‘Profoundly Misguided’: Ex-Roger Stone Prosecutor Condemns DOJ for Flynn Dismissal

Jonathan Kravis, a longtime prosecutor who resigned from the Department of Justice over its handling of Roger Stone’s case, condemned the department’s decision to drop charges against President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn last week. The former federal prosecutor wrote in an op-ed published Monday in The Washington Post that the department has “again put political patronage ahead of its commitment to the rule of law” by dropping the charges against Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials.

“I believe that the department’s handling of these matters is profoundly misguided, because my colleagues who still serve the department are duty-bound to remain silent,” he wrote, “and because I am convinced that the department’s conduct in the Stone and Flynn cases will do lasting damage to the institution.” Kravis and three other prosecutors abruptly withdrew from Stone’s criminal case in February after Justice Department officials intervened to recommend a more lenient sentence. The prosecutors had requested a prison term of seven to nine years for Stone, Trump’s friend and ally. 

“If the department truly acted because of good-faith commitments to legal positions, then where is the evidence of those commitments in other cases that do not involve friends of the president?” Kravis continued, “There are none.”