Judge Sullivan goes full Bozo:
U.S. District Court Judge Emmett G. Sullivan has taken the unusual step of hiring an attorney to represent him as an appeals court reviews his decision not to immediately grant the Justice Department’s (DOJ’s) request to dismiss its case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
Sullivan hired attorney Beth Wilkinson who, according to The Washington Post, is expected to notify the D.C. Court of Appeals within the next week of her decision to represent him. Wilkinson reportedly is a go-to for high-profile officials in difficult situations. For example, she previously represented then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as he fought sexual misconduct allegations in 2018.
The added representation compounded what has become an abnormal case, which is rooted in Flynn misleading the FBI about his contacts with Russia after the 2016 presidential election. Although Flynn pleaded guilty, he’s currently seeking to withdraw that plea as the Justice Department argues that the FBI had an insufficient basis to interview him in the first place.
Go here to read the rest. A few thoughts:
- Litigants are wise to have representation, and the Judge has made himself a litigant in the case.
- The Judge must believe that he lacks the legal ability to respond to the order of the DC Circuit that he must justify his actions.
- Is Ms. Wilkinson representing the Judge pro bono or is a third party paying her fees? Either way that would seem to raise conflict questions, and a possible violation of rules regarding reception of gifts by a Federal judge from a party or a firm engaged in litigation before him. Of course the Judge becoming a litigant in the Flynn case already creates a massive conflict.
- In any subsequent hearings in the Flynn case will the Judge consult his attorney during the hearing? Will she be in his chambers, at a counsel table in open court or standing by him while he is on the bench?
- Do the consultations that the Judge has with his attorney about the case constitute forbidden ex parte communications? Hard to say when the Judge is both Judge and litigant, a situation that the rules did not anticipate.
DC Circuit, what more do you need to see? Get this crackpot off the Flynn case now, before he brings the Federal judiciary into further disrepute.
As I said previously, 10 days to respond was too long. This is the sort of damage that could be done.
The ten days makes no difference. The result will be the same.
Brilliant questions, Don. He would rather become a complete clown show than do the simple, right and legal thing that is staring him in the face. As my late father used to say, knowing what the right thing to do in life is easy, doing it is frequently hard.
The question has been raised as to where Judge Sullivan’s clerks are in all of this. Are they prohibited by court rule from drafting the reply, or did they tell him they cannot draft a reply that actually justifies his position?
A lawyer commenting at neo-neo con offered that his dealings with Sullivan in the past were unedifying – that the man isn’t conscientious and he’s obstreperous with people. Given his background, he seems to have been a very ordinary lawyer promoted via political patronage to a position where he’s somewhat out of his depth. Given his age, cognitive decline is also a possibility on the table. NB, a signature of an Alzheimer’s type dementia is that the subject is unaware of his impairments.
Sullivan has been a judge of one sort or another for 36 years, plenty of time to develop a bad case of black robitis. Like the fictional character of Judge Dred, carriers of black robitis think they are the Law. I have found them to be a minority of the judges I have encountered, but they do wreak a lot of havoc.
Apparently, he didn’t get the memo.
The coup attempt failed. The conspirators, except Obama and Biden, should be in prison.
The precise description by the lawyer in question was thus:
“Donald Rumsfeld used to caution people not to attribute to conspiracy that which can be explained by incompetence. Back when I was practicing law, my firm had a case before Sullivan. He was a strange combination of arrogant, willful, lazy, and stupid. He also appears to be an attention whore.
He’s a political hack who incompetently went a step too far. The Democrats would love to have the Flynn affair drag on until the fall and force Trump to pardon him to avoid prison. In such a case, Sullivan would have denied the motion in October and remanded Flynn to custody to force Trump’s hand in the final stages of the election.
However, Sullivan just can’t help himself and he decided to make himself the center of attention by appointing amici and making a circus out of the motion to dismiss. Oops, the DC Circuit’s hand has been forced and things won’t end well for Sullivan.”
I should note from the perspective of a layman, a three year long multi-episode “sentencing hearing” is absurd.
Stupid plan. Pretty sure Trump would wait until after the election to issue the pardon.
I think Trump will have Flynn with him at his rallies in the Fall as a victim of the Deep State. Even after four years, his adversaries are still completely clueless about Trump.
Saw an interesting piece of wheels-within-wheels speculation this morning: Sullivan had irregular or unlawful ex parte communication with van Grack and / or Mueller’s office, that Wm. Barr et al have the goods on him for that, but that other factions in the Department of Justice have the goods as well and want him to continue with the charade. He’s hiring a lawyer because he’s in serious trouble right now.
I have been reading similar speculation Art. I don’t know if it is true, but the act really isn’t comprehensible otherwise. The next big story might be: Judge Takes the Fifth!