By Robert Willmann
As a coincidence theorist, I noticed an editorial opinion piece by three people in the Washington Post newspaper of 11 May 2020 which was entitled, "The Flynn case isn't over until the judge says it's over" [1]. The next day, 12 May 2020, Judge Emmet Sullivan entered an order saying that "the Court anticipates that individuals and organizations will seek leave of the Court to file amicus curiae briefs pursuant to Local Civil Rule 7(o) … Accordingly, at the appropriate time, the Court will enter a Scheduling Order governing the submission of any amicus curiae briefs". The very next day, 13 May 2020, one of the three authors, John Gleeson, was appointed by Judge Emmet Sullivan to be a "friend of the court" (amicus curiae) and file a brief opposing the government's request to dismiss the Michael Flynn criminal case, and to advise Sullivan about whether Flynn should be held in criminal contempt of court for perjury.
This caused Flynn to take the only legal step available, which was to file a petition for a writ of mandamus as a new legal action in the federal court of appeals on 19 May 2020, directed at Judge Sullivan's failure to grant the government's motion to dismiss and his appointment of Gleeson. The mandamus is pending with a request by Sullivan for a rehearing, after a ruling in favor of Flynn.
Was the only coincidence the editorial by Gleeson, and Sullivan's sudden interest in amicus curiae briefs the next day, followed by the judge appointing Gleeson as a friend of the court the day after that?
Except for president Donald Trump, Gen. Michael Flynn was the biggest target for "special counsel" Robert Mueller. Trump escaped the net and repelled the full frontal assault against him. After Mueller submitted his report in March 2019, he was pushed into testifying before Congress, where issues about his cognitive ability and health became public. It was then obvious that he was a figurehead, and someone else had been running his office. That person was Andrew Weissmann, Mueller's main deputy. Andrew Weissmann, with his dirty laundry and failure to turn over exculpatory and mitigating evidence going back to the 2002-2005 prosecutions after the failure of the Enron company. And even before that, in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York (EDNY), with its main office in Brooklyn, one of the five boroughs of New York City [2].
When Weissmann was hired to be an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the EDNY in 1991, another lawyer was in the office who had been there since 1985. His name was John Gleeson.
Back in the 1980's and early 1990's, a lot of stories appeared in mass media about the Italian-American Mafia in New York City. One of the five Mafia organized crime groups in the city was the Gambino family, and after the murder of Paul Castellano in 1985, John Gotti became the head of that organization. He adopted a showy, public persona, which attracted even more attention. His last criminal indictment was in 1990 in the EDNY. The U.S. Attorney was Andrew Maloney, and the lead prosecutor in the 1992 Gotti trial was John Gleeson, who had been a co-prosecutor in an earlier Gotti trial that resulted in a verdict of not guilty. Gotti was found guilty in the 1992 trial and was sentenced to prison for life, where he died in 2002. Gleeson and Weissmann were together in that office until president Bill Clinton appointed Gleeson in 1994 to be a federal district court judge in the EDNY. Weissmann remained as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the EDNY until he was put on the Department of Justice Enron task force in 2002.
Here is a little timeline about Gleeson, Weissmann, Robert Mueller, Loretta Lynch, and Leslie Caldwell. An exact month, day, and year for each instance is not always clearly available, so only a year is used most of the time. Weissmann's name is usually spelled with two "n's", but court clerk docket sheets in the EDNY sometimes have his name with one "n" at the end.
1985: Gleeson becomes an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the EDNY.
1987: Leslie Caldwell is hired as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the EDNY.
1990: Loretta Lynch becomes an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the EDNY. Robert Mueller is named chief of the Criminal Division in the Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington D.C.
1991: Andrew Weissmann becomes an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the EDNY. Gleeson, Leslie Caldwell, and Loretta Lynch are still there.
1993: Mueller leaves as chief of the DOJ Criminal Division.
1994: Gleeson is appointed by president Bill Clinton to be a federal trial court judge in the EDNY, and officially gets his commission on 29 September 1994. Weissmann, Lynch, and Leslie Caldwell are still in the U.S. Attorney's Office there. Emmet G. Sullivan is appointed by president Bill Clinton to be a federal trial court judge in Washington D.C., and officially gets his commission on 16 June 1994.
1995: Mueller becomes a homicide prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington D.C.
1999: Mueller is made the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, a long stretch along the west coast from the top of the state down to Monterey County [3]. Leslie Caldwell leaves the U.S. Attorney's Office in the EDNY and goes to the office in the federal Northern District of California, where Mueller is the U.S. Attorney. Weissmann and Lynch are still in the EDNY.
2000: In December 2000, Loretta Lynch becomes the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, after being appointed by president Bill Clinton.
