In a brief accompanying a motion for recusal, Lt. General Michael Flynn’s attorney, Sidney Powell, laid out in excruciating detail why Judge Emmet Sullivan has disqualified himself from any further participation in Flynn’s case.
In the first appearance Michael Flynn ever made before Sullivan, allegedly for sentencing, Judge Sullivan, unprovoked by anything, became unhinged and completely blew up, accusing Flynn of treason and selling out the country. Since the government was not charging any of those crimes, instead charging a simple false statement case based on Flynn’s statements to FBI agents at the White House on January 24, 2017, Sullivan’s comments were clearly off the wall. Powell notes that MSNBC host Rachel Maddow used almost exactly the same language the night before on MSNBC. Needless to say, sentencing was postponed.
When Attorney General Barr took office, based on the irregularities in the case, which Powell had managed to discover when she came on as Flynn’s attorney, he ordered a review of the Special Counsel’s files in the case to determine whether exculpatory evidence had been hidden from the defense. Indeed, it had.
The FBI had cleared Flynn of any wrongdoing by the end of December, 2016, but a January 5, 2017 meeting in the Oval Office, attended by Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Susan Rice, James Comey, and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, decided to proceed against Flynn no matter what. The FBI concocted an ambush interview at the White House concerning Flynn’s perfectly legal conversations with Russian Ambassador Kisylak, in order, in the words of FBI Counterintelligence Chief Bill Priestap, “to get Flynn to lie so that he can be prosecuted or fired.” That plan blew up when the FBI agents sent to entrap Flynn found that he didn’t lie. Their original account of the interview disappeared and was altered and edited to produce a different account of the interview. The lead FBI agent protested constantly that Flynn was totally innocent only to be overruled by superiors. Based on this, the Justice Department moved to dismiss the case.
Judge Sullivan then took the extraordinary step of seeking outside “amicus” to continue to prosecute Flynn, determining whether Flynn should be charged with perjury for withdrawing his guilty plea. This was bizarre since criminal defendants often withdraw their pleas. It also violates the Constitution’s separation of powers. The man Sullivan picked, Powell notes, John Gleeson, had written an op-ed in the Washington Post attacking Flynn and the DOJ for dismissing the prosecution. Gleeson is a friend and mentor to Robert Mueller attack dog, Andrew Weissmann. His law firm also represents Sally Yates, a grotesque conflict of interest. Powell sought an end to this nonsense by filing a mandamus with the Court of Appeals. A panel granted the mandamus but the entire court, sitting en banc, ruled it was “premature.” Judge Sullivan himself appeared as a party against Flynn in the Court of Appeals.
In a ludicrous hearing on September 29th to consider dismissal of the charges against Flynn, Sullivan and Gleeson put on a show, largely for the media, to feed out a fake story attacking Attorney General Barr for his “corrupt relationship” to the “lawless” president, Donald Trump. They also attacked Sidney Powell personally and professionally threatening ethics complaints. Powell has asked for discovery on all of Judge Sullivan’s “extrajudicial contacts” including those with his close friend and Obama “wingman,” Eric Holder.
