An appeals court on Monday rejected former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s petition to have his charges dismissed.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sided 8-2 with U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan, who has been waging a personal fight to keep the charges against Flynn going even though the prosecutor, the Justice Department, asked that they be dropped.
Flynn has withdrawn his plea of guilty to lying to FBI investigators, citing evidence he was “ambushed” by agents after the bureau concluded it didn’t have a case. The prosecution was part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russian-interference probe, which concluded there was insufficient evidence of Trump-Russia collusion.
An investigation by a U.S. attorney found no foundation for the interview in which Flynn was accused of lying. The FBI already had a transcript of the telephone call at the center of the case. Unsealed evidence shows the FBI was prepared to drop the case for lack of evidence. But fired lead investigator Peter Strzok pressed ahead and set up the “ambush” interview at the White House. A memo shows FBI agents plotted before the interview to get Flynn to lie so he could be fired.
In a recent column, Flynn urged Christians in America not only to pray but to take action as the nation witnesses “a vicious assault by enemies of all that is good, and our president is having to act in ways unprecedented in decades, maybe centuries.”
Flynn’s lawyers argued Sullivan “has no interest” in continuing the case, since both the defendant and prosecutors want it dropped.
The decision sends the case back to Sullivan, who has been acting as a prosecutor.
When Sullivan first refused to dismiss the counts, as the DOJ requested, Flynn asked the higher court to compel Sullivan to move.
Flynn also wants Sullivan removed from the case.
Earlier this summer, a three-judge panel ruled in Flynn’s favor, saying the case should be dismissed, but Sullivan refused to follow the order and fought back.
