Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press
The D.C. Circuit of Appeals ordered Judge Emmet Sullivan on Wednesday in a 2-1 ruling to dismiss the charges against former national security advisor Michael Flynn.

Previously, Flynn agreed to cooperate with the Department of Justice in 2017 and plead guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador weeks before President Trump’s inauguration. Since then, he’s fought against the charges and withdrawn from the agreement.

The order came in response from a request from Flynn’s lawyers, after the federal judge did not immediately allow the Justice Department’s request to dismiss the court, and wanted outside sources to weigh in on whether he should grant the Justice Department’s request. Instead, Flynn’s lawyers asked the D.C. Circuit of Appeals to drop the case.

"In this case, the district court's actions will result in specific harms to the exercise of the Executive Branch's exclusive prosecutorial power," Judge Neomi Rao wrote in the majority opinion.

"If evidence comes to light calling into question the integrity or purpose of an underlying criminal investigation, the Executive Branch must have the authority to decide that further prosecution is not in the interest of justice," Rao added.

Judge Robert Wilkin, dissented from the decision, saying he would let Sullivan time to explore the DOJ’s request for a dismissal.

"It is a great irony that, in finding the District Court to have exceeded its jurisdiction, this Court so grievously oversteps its own," Wilkins said in his dissent. "This appears to be the first time that we have issued a writ of mandamus to compel a district court to rule in a particular manner on a motion without first giving the lower court a reasonable opportunity to issue its own ruling."

Trump, who has been a frequent voice in the case, responded to the news, calling it “great!”


Read the filing:  

Flynn by ABC News Politics on Scribd

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