Ex-judge says the push to dismiss Michael Flynn’s case is an ‘abuse of power’

A former federal judge appointed to review the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss criminal charges against Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former national security advisor, has found that the government’s request should be denied because there is “clear evidence of a gross abuse of prosecutorial power.”

Former U.S. District Judge John Gleeson said in a filing Wednesday that the government “engaged in highly irregular conduct to benefit a political ally of the President.”

Gleeson was appointed by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in a special role to weigh in on the case, but it will ultimately be up to Sullivan and potentially an appeals court whether to accept the Justice Department’s motion to drop the case.

Flynn pleaded guilty, as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, to lying to the FBI about conversations with the then-Russian ambassador to the United States during the presidential transition period.