which he has already admitted guilt,” Gleeson wrote in a filing in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

Flynn in that same court twice admitted under oath to Sullivan that he lied to FBI agents about his discussions with Russia’s ambassador to the United States in the weeks leading up to Trump’s inauguration. He has yet to be sentenced in the case.

The Justice Department had no immediate comment on Gleeson’s court filing.

Flynn’s lawyer, Sidney Powell, in an email said that the filing was “predictable and wrong. Clearly result-driven to achieve the maximum possible punishment of an innocent man.”

Gleeson was appointed by Sullivan to provide legal arguments against the Justice Department’s highly unusual request last month that the case be dismissed.

Sullivan also asked Gleeson to address whether Flynn should be punished for committing perjury by lying to Sullivan in his guilty pleas.

Flynn now says he is not guilty of that crime, raising the question of whether he lied under oath during court hearings when he admitted criminal conduct.

Flynn’s lawyers have asked a federal appeals court to remove Sullivan from the case because he has not promptly granted the dismissal requests by DOJ and Flynn’s defense team, because he asked Gleeson to file legal briefs and because the judge is allowing outside parties to make arguments in court filings on the dismissal bid.

The appeals court has yet to rule.

Gleeson, a lawyer in private practice who previously served on the federal bench in New York City, in his court filing Wednesday hammered on the Justice Department for seeking to drop the prosecution for what Gleeson deemed baseless grounds.

In a filing seeking the dismissal, the then-interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Timothy Shea, argued that the FBI’s interview of Flynn was not justified by a counterintelligence investigation and that his lies about what he said to a Russian diplomat were not “material” to that probe. Shea is a former advisor to Attorney General William Barr, the head of the Justice Department.

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/10/doj-abused-power-in-seeking-michael-flynn-case-dismissal-ex-judge-says.html