First, Paul Manafort was released from jail because his precious white lungs couldn’t stand to be around all that jailhouse stank and COVID-19.
On Wednesday, a federal prosecutor and another Justice Department official will testify that Attorney General William Barr, aka Bad John Goodman, pressured them to give a lighter sentence for Trump ally Roger Stone, who if his 40-month sentence stands will most likely be pardoned by his homeboy, Trump.
And now a federal appeals court has ordered “Judge Emmet Sullivan to dismiss the case against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, a possible conclusion to a long-running political fight,” CNN reports.
It doesn’t seem to matter that Flynn pleaded guilty, not once but twice, to lying to the FBI about rapping with Sergey Kislyak, who just so happened to be a Russian ambassador during the time of Trump’s presidential transition.
If no one challenges the appeal then Flynn will be exonerated after he sought to change his plea and claimed innocence.
From CNN:
Flynn’s case has become a touchstone for President Donald Trump and his supporters in their criticism of the FBI’s Russia investigation and special counsel Robert Mueller’s criminal prosecution of several Trump campaign associates.
In late April, Trump, Flynn’s legal team and conservative allies seized on the disclosure of a hand-written note from a top FBI official outlining how agents may either refer Flynn for prosecution for illegally negotiating with a foreign government or “get him to lie” or “get him fired.” Trump used the document to argue that Flynn should be “exonerated” and that the charges should be dropped. He also suggested that he’s considering a full pardon for Flynn.
It basically boils down to a three-judge panel deciding some bullshit that basically notes that Judge Sullivan didn’t have “enough reason to question the DOJ’s prosecution decisions in this case. They also said Sullivan having a third-party attorney weigh in on Flynn’s case, the former judge John Gleeson, isn’t needed anymore.”
Sullivan “fails to justify the district court’s unprecedented intrusions on individual liberty and the Executive’s charging authority,” D.C. appeals court Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, wrote in the majority opinion, CNN notes.
What does any of this mean? Who the fuck knows. I see Rao is a Trump-appointed judge and I see a Trump ally getting off and I just think that Trump is going to keep trumping. One judge on the panel disagreed with the other two, so it’s possible that another appeal could keep it going. But as it stands, Flynn is safe for now and possibly forever.