The federal judge fighting the Justice Department’s bid to drop charges against Michael Flynn blocked the type of outside opinions he is now seeking to punish the former Trump national security adviser with.
District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan rejected 24 amicus briefs, or third-party “friend of the court” filings, claiming they aren’t allowed in criminal cases, according to court records.
In one of those, Sullivan responded in December 2017, “The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure do not provide for intervention by third parties in criminal cases … The docket is the record of official proceedings related to criminal charges brought by the United States against an individual who has pled guilty to a criminal offense. For the benefit of the parties in this case and the public, the docket must be maintained in an orderly fashion and in accordance with court rules.”
Flynn’s lawyer, Sidney Powell, documented the 24 cases in a filing last month with the court and shown below.
But now, the judge wants one to help in his effort to keep the case going against Flynn, who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
In another twist in the case, questions were raised when he selected John Gleeson to produce the brief two days after the retired judge laid out a blueprint in a Washington Post column titled “The Flynn case isn’t over until the judge says it’s over.”
In it, for example, was the recommendation that Sullivan “can appoint an independent attorney to act as a ‘friend of the court,’ ensuring a full, adversarial inquiry, as the judge in the Flynn case has done in other situations where the department abdicated its prosecutorial role.”
Flynn allies now fear a setup job. They noted that Gleeson has deep ties to a key figure in the Flynn prosecution, Andrew Weissmann, and the “Obamagate” cabal stretching back to their work in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
What’s more, several Obama officials key to the Russia collusion case also worked in the office.
“Is Gleeson’s ulterior motive to vindicate his friend’s case and reputation over a fair appraisal of what has occurred here?” asked a lawyer closely following the case.
“What Judge Sullivan is doing is highly unusual and unprecedented,” said a Flynn ally.
