'Norman L. Eisen (born November 11, 1960)[1] is an American politician. He served as a counsel for the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment process of President Donald J. Trump in 2020. He is also a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution.[2] He served as White House Special Counsel for Ethics and Government Reform, United States Ambassador to the Czech Republic, and board chair of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).[3] He is the author of The Last Palace: Europe's Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House (2018).'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_Eisen

by a cleaned-up DoJ? Seems to me he could, because if his prosecution is dropped maybe double jeopardy wouldn't attach and he could be charged again. A guilty plea accepted by a court and a judgment of conviction entered pursuant to the plea is the equivalent of a jury verdict, which would mean the defendant couldn't be prosecuted again, but if the prosecution is dismissed does that mean his guilty plea is vacated? As far as I can tell the court never entered a judgment of conviction (since Flynn was trying to withdraw his plea), so maybe double jeopardy hadn't attached anyhow. The statute of limitations for most federal crimes is 5 years, and he did his crime of lying to the FBI in late 2016, so they'd have most of 2021 to re-file. Am I missing something?

I didn't realize the court never entered a judgement of conviction. I thought we had moved into the sentencing phase.

If this travesty is allowed to stand, I hope at least he can be brought up on some other charges. Surely working for a foreign government to have a US citizen kidnapped is illegal.

Judgement can attach before sentencing if the judge accepted the plea. Unless there is a difference between state and Fed. Procedural rules.

If the dismissal is without prejudice, a Biden DOJ could start from the beginning.

In AZ, once the judge accepts the plea it's considered a conviction. In certain cases we would ask the court to not enter judgment until sentencing if there was ongoing discovery that could impact the plea. This was because of fucked up local prosecutors putting outrageous deadlines on plea acceptance and draconian mandatory sentencing laws. Once a plea was accepted the only way a defendant could withdraw would be if they could show a manifest injustice.

Double jeopardy challenges in state courts are pretty rare in my experience. Only remember one in 27 years and that was because of a really fucked up pea in a previous case. Very fact specific.

Most double jeopardy issues are raised when a person in prosecuted in both State and Federal jurisdictions. Gamble took care of that issue.

I'm guessing they have lots of other things to charge Flynn with if they choose to, so this is probably purely academic.

His only protection would be for trump to issue a blanket pardon, on top of the dismissal.

it was kind of an interesting question. I'm sure they could nail him on plenty of other stuff unrelated to the FBI lie if they keep digging - like the business with the Turkish expat he wanted to kidnap.

I was always convinced there was that perfect spot on case out there if I just looked a little longer. No rabbit hole was too small for me to jump down.

Agree about the Turkish stuff.

First job was clerking for a state supreme court justice, which was a great job and led me down a lot of fun legal rabbit holes. I got into a different line of work eventually because I got tired of fighting with assholes.

Having a captive audience who had to listen to me was awesome. Everything else about the job was soul sucking. Nobody came to my office cuz they were having a good day.

I think what's going on with DOJ is so hard for me BECAUSE I was a criminal defense attorney. So many of my clients had their lives ruined by the power of the government. To see these assholes not just get away with serious crimes, but shoving it in our faces, is infuriating.

Things seldom worked the way they were supposed to work, and it was hard explaining that to clients. Of course, some of them were assholes too.

The ones I made a couple calls and settled still send me Christmas cards. LOL

It's probably cuz the bigger assholes were in bigger trouble.

You're right. Jeopardy hasn't attached.

And there's not a chance in hell that Judge Sullivan will dismiss this case with prejudice.

The circuit court's order was to grant the motion.

Still the possibility of appeal/review... but I'd say there's at least a chance in hell.

One wonders what would have happened if Judge Sullivan had granted the dismissal right away but said "The DOJ changed its mind and might do so again in the future... so 'without' is appropriate". Not sure the circuit would have heard an appeal of that.

Which means he's not dismissing the case yet - he'll probably seek an en banc review or wait for one of the appellate judges to ask for one.

This ain't over ...

does he have standing?

asking for a friend

Edit to add: Not talking about Judge Gleeson's filing. A responsive pleading filled with the Court of Appeals.

we'll see.