Michael Flynn's attorneys say federal judge has 'hijacked' case; they ask to deny bid for rehearing

Michael Flynn’s legal team Monday accused the federal judge overseeing his criminal case of “hijacking” it for political purposes and asked a federal appeals court to deny his bid to keep the Justice Department’s prosecution alive. “The district court has hijacked and extended a criminal prosecution for almost three months for its own purposes,” Flynn’s attorneys wrote in a filing with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Flynn, who briefly served as President Trump’s first national security adviser, said Judge Emmett Sullivan has no standing in the case. Therefore, he can’t ask a full slate of judges on the appellate court to review a decision by a three-judge panel on the same court to dismiss the prosecution. “To allow Judge Sullivan to delay and generate litigation against a criminal defendant is unconstitutional,” wrote Flynn attorney Sydney Powell. “This action itself diminishes the status of the federal judiciary as an independent bulwark for the rule of law.” Judge Sullivan has resisted calls to dismiss the Flynn case even as the Justice Department sought to abandon the prosecution. Flynn had pleaded guilty twice to lying to the FBI about his conversations with the then-Russian ambassador just before the Trump administration took over...MORE