IN THE FLYNN CASE, DOJ SEEKS DELAY
I wrote most recently about developments in the case against former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn in “In the Flynn case, you’ve got to be kidding me.” General Flynn is the preeminent victim of the Russia hoax; the case against him was set up by the dirty Comey brigade in the senior ranks of the FBI (including Comey himself), with the assistance of Acting Attorney General Sally Yates. Flynn nevertheless pleaded guilty in the Mueller miasma, apparently to spare his son from prosecution and avoid further impoverishment at the hands of the government he served in uniform for 33 years with great distinction.
Awaiting sentencing on the false-statements charge to which he has pleaded guilty, Flynn now filed a motion seeking previously withheld exculpatory evidence (so-called Brady material) evidence from the government. He needs such evidence to bring a motion for dismissal of the case on the ground of government misconduct in the case. When he makes such a motion, he carries a heavy burden to establish egregious government misconduct.
District of Columbia District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan has all but invited Flynn to withdraw his guilty plea and litigate the charge against him. Represented by Sidney Powell in this phase of the proceedings, he is instead sticking with his motion for Brady material. I have no doubt that Judge Sullivan would allow Flynn to withdraw his plea, but Flynn has not sought withdrawal. Peter Svab has a good summary of the proceedings on Powell’s motion here at the Epoch Times site.
Judge Sullivan has yet to rule on Flynn’s motion. The government has opposed Flynn’s motion and urged the court to sentence Flynn. At the Federalist Margot Cleveland now reports, however, that prosecutors have filed a motion to cancel the supplemental sentencing memorandum due in mid-December that was to be followed by Flynn’s sentencing on December 18. “[A]fter having previously argued stridently that there was no reason to delay Flynn’s sentencing,” Cleveland writes, “the government has asked the long-time federal judge to put both the briefing and the sentencing hearing on hold.”
Cleveland quotes the government’s two reasons for supporting delay (at long last, so to speak). The first ground is Judge Sullivan’s failure to rule on Flynn’s pending Brady motion. Cleveland caught my eye quoting the government’s second ground: “that the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is conducting an Examination of the Department’s and the FBI’s Compliance with Legal Requirements and Policies in Applications Filed with the US. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Relating to a certain US. Person[.]” The government further asserts that “the parties expect that the report of this investigation will examine topics related to several matters raised by the defendant.”
You don’t say. Cleveland comments: “It’s telling that federal prosecutors included this added justification in the joint motion to delay the sentencing proceedings. Until now, government attorneys had argued that Powell’s claims of prosecutorial misconduct were unwarranted or irrelevant or both. Yet now prosecutors are tacitly acknowledging that misconduct in the Carter Page FISA case bears on their criminal case against Flynn.” I think that should read “might bear” rather than “bears,” but we shall see.
One can’t help but wonder if a day of reckoning for the government’s misconduct is ever to come in the Flynn case. Our friend Techno Fog offers additional speculations on what the government might be concealing here on his Twitter feed. The case against Flynn is foul. The day of reckoning for the government’s misconduct is overdue.
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