In this week’s White House Report Card, President Trump could have received a helpful reelection bump when an activist federal judge delayed the Justice Department’s move to drop charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Our conservative legal expert grader, Jed Babbin, said the decision by Judge Emmet Sullivan to ask an ally to counter the department’s move could end up helping Trump, who has said the effort is part of a broader “Obamagate” scandal he feels has been out to get him since before he was president.
Babbin graded a B- for the week. Our other grader, pollster John Zogby, was on assignment.
Jed Babbin
Grade B-
There wasn’t a lot to grade Trump on this week because it was a week chock full of side issues that may or may not become important by November.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed through a dead-on-arrival stimulus aid package, this one priced at about $3 trillion. It includes everything from mandatory mail-in balloting for the November election, aid to illegal immigrants, and lots of other things on the liberal wish list.
Trump sparred again with infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, and no one won this round.
Trump’s biggest win of the week happened when acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grennell released a list of Obama aides who had asked that Michael Flynn’s name be “unmasked” — i.e., revealed to them after being secretly recorded under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Joe Biden was on the list, as well as many other bigwigs, including Obama’s White House chief of staff, Dennis McDonough. Trump bashed Biden and called the mess “Obamagate.”
Meanwhile, unemployment rose by another 3 million. Trump cheered (and liberals bashed) lockdown protests.
And the judge in the Flynn case took a very unusual action. Whenever a prosecutor drops charges against an individual, the judge has no legal choice other than to grant the prosecutor’s motion to end the case. Not federal Judge Emmet Sullivan, who is presiding over the Flynn case. Sullivan usurped judicial power by holding the Justice Department motion to dismiss the Flynn case in abeyance while seeking third-party opinions on how to proceed. Apparently, Sullivan wants to convict Flynn of perjury for having confessed to the crimes the FBI entrapped him on. Sullivan’s outrageous action will be a good campaign issue for Trump.
Jed Babbin is a Washington Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in the administration of President George H.W. Bush. Follow him on Twitter: @jedbabbin
