Judge John Gleeson, acting as an amicus to the Court by arguing against the dismissal of the case against former Trump National Security Advisor Mike Flynn, filed a blistering argument that calls out the political favors granted by the Trump Administration and calling the desire of the Department of Justice to ignore Flynn’s guilty pleas “pure pretext.”

To describe the Government’s Motion to Dismiss as irregular would be a study in understatement. In the United States, Presidents do not orchestrate pressure campaigns to get the Justice Department to drop charges against defendants who have pleaded guilty—twice, before two different judges—and whose guilt is obvious. And the Justice Department does not seek to dismiss criminal charges on grounds riddled with legal and factual error, then argue that the validity of those grounds cannot even be briefed to the Court that accepted the defendant’s guilty plea. Nor does the Justice Department make a practice of attacking its own prior filings in a case, as well as judicial opinions ruling in its favor, all while asserting that the normal rules should be set aside for a defendant who is openly favored by the President.

Yet that is exactly what has unfolded here. There is clear evidence that the Government’s Motion to Dismiss the case against Defendant Michael T. Flynn rests on pure pretext. There is clear evidence that this motion reflects a corrupt and politically motivated favor unworthy of our justice system. In the face of all this, the Government makes little effort to refute (or even address) the evidence exposing its abuses—and the arguments it does advance only further undermine its position. Instead, the Government invokes a parade of false formalities that would reduce this Court to a rubber stamp. The Government’s motion should therefore be denied.

Gleeson filed the brief after Judge Emmit Sullivan won a case in the DC Circuit Court to hear arguments on why the Court should allow the Department of Justice to unilaterally drop charges after Flynn had pleaded guilty.  The DoJ does not have the authority to drop a case on its own; it must seek permission of the Court after a guilty plea has been filed.