Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel has a useful note on the blunders – to put it politely and not to speculate – of the DoJ lawyers involved in the continuing extraordinary case of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn:
Judge Emmet Sullivan just issued an order that may well destroy DOJ’s presumption of regularity (the legal principle that unless the government really fucks up, you have to assume they didn’t fuck up) in the Mike Flynn case.
He noted that on September 29, he had ordered DOJ to certify all documents submitted as exhibits in the motion to dismiss proceeding, but that DOJ had not done so. Instead, it admitted that it had “inadvertently” altered two Peter Strzok and one Andrew McCabe documents, and asked for a mulligan.
So now he’s ordering DOJ to do what he first ordered: to certify all the exhibits submitted to this docket (both those submitted directly by DOJ and those submitted by Flynn’s team) and provide a transcription and the author and date of any handwritten notes.
Along with suggesting malpractice by the Barr-run DoJ, this, too, is not only interesting, but fascinating:
First, there’s no way they can finish this by Monday. Even if the lawyers on this case were as familiar with these documents as they claimed to be, it would take more than this weekend to transcribe and double check everything. They will likely ask for an extension, one that would extend the order past the election.
If proceedings continue to drag from mistakes, inadvertent or otherwise, it’s not impossible that 2021 will begin with this case still in motion. But consider this: If President Trump loses the election, he’ll still have pardon powers up until Jan 21.
Could it cross the minds of Flynn and his lawyers to again reverse field and once again plead guilty before Jan 21, and then apply to President Trump for an immediate pardon?
As this Administration has continually demonstrated, the nuttier a maneuver may appear, the more likely it is to occur. And it also asks the leading question: What does Michael Flynn know that could hurt President Trump?
Information that might interest prosecutors even more?
