AG Barr Reportedly Put Outside Prosecutor on Reviewing Michael Flynn Case
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Given all the scrutiny surrounding the Department of Justice this week, there’s a lot of attention today on another reported review ordered by Attorney General Bill Barr.
There are a number of reports today revealing an inquiry into the Michael Flynn case Barr put an outside prosecutor on.
Flynn pleaded guilty back in 2017 but more recently has been seeking to withdraw that guilty plea. The federal judge overseeing the case recently cancelled sentencing for Flynn after the request. Per CBS News:
U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan on Monday ordered Flynn’s sentencing hearing, which was scheduled for February 27, to be canceled “until further order of the court.” He had given both Flynn and the Justice Department more time to submit filings on Flynn’s request to withdraw his guilty plea, including claims he received ineffective legal assistance from his former attorneys.
U.S. attorney Jeff Jensen was picked by Barr to review the Flynn case, as part of what the New York Times describes as “a handful of outside prosecutors” selected by the AG to “broadly review the handling of other politically sensitive national-security cases”:
Over the past two weeks, the outside prosecutors have begun grilling line prosecutors in the Washington office about various cases — some public, some not — including investigative steps, prosecutorial actions and why they took them, according to the people. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive internal deliberations…
The intervention has contributed a turbulent period for the prosecutors’ office that oversees the seat of the federal government and some of the most politically sensitive investigations and cases — some involving President Trump’s friends and allies, and some his critics and adversaries.
The DOJ received criticism this week after the announcement of a reversal on Roger Stone’s sentencing recommendation came out — following President Donald Trump’s tweet publicly decrying the recommendation. All four prosecutors withdrew from the case afterwards.
Yesterday Barr criticized the president’s tweeting in an interview, though the interview was met with a great deal of skepticism. And today the president himself responded on Twitter:
“The President has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case.” A.G. Barr This doesn’t mean that I do not have, as President, the legal right to do so, I do, but I have so far chosen not to!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2020
