{"id":1440,"date":"2020-06-24T08:55:32","date_gmt":"2020-06-24T15:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=1440"},"modified":"2020-06-24T09:04:56","modified_gmt":"2020-06-24T16:04:56","slug":"usca-dc-orders-flynn-case-dismissal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=1440","title":{"rendered":"USCA-DC Orders Flynn Case Dismissal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cadc.uscourts.gov\/internet\/opinions.nsf\/79798A0FA0633B7985258591004DD3E7\/$file\/20-5143-1848728.pdf\">ordered<\/a> the district judge in the Michael Flynn case to grant the Government&#8217;s motion to dismiss. The opinion is by Judge Rao, joined by Judge Henderson. The decision is not a surprise, given the strong language in the Circuit&#8217;s <em>Fokker<\/em> precedent. See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/2020\/05\/21\/usca-dc-orders-response-from-flynn-judge\/\">this post<\/a>. Judge Wilkins dissents in part, disagreeing with the majority&#8217;s decision to go forward on the merits now rather than wait for the district court to rule on the motion.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->The decision to go forward now was likely motivated in part by the district judge&#8217;s manner of proceeding, his choice of an <em>amicus<\/em> to make the case against dismissal, see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/2020\/06\/10\/john-gleeson-making-the-same-old-mistake\/\">this post<\/a>, and the <em>amicus<\/em>&#8216;s widely panned, shrill, partisan brief. The majority was clearly appalled at the goings-on in the district court:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We must also assure ourselves that issuance of the writ \u201cis appropriate under the circumstances.\u201d <em>Cheney<\/em>, 542 U.S. at 381. The circumstances of this case demonstrate that mandamus is appropriate to prevent the judicial usurpation of executive power. The first troubling indication of the district court\u2019s mistaken understanding of its role in ruling on an unopposed Rule 48(a) motion was the appointment of John Gleeson to \u201cpresent arguments <em>in opposition<\/em> to the government\u2019s Motion.\u201d Order Appointing Amicus Curiae, No. 1:17-cr-232, ECF No. 205, at 1 (May 13, 2020) (emphasis added). Whatever the extent of the district court\u2019s \u201cnarrow\u201d role under Rule 48(a), <em>see Fokker Servs<\/em>., 818 F.3d at 742, that role does not include designating an advocate to defend Flynn\u2019s continued prosecution. The district court\u2019s order put two \u201ccoequal branches of the Government \u2026 on a collision course.\u201d <em>Cheney<\/em>, 542 U.S. at 389. The district court chose an amicus who had publicly advocated for a full adversarial process. Based on the record before us, the contemplated hearing could require the government to defend its charging decision on two fronts\u2014answering the district court\u2019s inquiries as well as combatting Gleeson\u2019s arguments. Moreover, the district court\u2019s invitation to members of the general public to appear as amici suggests anything but a circumscribed review. <em>See<\/em> May 12, 2020, Minute Order, No. 1:17-cr-232. This sort of broadside inquiry would rewrite Rule 48(a)\u2019s narrow \u201cleave of court\u201d provision.<\/p>\n<p>And we need not guess if this irregular and searching scrutiny will continue; it already has. On May 15, Gleeson moved for permission to file a brief addressing, among other things, \u201cany additional factual development [he] may need before finalizing [his] argument\u201d and suggesting a briefing and argument schedule. Mot. to File Amicus Br., No. 1:17-cr-232, ECF No. 209, at 1\u20132 (May 15, 2020). The district court granted the motion and then set a lengthy briefing schedule and a July 16, 2020, hearing. <em>See<\/em> May 19, 2020, Minute Order, No. 1:17-cr-232. In his brief opposing the government\u2019s motion, Gleeson asserted the government\u2019s reasons for dismissal were \u201cpretext\u201d and accused the government of \u201cgross prosecutorial abuse.\u201d Amicus Br., No. 1:17-cr-232, ECF No. 225, at 38\u201359 (June 10, 2020). He relied on news stories, tweets, and other facts outside the record to contrast the government\u2019s grounds for dismissal here with its rationales for prosecution in other cases. See <em>id<\/em>. at 43, 46\u201347, 57\u201359.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today ordered the district judge in the Michael Flynn case to grant the Government&#8217;s motion to dismiss. The opinion is by Judge Rao, joined by Judge Henderson. The decision is not a surprise, given the strong language in the Circuit&#8217;s Fokker precedent. See this post. Judge Wilkins dissents in part, disagreeing with the majority&#8217;s decision to go forward on the merits now rather than wait for the district court to rule on the motion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-notorious-cases","category-prosecutors"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>USCA-DC Orders Flynn Case Dismissal - Crime &amp; Consequences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=1440\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"USCA-DC Orders Flynn Case Dismissal - Crime &amp; Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today ordered the district judge in the Michael Flynn case to grant the Government&#8217;s motion to dismiss. The opinion is by Judge Rao, joined by Judge Henderson. The decision is not a surprise, given the strong language in the Circuit&#8217;s Fokker precedent. See this post. Judge Wilkins dissents in part, disagreeing with the majority&#8217;s decision to go forward on the merits now rather than wait for the district court to rule on the motion.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=1440\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Crime &amp; Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CriminalJusticeLegalFoundation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-06-24T15:55:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-06-24T16:04:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/FB_DefaultLJ.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kent Scheidegger\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kent Scheidegger\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=1440\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=1440\",\"name\":\"USCA-DC Orders Flynn Case Dismissal - Crime &amp; Consequences\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-06-24T15:55:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-06-24T16:04:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1ab62da9ed4ddd3a58d70c77eef37356\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=1440#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=1440\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=1440#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"USCA-DC Orders Flynn Case Dismissal\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/\",\"name\":\"Crime &amp; Consequences\",\"description\":\"Crime and criminal law\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1ab62da9ed4ddd3a58d70c77eef37356\",\"name\":\"Kent Scheidegger\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.cjlf.org\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"USCA-DC Orders Flynn Case Dismissal - Crime &amp; Consequences","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=1440","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"USCA-DC Orders Flynn Case Dismissal - Crime &amp; Consequences","og_description":"A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. 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