2001: In May 2001, Lynch leaves as U.S. Attorney for the EDNY. Mueller is sworn in as FBI Director on 4 September 2001. Weissmann is still in the EDNY office.
2002: Weissmann, along with Leslie Caldwell, are named to the DOJ Enron Task Force, created after the collapse of the Enron company in Houston, Texas. He is the deputy director to Caldwell and then becomes the director of the task force. The investigation and prosecutions were aimed not only at Enron, but also at others, including the Arthur Andersen accounting firm and the Merrill Lynch financial company.
2004: Leslie Caldwell goes into private practice.
2005: Weissmann is taken off of the Enron Task Force. He becomes a special counsel to the Director of the FBI, Robert Mueller.
2006: Weissmann goes into private practice in New York City.
2010: In May, Loretta Lynch again becomes the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, appointed this time by president Barack Obama.
2011: Around October, Weissmann is made the general counsel (main in-house lawyer) for the FBI and its Director Robert Mueller.
2013: On 4 September 2013, Mueller leaves as FBI Director, after his 10-year term was extended two years by a special law passed by Congress [4]. James Comey is sworn in as FBI Director. Weissmann leaves the FBI and becomes associated with New York University Law School.
2014: Leslie Caldwell is appointed by president Barack Obama to be an Assistant Attorney General and chief of the Criminal Division of the DOJ in Washington D.C.
2015: In January, Caldwell announced that Weissmann was selected to be the head of the Fraud Section in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice in Washington D.C. On 27 April 2015, Loretta Lynch is sworn in as the Attorney General of the United States, after being appointed by president Barack Obama.
2016: John Gleeson resigned as a federal district court judge on 9 March, and went into private practice with a law firm in New York City.
2017: Caldwell leaves the DOJ in January 2017 after Trump was elected. Loretta Lynch leaves when Jeff Sessions is sworn in as Attorney General on 9 February 2017. Robert Mueller is appointed on 17 May 2017 by the Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, to be the special counsel to investigate "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the [2016] campaign of President Donald Trump …." The person who stabbed Trump in the back was not then Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who had to recuse himself under ethical rules, but Rod Rosenstein. Mueller makes Weissmann his main deputy. The Mueller group then becomes the one targeting Michael Flynn.
2019: Early in the year, Weissmann leaves the DOJ, and again becomes associated with the New York University Law School as a Senior Fellow at the Reiss Center on Law and Security and the Center on the Administration of Criminal Law.
It is theoretically possible that Judge Emmet Sullivan became obsessed with Michael Flynn and thought of using the idea of a friend of the court to stymie the dismissal of the case all on his own, and by himself decided to appoint John Gleeson as an amicus curiae, perhaps remembering him from federal judge meetings in the past. But that is unlikely. Sullivan may be psychologically predisposed against Flynn because of the political atmosphere of the case. In my opinion, Sullivan has received encouragement and help from others. I think that is so, after looking at what has happened and the people involved from day one in the Flynn matter.
The master of meta data and analyzing the relationships and behavior of people to predict conduct is the patriot William Binney, formerly the techical director of the World Geopolitical and Military Analysis Reporting Group at the National Security Agency. He could do a much better job than I can. Looking through Flynn's situation, the federal court system has been used as a political weapon, and he was not even a political candidate.
If Flynn's criminal case is ultimately dismissed, and I think it will be through the mandamus action or later, he will be more free to look for remedies through legal civil actions. Finding an avenue for civil cases is difficult, in the face of legal governmental immunity, including the concept of "qualified immunity". However, Andrew Weissmann, Robert Mueller, and others may find themselves answering questions under oath, in one type of proceeding or another.
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/11/flynn-case-isnt-over-until-judge-says-its-over/
[2] The federal Eastern District of New York "encompasses three of the boroughs of New York City (Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island), and both suburban counties on Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk County)".
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny
[3] The federal Northern District of California "encompasses 15 counties from Del Norte in the north to Monterey in the south. The District contains three major metropolitan areas in San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose; an expanse of suburban and rural area; and more than 300 public companies centered on Silicon Valley".
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca
[4] Public Law 112-24 which extended Robert Mueller's term as FBI Director for two more years.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/112th-congress/senate-bill/1103/all-info
Robert
In these situations the likelihood of coincidences are limited. It seems clear that this “amicus curiae” was a premeditated plan orchestrated by the same people that ran the Russia Collusion hoax.
The foundation of the Russia Collusion investigation including the FISA warrants and the Mueller “special counsel”. The Steele Dossier.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/2020/07/20/the_primary_subsources_guide_to_the_steele_dossier_517727.html
They showed more leniency towards Gravano, a serial killer who only got 5 years in prison, than a general of the US Army. It speaks volumes of their character.
