Attorney General Barr’s decision to drop the charges against Michael Flynn is a stunning act of political interference that undermines the rule of law. It needs to be investigated. americanoversight.org/dropping-the-f…
None of the career prosecutors who worked on the Flynn case were willing to sign their names to the court filing. Experts and former prosecutors have said the move is unprecedented. nytimes.com/2020/05/07/us/…
Nearly 2,000 former Justice Department officials have called upon Barr to resign. abcnews.go.com/Politics/2000-…
There needs to be a full push for oversight of DOJ’s actions across the board. Officials like Barr and Timothy Shea, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, have a lot to answer. Here is what needs to be investigated:
1. The scope and nature of any communications with the White House regarding the Flynn case.
2. Whether and how decision-makers in the case were screened from undue political pressure, in light of the president’s very public campaign against the prosecution.
3. Why Barr made the unusual decision to bring in an outside U.S. attorney to review the case. Is this a standard that applies to all criminal defendants who raise questions about prosecutorial conduct — regardless of whether they are close associates of the president?
4. The scope of that unusual review, including whether it involved evaluating whether there was chargeable evidence relating crimes other than Flynn’s false statements to the FBI (which he admitted to under oath). If it was limited to the false statements charge, why?
5. Why the government concluded it couldn’t prove Flynn made false statements when Flynn had waived any objections to the use of his testimony in connection with his pleas.
6. How the fact that Flynn committed to cooperate in the Mueller investigation — and pled guilty in connection with a negotiated plea agreement, in which the government agreed to forgo more serious charges — was weighed as part of the review.
7. A list of every other case where the Justice Department withdrew charges after it reached a negotiated plea agreement — and the defendant pled guilty.
8. Whether the narrow view adopted in the withdrawal motion applies to all defendants charged with making misrepresentations to the government, and examples of other cases where the government accepted the same position.
9. Why the career prosecutors on the case did not sign the motion, including if they expressly objected to signing it.
We’ve filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department for Barr’s and other officials’ communications regarding the Flynn case, including with the White House, Flynn’s attorneys or outside prosecutors reviewing the case. americanoversight.org/american-overs…
