Unless DOJ is suddenly turning a pretty sharp corner in its handling of white-collar cases, a lot of the argument in its motion to dismiss the case against Mike Flynn seems like a just-for-him departure from the usual way of doing things. 
This is remarkable: DOJ says it now doesn't think it can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Flynn lied to the FBI, even though he *twice* admitted in open court that he did, and those admissions could be used as evidence against him.
^ This point merits some clarification. Ordinarily, Fed. R. Evid. 410 restricts the use of guilty-plea statements in later proceedings. But Flynn expressly waived that protection, and federal courts have enforced those waivers if they're knowing and voluntary.
Flynn also admitted to these false statements in a written statement he signed before entering his guilty plea.
This is also the first time I've seen DOJ suggest that it's improper for the FBI to try to interview people without counsel (which the FBI does a lot), or that it has to issue warnings about the consequence of lying (which isn't required).
The government's motion to dismiss the Flynn case is a thing that prosecutors in many other white-collar cases will have quoted to them by defense attorneys.
DOJ says prettly directly that the FBI's only purpose for investigating Flynn was "to elicit those very false statements." It says the government can't explain how those lies would be relevant to any investigation.
DOJ previously offered a concise explanation of why his statements were relevant to its investigation.
The bottom line from DOJ's filing today is that it's dropping the case because it doesn't think Flynn should have been investigated in the first place (or at least that it should have been closed sooner). I've never seen DOJ take that position in any other case, ever.
This footnote in the Flynn filing is something. It says the government did not previously understand the nature of an investigation carried out by the government.
Another weird thing: DOJ says it decided to dismiss the charges against Flynn because of "newly discovered" information. But the information it has newly discovered is information about how DOJ employees conducted the investigation that led to his being charged.
