Federal judge says he won't close the Flynn case just yet — and wants other parties to submit filings

On Tuesday, federal district judge Emmet Sullivan issued an order that declined to immediately close the case into President Donald Trump's former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn — despite the fact that the Department of Justice has moved to dismiss the case.

Sullivan wrote that "given the current posture of the case," some outside parties may want to file their own friend-of-the-court briefs on the matter, and that he would like to solicit such briefs.

The DOJ's decision to drop the case into Flynn has triggered outrage and accusations that Attorney General William Barr is weaponizing the legal system to validate the president's conspiracy theories. Trump has long claimed that Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in the Russia investigation, was railroaded, despite having thin evidence to suggest this.