Tag: Barr weakening the rule of law

Court-appointed former judge accuses Flynn of perjury, urges court to not drop charges

The Hill logoA former judge appointed to argue against the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) extraordinary decision to drop charges against Michael Flynn urged a federal judge not to let the Trump administration withdraw its case and accused the former national security adviser of perjury.

In an 82-page filing submitted Wednesday, John Gleeson, the former judge acting as an outside counsel, accused the DOJ of “gross abuse of prosecutorial power” in its handling of the case against President Trump‘s former adviser.

“The Government’s ostensible grounds for seeking dismissal are conclusively disproven by its own briefs filed earlier in this very proceeding,” Gleeson wrote. “They contradict and ignore this Court’s prior orders, which constitute law of the case. They are riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact. And they depart from positions that the Government has taken in other cases.” Continue reading.

DOJ: Judge Was Wrong To Rule That House Has Right To See Secret Mueller Docs

The Justice Department says releasing secret grand jury documents from then-special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe to House lawmakers engaged in the impeachment inquiry could discourage future witnesses to presidential abuse from cooperating with grand juries.

“It is not difficult to imagine that a witness in a future investigation of alleged presidential misconduct might be deterred from testifying fully or frankly if she believed that her testimony would be readily disclosed to the House for use in impeachment proceedings,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in a brief filed on Monday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Attorneys for the Justice Department are asking the appeals court to reverse a lower court’s decision ordering the transfer of Mueller grand jury material to House investigators on a two-pronged argument: that an impeachment inquiry is not a “judicial proceeding” and that the House does not really need the documents to complete the impeachment investigation.

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