Judge formally dismisses Michael Flynn case after Trump pardon

[spanone]

(CNN) - Judge Emmet Sullivan of the DC District Court on Tuesday dismissed Michael Flynn's criminal case as moot, following Flynn's pardon by President Donald Trump, ending a tortured three-year-long proceeding.

After lying to the FBI and to members of Trump's administration in early 2017, Flynn lost his job as national security adviser, setting in motion a series of events that led to Trump firing FBI Director James Comey and the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate Russian interference in the election and the President obstructing justice.

In December 2017, Flynn became one of the most significant and earliest defendants to plead guilty and cooperate in the Mueller investigation. Earlier this year, Flynn -- represented by a new set of lawyers, including Sidney Powell -- and the Justice Department attempted to undo his guilty plea in court.

The case often has fueled Trump's smears of Mueller's investigation as a "witch hunt," leading to the eventual pardon last month.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/08/politics/michael-flynn/index.html

[StarfishSaver]

1. That's ok. He's probably committing more crimes even as we speak

He'll eventually get caught doing something he wasn't pardoned for.

[spanone]

6. 👍🏼 WaPo: Michael Flynn judge says pardon doesn't mean ex-national security adviser is innocent

A federal judge dismissed Michael Flynn’s prosecution Tuesday after President Trump’s pardon, but said the act of clemency does not mean the former national security adviser is innocent of lying to FBI agents about his talks with the Russian government before Trump took office.

In formally ending Flynn’s three-year legal saga, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said he probably would have denied the Justice Department’s controversial effort this year to drop the case, which Democrats and many legal experts said appeared to be an attempt by Attorney General William P. Barr to bend the rule of law to help a Trump ally.

Sullivan expressed deep skepticism about the Justice Department’s stated reasons for abandoning the case, criticizing it for applying a different set of rules to Flynn, who twice pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador during special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe of 2016 election interference.

The judge also said he was troubled by the government’s “dubious” rationales as well as aspects of its “ever-evolving justifications” that ignored applicable law, appeared to be irrelevant or to contradict prosecutors’ previous statements.

***PayWall***https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/michael-flynn-case-dismissed/2020/12/08/31abb5de-0975-11eb-a166-dc429b380d10_story.html

[Cameliano]

2. The founding fathers were stupid

Presidents shouldn't pardon people.

[StarfishSaver]

7. They weren't stupid and presidents SHOULD have the power to pardon people

Trump abused the power - as he's abused most of his powers - but that doesn't mean a president shouldn't have it.

[Cameliano]

8. Why should presidents pardon anyone?

That's a tradition that comes from the kings.

[StarfishSaver]

9. The pardon power is intended to be - and often is - a check on the criminal justice system

Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist No. 74:

"The criminal code of every country partakes so much of necessary severity, that without an easy access to exceptions in favor of unfortunate guilt, justice would wear a countenance too sanguinary and cruel."

[Moostache]

3. So, Flynn gets a pardon but he was framed?

If framed, then why the need for a pardon?
If innocent, then why the confessions?
If too stupid to know better, why not just admit it?

[StarfishSaver]

10. I think Flynn is a tank criminal who doesn't deserve a pardon, but

it's possible to have been framed and still deserve a pardon. In fact, a person who was convicted as a result of having been framed is a prime candidate for a pardon.

For example, Clarence Norris, the last survivor of the Scottsboro Boys, who were framed for and convicted of a rape that never happened, was pardoned decades after his conviction. It wasn't a presidential pardon - he was pardoned by, of all people, Alabama Governor George Wallace.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Hey, Flynn's wide open in the future if he tries something funny again.

[exboyfil]

5. Any chance on the state charge

of conspiracy to kidnap? Also Flynn's son doesn't have a pardon to this point. He seems like someone that should be pursued since Flynn reneged on the first plea deal.