Federal Appeals Court Orders Dismissal of Case Against General Flynn
Paul Craig Roberts
Federal district judge Emmet Sullivan was ordered yesterday in no uncertain terms by the US Court of Appeals to comply with the US Department of Justice’s decision to drop the invalid prosecution of General Flynn who had been coerced into a false plea by FBI threats to indict his son.
The FBI investigation of General Flynn concluded that he had done nothing wrong and recommended closing the investigation. But Democrat operative Peter Strzok pulled rank and kept the investigation open. Released FBI documents prove that Strzok and the FBI decided to frame General Flynn. The documents show that the plan is “to get him (Flynn) to lie so we can prosecute him or get him fired. . . . we should try to frame them in a way we want.”
In other words, the FBI abused its power in an effort to create a Russiagate scandal to hang around President Trump’s neck.
These now established facts played no role in the Appeals Court humiliation of the incompetent Judge Emmet Sullivan. Sullivan is so incompetent that he had no idea that no federal district judge can require the Department of Justice to prosecute anyone. Whether or not to prosecute is entirely a prosecutorial decision. The power does not reside in the judiciary, as the US Supreme Court has made clear.
But Sullivan, a black Democrat operative appointed by Bill Clinton, was determined to save for the Democrats their only trophy of the Russiagate hoax. Sullivan, on what authority no one knows, appointed John Gleeson, a retired district court judge also appointed by Bill Clinton, to help him discredit the Justice Department’s decision to drop the invalid case.
In ruling against Judge Sullivan, the Appeals Court noted: “The first troubling indication of the district court’s mistaken understanding of its role in ruling on an unopposed Rule 48(a) motion was the appointment of John Gleeson to ‘present arguments in opposition to the government’s Motion.’ Whatever the extent of the district court’s ‘narrow’ role under Rule 48(a), see Fokker Servs., 818 F.3d at 742, that role does not include designating an advocate to defend Flynn’s continued prosecution.”
Moreover, Sullivan chose Gleeson “who had publicly advocated for a full adversarial process.” In other words, Gleeson’s position was known. He was not a disinterested objective party: “He relied on news stories, tweets, and other facts outside the record to contrast the government’s grounds for dismissal here with its rationales for prosecution in other cases.”
We need to ask ourselves how people like Sullivan and Gleeson who lack legal competence and basic integrity can be appointed to the federal bench. These two have dishonored the judiciary by attempting to use it as a political weapon against the President of the United States and with no thought whatsoever to ruining the life of an innocent General Flynn who served his country well and honestly. https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2020/05/20/the-case-of-general-michael-flynn-the-use-of-law-as-a-political-weapon/
What Sullivan and Gleeson have showed us is how the pursuit of power has corrupted the basic foundations of our system. It is more evidence that The Saker is correct that the systemic collapse of the US is underway. https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2020/06/05/the-systemic-collapse-of-the-us-society-has-begun/