Court of Appeals rules in favor of dropping Michael Flynn’s perjury case [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• In a split decision on Wednesday, the three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals ordered US District Judge Emmet Sullivan to drop the criminal case against President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
• In favor of the ruling, Judge Neomi Rao wrote: “In this case, the district court’s actions will result in specific harms to the exercise of the executive branch’s exclusive prosecutorial power.”
• The ruling was a victory for Flynn and the Justice Department.

The US Court of Appeals for District of Columbia on Wednesday ordered a federal judge to dismiss the criminal case against Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, for perjury to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

In a 2-1 decision, the three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled in favor of Flynn and the Trump administration. The verdict prohibits US District Judge Emmet Sullivan to exercise his discretion whether to allow the department’s motion to acquit Flynn or not. 

Sullivan is no longer authorized to hear arguments on the July 16 hearing from retired judge John Gleeson, whom he appointed as a “friend of the court.” He tapped Gleeson to argue versus dropping Flynn’s case.

“In this case, the district court’s actions will result in specific harms to the exercise of the executive branch’s exclusive prosecutorial power. The contemplated proceedings would likely require the Executive to reveal the internal deliberative process behind its exercise of prosecutorial discretion,” Judge Neomi Rao wrote, who was a Trump-appointee.

Meanwhile, Judge Robert Wilkins, an Obama-appointee, dissented. “It is a great irony that, in finding the District Court to have exceeded its jurisdiction, this Court so grievously oversteps its own.”

The ruling was a victory for Flynn and the Justice Department. Flynn was part of several former Trump officials charged under former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 US Presidential election. 

He twice pleaded guilty of lying to the FBI regarding his dealings with Sergey Kislyak, then Russian ambassador to the US.

Flynn changed his counsel in a strategy to charge the FBI of entrapping him and seek judge’s help to drop the accusation.

Source: AOL.com