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Michael Flynn’s Lawyers: Judge ‘Hijacked’ Case by Pushing for Rehearing

Michael Flynn’s lawyers pressed a D.C. appeals court not to rehear his case.

Michael Flynn’s lawyers pressed a Washington, D.C., federal appeals court not to rehear the former national security adviser’s case, insisting that a June order to dismiss the case should stand. The 19-page filing criticized U.S. District Judge Emmett G. Sullivan’s July 11 request to rehear the dismissal. “The district court has hijacked and extended a criminal prosecution for almost three months for its own purposes,” Sidney Powell and Jesse Binnall, Flynn’s attorneys, wrote in the filing, calling Sullivan’s request unprecedented. The panel that moved to dismiss the case had said in June that Sullivan could not “scrutinize the reasoning and motives of the Department of Justice” in dropping the case against Flynn, but Sullivan’s July 11 filing argues that the Department of Justice cannot dismiss a case without the “leave” of a trial court.