Flynn’s lawyer files a writ of mandamus, slams the judge

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Lawyers for retired lieutenant general and former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn filed an emergency petition for extraordinary relief with a federal appeals court on Tuesday that could backfire. If it’s denied, which some lawyers say will happen, Judge Sullivan will be even less likely to drop the case.

Sidney Powell filed an Emergency Petition For A Writ of Mandamus. Powell requested that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit effectively bypass U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan and direct the lower court to “grant the Justice Department’s Motion to Dismiss” long-controversial charges of lying to federal investigators.

She wants the judge replaced.

She also slammed the judge:

The district judge’s orders reveal his plan to continue the case indefinitely, rubbing salt in General Flynn’s open wound from the Government’s misconduct and threatening him with criminal contempt pleas. Similarly, Judge Sullivan granted a short motion to dismiss the prosecution of Senator Stevens. [Flynn] has no alternative avenue of relief, his right to relief is “clear and indisputable” and, in these extraordinary circumstances, issuance of the writ is not just appropriate, it follows “as a matter of course.”…

As Judge [Richard] Posner wryly noted in [another] case, “The judge . . . is playing U.S. Attorney. It is no doubt a position that he could fill with distinction, but it is occupied by another person.” Here, that person is the signatory of the Government’s Motion to Dismiss, the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. Like the district judge in [the other case], the district judge below has taken over the role of prosecutor. “Mandamus serves as a check on that kind of ‘usurpation of judicial power.'”

Nor was that the end of the matter. The district judge’s latest actions–failing to grant the Government’s Motion to Dismiss, appointing a biased and highly-political amicus who has expressed hostility and disdain towards the Justice Department’s decision to dismiss the prosecution, and the promise to set a briefing schedule for widespread amicus participation in further proceedings–bespeaks a judge who is not only biased against [Flynn], but also revels in the notoriety he has created by failing to take the simple step of granting a motion he has no authority to deny,” the petition accused later on. “This is an umpire who has decided to steal public attention from the players and focus it on himself. He wants to pitch, bat, run bases, and play shortstop. In truth, he is way out in left field.”

Law & Crime quoted lawyers who have a problem with the basic argument.

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, who has consistently sounded the alarm about the circumstances surrounding the FBI’s interview of Flynn, said the appeal presented legal questions that the court is “unlikely to reach on appeal.”

Gen. Michael Flynn’s attorney, Sidney Powell, appears to be following Constitutional Scholar and conservative pundit Mark Levin’s suggestion for how to deal with the judge who refused to grant the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the case against her client.


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The Golden Age
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The Golden Age
3 years ago

Lawfare is a two way street.