Federal judge hauls in Michael Flynn after latest Robert Mueller filing
Last week Palmer Report alerted our readers to the Friday deadline for Robert Mueller’s sentencing recommendation regarding Michael Flynn. We also predicted that Mueller and Flynn would jointly file for yet another delay, as Flynn is still a relevant witness in Mueller’s investigation of Donald Trump. Sure enough, that’s what happened. But now the judge in the case is making an interesting move which could shake things up significantly.
The federal judge presiding over Michael Flynn’s plea deal has decided that Mueller and Flynn have filed one too many unexplained sentencing delays, and has decided to haul Flynn into court for the first time since his plea deal, according to a CNN report. This could end up quickly becoming a big deal, or it could end up being nothing, so let’s talk about what’s about to happen here.
To be clear, Mueller and Flynn are still 100% on the same page, or they wouldn’t still be making joint filings. If Flynn weren’t properly cooperating, Mueller would have revoked the deal and arrested him by now. But the judge clearly wants specific answers as to why Mueller and Flynn keep delaying, and is hauling Flynn into court in order to get them. There are two possible outcomes here. The first is that Mueller and Flynn are able to satisfy the judge’s curiosity by explaining why the ongoing delays are necessary, in such case nothing will come of this.
The second outcome is that the judge decides that there’s no justification for continuing to delay Michael Flynn’s prison sentence, and decides that he must begin serving his sentence now. In such case Robert Mueller would need to make a sentencing recommendation based upon his best estimate of how useful Flynn’s cooperation will end up being, rather than waiting until the very end of the investigation to make a recommendation. So could Flynn end up in prison a lot sooner than we were expecting? Only the judge knows. But it’s noteworthy that the judge is going so far as to haul Flynn into court. Stay tuned.
