The DOJ’s sudden reversal on Flynn’s case and decision to overrule Mueller is a stunning move, and the top prosecutor on the case, Brandon Van Grack, withdrew from the case literally minutes before the DOJ’s motion went public, signaling there may have been internal opposition to the decision. But Barr, who was urged to drop the charges by Jeffrey Jensen, the U.S. Attorney Barr assigned to review the case, has defended the controversial move. In an interview Thursday with CBS News, the attorney general emphasized he believes the Justice Department’s “duty, we think, is to dismiss the case.” “A crime cannot be established here. They did not have a basis for the counterintelligence investigation against Flynn at that stage,” Barr said. When asked if Flynn lied to the FBI, Barr responded, “Well, you know, people sometimes plead to things that turn out not to be crimes.” Trump has also naturally praised the DOJ’s decision, telling reporters Thursday that Flynn is an “innocent man” who is now “an even greater warrior.” “He is a great gentleman. He was targeted by the Obama administration and he was targeted in order to try and take down a president, and what they’ve done is a disgrace, and I hope a big price is going to be paid,” Trump said.
While Barr insisted Thursday that he wanted the dismissed charges to “restore confidence in the system” and show people “there’s only one standard of justice,” however, his critics see the decision as instead accomplishing the total opposite. Former FBI officials and Democrats sharply criticized the legal motion Thursday, painting the move as yet another example of Barr’s sycophantic tendency to use the DOJ as a tool to carry out Trump’s bidding. Comey tweeted that the Justice Department has “lost its way,” while former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe slammed the motion as “[having] nothing to do with the facts or the law—it is pure politics designed to please the president.” “The Department’s position that the FBI had no reason to interview Mr. Flynn pursuant to its counterintelligence investigation is patently false, and ignores the considerable national security risk his contacts raised,” McCabe said in a statement.
Over on Capitol Hill, Democrats led an immediate outcry against the dropped charges request, which Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said the DOJ did “to continue to cover up for the President.” “Overruling the Special Counsel is without precedent and without respect for the rule of law,” Pelosi said in a statement. Calls have already intensified among Democrats for Barr to resign, and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler announced that he plans to hold a hearing with Barr “as soon as possible” as a result of the decision. “We are not supposed to get special treatment because we are friends with the President or refused to cooperate with federal investigators on his behalf,” Nadler said. “The decision to overrule the special counsel is without precedent and requires immediate explanation.”
The motion to dismiss Flynn’s charges will now have to be formally approved by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan—and while Sullivan’s approval should be a mere formality, sources tell Reuters that the independent-minded judge may not be so quick to immediately give in. “I can guarantee you, he is going to question the prosecutors,” Channing Phillips, the former acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told Reuters. “He is going to want to understand exactly the basis for this motion … You have a new attorney general. You have a new U.S. attorney. You have new prosecutors who take a different position. But the facts haven’t changed.” Whatever happens with Flynn’s case, however, the DOJ’s decision to walk back Mueller’s actions could potentially be just the beginning. Speaking to reporters Thursday in the Oval Office just after the Flynn news broke, Trump said that he had discussed the so-called “Russia hoax” in a recent phone call with Vladimir Putin, and suggested that “things are falling out now and coming in line, showing what a hoax this whole investigation was.” “And I wouldn’t be surprised if you see a lot of things happen over the next number of weeks,” Trump teased.
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