US District Judge Emmet Sullivan has acted like he is more powerful than the Department of Justice and the president for months, but reality has now hit him like a brick wall.
If the face of President Donald Trump issuing a pardon to Gen. Michael Flynn, after seven months of Judge Sullivan holding up the Justice Department recommendation to dismiss the case against him, the case was finally dismissed on Tuesday.
But Judge Sullivan, who has been exceedingly political during this entire process, had no choice anymore but to dismiss the case as moot, Yahoo News reported.
“President Trump’s decision to pardon Mr. Flynn is a political decision, not a legal one,” he said. “Because the law recognizes the President’s political power to pardon, the appropriate course is to dismiss this case as moot.”
But the judge, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, could not let the case go before taking some parting shots at the president and General Flynn.
“However, the pardon ‘does not, standing alone, render [Mr. Flynn] innocent of the alleged violation,’” Judge Sullivan said.