Sullivan may be convinced that Flynn did all the deeds he plead guilty to. It would not be expected for a judge, if convinced both sides were now working for the defense, to seek representation for The People’s side of the case before giving “leave of the court” to dismiss?
“Getting” Flynn was the key to neutering the danger Trump posed to the deep state, since General Flynn was the one military advisor to Trump who was knowledgeable and who had recognized the salient fact that, under Obama, the US was employing the “raghead” element to do their bidding in Syria and elsewhere. Without Flynn, Trump, who like many has a tendency to accept the views of credentialled experts, could be convinced to continue the deep state policy of permanent warfare aided by jihadist barbarians. Trump’s tragedy was that he accepted what appeared to be the inevitable and allowed Flynn to be taken down.
NSA patriotic Cyber expert & whistleblower William Binney has forensic evidence to prove there was NO HACK into the DNC. He offered it to Mueller, Congress, and to the Judges in the Cases of General Flynn and Roger Stone. They all refused his evidence and his offer to testify . Tune in Thursday to his live internet presentation on Thursday 11 am 7/23:
https://schillerinstitute.nationbuilder.com/20200723-binney-press-conference
Mark,
Where in the Constitution does the Judicial branch of government become the prosecutor in a “People’s Court”? (The ‘volksgerichtshof’ reference, not the tv show.)
Veering off topic: Judicial Watch Tom Fitton warns Durham report will only capture low hanging fruit, if any. Rest will go on their merry way – too hard to prove intent.
Team Obozo was just trying to protect us from the Russki’s. Brennan, Clapper, Comey will live to see another day, another book deal and probably a harassment and/or wrongful termination suit against Trump. Clue was letting McCabe off, according to inside pundits.
Not much different from the Gowdy Benghazi efforts – he just could not pin anyone down – they all just slipped through a prosecutor’s fingers – can’t remember, it was some other dude, not as I recall.
Some say Gowdy wasted our time – yet he got the only answer that was out there – no one was in charge therefore no one was at fault. The classic description of borg, is it not? Looks like Durham ran into the same borg wall of resistance too.
Yesterday, I forgot to put in that John Gleeson resigned as a federal district court judge in March of 2016. I have fixed that. In order to have been asked by Judge Sullivan to file a friend of the court brief, he obviously could not still be a federal judge.
Fred,
The Judicial branch is always the prosecutor in criminal cases, never the defender. It’s simply a given. What other entity can charge someone with a crime? It’s not an exaggeration to say that the basis of civilization is the creation of government primarily to enforce rule of law, and The People grant government the sole authority to do violence and imprison on their behalf, aside from that which is immediately necessary for self defense.
Mark Logan
Federal Prosecutors are employees of the Executive Branch. In federal courts they are employees of the Justice Department, not the Judicial Branch.
turcoplier,
I understand the question better now. I had been confused by prosecutors being sworn officers of the court.
Fred, we use an adversarial system in our courts. Two sides take a slant with a judge presiding. Not everybody does that. The French for instance use an investigatorial system. The judge doesn’t just play ref, he actively seeks the truth himself and is empowered to do so. A lot of things aren’t in the Constitution but that document wasn’t intended to be all-inclusive, it’s almost a pamphlet.
More to the point, the judge isn’t seeking an unbiased person to merely render an opinion on case of Flynn’s dismissal, he is seeking an advocate for the case against it.
It’s tricky business accusing a prosecutor of bias, as bias is intrinsic in the bringing-of-charges and to an adversarial system. A prosecutor that does not already believe a person has committed a crime would be committing a crime by bringing charges against that person..yet the accused is innocent until proven guilty.
Mark,
Which government are you talking about? Judges is the US are not prosecutors. In colonial times the special courts established during the Salem witch trials are the only ones I can recall where such prosecutorial powers were given to judges and those predate the republic by a century or more.
Fred,
I’m not seeing a judge acting as prosecutor in this. Gleeson is not currently a judge, and asking for a brief from Gleeson does not make Sullivan a prosecutor. The rule says the case can be dismissed by ‘leave of the Court’, which indicates that a judge has to sign off on it, and thereby has discretion.
Mark,
Where in the Constitution does the Judicial branch of government have authority to appoint a third party answerable solely to the Judicial branch, in this instance Judge Sullivan, to perform the prosecutoriral function; or do you mean the judge is unable to conclude that the federal prosecutor, with agreement from the defendant, has requested dismissal with predjudice and therefor the case must be dismissed and needs someone else to advise him on what to do? The writ of mandamus order specifies the same dismissal. “Leave of the Court” doesn’t mean the judge can trie the case with his own council however camouflaged nor drag the case out until the election is over.