American criminal law cases need at least three participants. Criminal filings must have a prosecutor (representing the victim), a defendant or a defense attorney, and a judge. Take away either the defendant or the prosecutor and you have no crime. Take away the judge and you have no court. That is unless you are Lt. General Michael Flynn.
A fourth participant, a jury, is required in all criminal cases except those in which the defendant has waived that right. When a defendant, such as Flynn, enters a guilty plea they waive their right to a jury trial.
Flynn entered a deal with Special Counsel Robert Mueller in December 2017 to plead guilty to a felony count of “willfully and knowingly” making false statements to the FBI. In conjunction with that plea he agreed to cooperate with the Special Counsel’s investigation. The result of the investigation was the ‘Mueller Report’. Despite the hysterical opinions of Trump haters, the Mueller Report found no evidence that Trump, or his campaign, “colluded” with Russia.
Flynn’s guilty plea remained despite the Special Counsel’s investigation having found no criminal wrongdoing on behalf of the Trump campaign. Flynn’s plea to the process crime of lying to investigators while material to the Mueller Investigation stands because the alleged crime is independent of the reasons for the interview in which it occurred.
In January 2020, Flynn withdrew his guilty plea to one count of lying to federal agents due to the government’s “bad faith, vindictiveness, and breach of the plea agreement”.
In May 2020, the US House Intelligence Committee released a report detailing testimony by former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. During McCabe’s testimony to the committee he acknowledged that the two agents who interviewed Flynn “didn’t think he was lying.” Yet, the investigation continued. Later that same month the U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss the charges against Flynn, stating,
“The United States of America hereby moves to dismiss with prejudice the criminal information filed against Michael T. Flynn pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 48(a). The Government has determined, pursuant to the Principles of Federal Prosecution and based on an extensive review and careful…
