U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan
Kimberley A. Strassel
Dec. 10, 2020 6:30 pm ET
Attorney General William Barr has at least been attempting to atone for the FBI’s and Justice Department’s scurrilous behavior during the 2016 campaign and after Mr. Trump’s election. Earlier this year Mr. Barr assigned a veteran prosecutor, Jeffrey Jensen, to review the original Flynn case—amid growing evidence the FBI had entrapped him and that special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors had pressured him to plead guilty of lying to the bureau. Mr. Jensen’s findings were unequivocal. He said the FBI’s January 2017 interview of Mr. Flynn should never have happened, as it was “untethered” to a legitimate investigation. Mr. Jensen recommended the charges be dropped, which the department officially asked Judge Sullivan to do in May.
This was an important moment—the Justice Department showing rare humility and attempting to reassure Americans that it was returning to one standard of justice. With the prosecutors no longer standing behind the charges, dismissing the case should have been a mere formality.
Yet Judge Sullivan chose to besmirch both the Barr effort and the judiciary by matching James Comey’s FBI for Trump Derangement Syndrome. He refused to dismiss the charges, suggesting that the Justice Department was conspiring to help a Trump crony—a view he pressed straight through his final opinion this week.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/judge-sullivans-final-verdict-11607643005?redirect=amp#click=https://t.co/RQy4Pt3enf