A retired federal judge has been tapped to challenge the Justice Department’s bid to abandon the prosecution of Michael Flynn and to address whether the former national security adviser committed perjury after claiming innocence from a crime he had earlier admitted.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan on Wednesday appointed John Gleeson, a former federal judge in New York’s Eastern District in Brooklyn, to challenge the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the case against Flynn.
Gleeson,who recently criticized the Justice Department’s handling of Flynn’s case, will also examine whether the parties should be forced to persuade Sullivan that the former adviser to President Donald Trump should not be held in contempt for perjury.
Gleeson’s appointment is the first clear indication that Sullivan is considering punishing Flynn for pleading guilty and then reversing course. The retired judge was appointed just a day after Sullivan delayed ruling on the government’s request to drop Flynn’s case. Sullivan on Tuesday said he will allow outside parties to challenge the government’s position.
The possibility of a contempt charge injects more drama into an already prolonged criminal case. Flynn first pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in 2017 about his communications with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and came close to punishment in 2018.
Last week, the Justice Department announced its intention to drop the prosecution of the retired Army general. The move set off a political firestorm and drew fresh accusations that Attorney General William Barr has turned the agency into a political ally of a White House intent on dismantling the Russia investigation.
Justice Department officials said the FBI’s January 2017 interview of Flynn as they sought to learn about his communications with Kislyak was “unjustified.” They said the interview did not have “a legitimate investigative basis,” making Flynn’s statements irrelevant “even if untrue.”
In that interview, Flynn lied when he told agents that he had not discussed sanctions imposed against Russia by the Obama administration. He subsequently pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with former Russia special counsel Robert Mueller.