Judge in Mike Flynn case appoints ex-district judge to argue whether Flynn should be held in criminal contempt for perjury

Judge Emmet Sullivan has appointed former U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of New York, John Gleeson to argue against the dismissal of the Justice Department's case against Mike Flynn. According to the second paragraph of the filing, Sullivan directs Gleeson to address whether Flynn should be held in criminal contempt for perjury, one lawyer pointed out.

The nomination of Gleeson is an interesting choice, because in an editorial for the Washington Post just days ago, Gleeson explained that the case wasn't over simply because the DOJ dropped the charges.

"The Justice Department’s move to dismiss the prosecution of former national security adviser Michael Flynn does not need to be the end of the case — and it shouldn’t be," wrote Gleeson along with acting Attorney General for the criminal division David O'Neil and former assistant DA Marshall Miller. "The Justice Department has made conflicting statements to the federal judge overseeing the case, Emmet G. Sullivan. He has the authority, the tools and the obligation to assess the credibility of the department’s stated reasons for abruptly reversing course."

"The department’s motion to dismiss the Flynn case is actually just a request — one that requires 'leave of the court' before it is effective," the editorial continued. "The executive branch has unreviewable authority to decide whether to prosecute a case. But once it secures an indictment, the proceedings necessarily involve the judicial branch. And the law provides that the court — not the executive branch — decides whether an indictment may be dismissed. The responsible exercise of that authority is particularly important here, where a defendant’s plea of guilty has already been accepted. Government motions to dismiss at this stage are virtually unheard of."