Federal Judge Emmet G. Sullivan has again pumped the brakes on two key requests this week which have serious effects on the federal prosecution of former national security advisor Michael Flynn.
Federal Judge Emmet G. Sullivan has again pumped the brakes on two key requests this week which have serious effects on the federal prosecution of former national security advisor Michael Flynn.
Sullivan entered two so-called “minute orders” into the case docket Wednesday morning. In the first minute order, Sullivan denied a harshly worded attempt late Tuesday by Flynn’s attorneys to have the case jettisoned on the spot. Our coverage of that document is here.
In the second minute order, Sullivan denied a move by a group which calls itself the “Watergate Prosecutors” to file amicus briefs in the case on the group’s own schedule. The group filed a notice of leave seeking to intervene; Sullivan said the matter was moot because he already decided to set up his own scheduling calendar for any so-called “friends of the court.” Thus, the denial surrounds scheduling; it is not a complete smackdown of the group’s ability to jump into the case. Our coverage of the judge’s decision to allow amicus briefs in the Flynn matter is here.
Though one of Sullivan’s Wednesday minute orders directs the Clerk of Court “not to docket the filing” submitted by the Watergate Prosecutors, CNN obtained the document anyway. It argues that Judge Sullivan has the power to sentence Flynn regardless of Flynn’s attempt to withdraw his guilty plea and regardless of the Department of Justice’s attempt to concomitantly dismiss the case.
