The Department of Justice pushed for the case against Michael Flynn to be dismissed after a "pressure campaign" by President Donald Trump, a retired judge argued in a new court filing.
According to CNBC, retired federal judge John Gleeson — who is arguing against the DOJ's request in the Flynn case — accused the department of getting involved in politics.
"Based entirely on evidence already in the public view, the only coherent explanation for the Government's exceedingly irregular motion — as well as its demonstrable pretexts — is that the Justice Department has yielded to a pressure campaign led by the President for his political associate," Gleeson wrote.
Flynn was fired as national security adviser on Feb. 13, 2017, after it was revealed that he lied about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. The FBI eventually charged him with lying to federal agents and he pleaded guilty to doing so in December of that year.
But Flynn was never sentenced, and after months of Trump publicly bashing the case, the DOJ said in May of this year that it intended to drop all charges against the retired Army lieutenant general.
But the judge overseeing Flynn's case, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, pushed back on that and appointed Gleeson to argue against the DOJ effort to dismiss the case.
The DOJ, Gleeson wrote, "makes virtually no effort to deny or rebut the powerful evidence that its ... motion improperly seeks to place this Court's imprimatur on a corrupt, politically motivated favor for the President's friend and ally."
He added, "The Government does not disagree with any of this — presumably because it cannot. Indeed, the Government nowhere even mentions the President's personal lobbying, let alone his virulent attacks on those previously involved in this prosecution.
"The Government has now had two chances to explain why its sudden doubt that Flynn lied is worthy of credence. It has failed. It is not entitled to leave of court on this basis."
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