More than a dozen lawyers who prosecuted members of President Richard Nixon’s administration following the Watergate scandal have asked the federal judge overseeing the case against retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn to ignore a Justice Department request to drop the charges against him.
In a motion filed with the court this week, 16 former prosecutors compared Attorney General William Barr’s request to that of the Watergate cover-up.
“The parallels and the contrasts between the Watergate affair and the present situation now before this Court make manifest that Amici have a direct and substantial interest in the proper disposition of the pending Motion directed by the incumbent Attorney General to protect a close ally of the President,” they wrote to U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia Emmet Sullivan.
Sullivan, who was appointed to the court by President Bill Clinton, indicated late Tuesday he is open to reviewing friend-of-the-court filings from interested outside parties before deciding how to rule on Barr’s motion regarding the Flynn case.
Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with members of the Russian government. After switching legal teams, Flynn told the court that he was “innocent of this crime.”
Newly unsealed House Intelligence Committee documents showed federal agents pushed ahead with an investigation into Flynn despite having no reason to believe he had lied to or misled them about his contacts.
Sidney Powell, an ex-federal prosecutor who has taken over Flynn’s legal defense, called Sullivan’s reluctance to dismiss the case immediately “a travesty of justice.”
“No rule allows the filing, and the self-proclaimed collection of ‘Watergate Prosecutors’ has no cognizable special interest,” Flynn’s team told the Washington Examiner. “Separation of powers forecloses their appearance here. Only the Department of Justice and the defense can be heard.”
Trump and his defenders have used the new revelations in the Flynn case to hammer former President Barack Obama and members of the intelligence community, some of whom were found to have abused the FISA court system to obtain warrants and to continue a counterintelligence investigation.
They have dubbed the scandal “Obamagate.”
Barr has appointed a special prosecutor to determine if any criminal charges should arise from these abuses.
