The Patriot Post® · Sullivan Dismisses Flynn Case, Declares Him Guilty Anyway
On Tuesday, Judge Emmet Sullivan finally dismissed the case against Michael Flynn. Now, seven months after the Justice Department dropped its case against President Donald Trump’s former national security advisor after Attorney General William Barr determined that members of the FBI set up a “perjury trap” against Flynn with the aim of getting him fired, the saga is over. Almost.
That didn’t stop Sullivan from injecting his own political bias into the case one last time. He had earlier refused to dismiss the case after Flynn’s withdrawn guilty plea despite the DOJs request — all so he could keep a critical cloud over the Trump administration. And he’s not about to let Flynn off without smearing his name. As his final act in dismissing the case, Sullivan huffed that the only reason he was doing so was because the case had become moot following Trump’s pardon. Sullivan further declared that Flynn was not innocent and that the DOJ’s decision to drop the case was “dubious.”
What was dubious was Sullivan’s decision to effectively act as prosecutor, judge, and jury. As constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley put it, Sullivan’s comments in his 43-page dismissal were “grossly inappropriate” and “gratuitous.” “It was really grossly inappropriate for him to essentially declare a verdict of a person who wasn’t even sentenced,” Turely noted. “That’s what this was. And … judges usually don’t even address the guilt of a defendant until sentencing. They certainly avoid that when you’re having a dismissal of a case. They don’t talk about guilt or innocence, because the defendant doesn’t have the right to appeal those types of gratuitous comments. And that’s what this was. It was gratuitous, and it was wrong for the court to do it.”
Effectively, what Sullivan has done is attempt to destroy Flynn without being able to legally punish him. Now Flynn, who has been bankrupted by Barack Obama’s grossly politicized Justice Department in their efforts to oust Trump, has at least secured his freedom. The shame is that an ethically compromised and politically biased judge, Sullivan, will essentially get away with his abuse of America’s justice system. The simple truth is that Sullivan has exposed himself as anything but an impartial judge and therefore is not fit to serve on the bench. He should be removed immediately. But, thanks to Democrats, such action will never be taken.