Flynn judge asks appeals court to reconsider dismissal order

A federal court judge is putting up a highly unusual fight against an appeals court ruling seeking to immediately shut down the prosecution of former national security adviser Michael Flynn for making false statements in the FBI’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Lawyers for U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan filed a petition Thursday asking the full bench of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to review a 2-1 decision a panel of that court issued last month, directing Sullivan to cancel his plans for a hearing and instead grant the government’s request to drop the case. Sullivan’s petition says the steps he was taking, like setting a schedule for legal briefs, inviting friend-of-the-court submissions and scheduling a hearing, are commonplace. The appeals court panel’s earlier decision to shut down that process represents “a dramatic break from precedent that threatens the orderly administration of justice,” the judge’s submission argues. The move by a district court judge to ask for so-called en banc review of a panel ruling is exceptionally rare. However, it is just the latest in a series of extraordinary developments in recent weeks in the criminal case against Flynn, who spent just 24 days as President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser...MORE