Full Appeals Court agrees to hear request to end Michael Flynn case

The trial judge overseeing the matter, Emmet G. Sullivan, decided to scrutinize the legitimacy of that request, appointing an outside critic who portrayed Barr’s move as corrupt and urged the sentencing of Flynn, who has twice pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about conversations with a Russian ambassador. But before the judge could hold a hearing, Flynn’s legal team persuaded two of three judges on an appeals court panel to order the judge to dismiss the charges without further review.

That panel ruling was a surprise, and both of the judges in the majority — Neomi Rao, a former Trump White House official, and Karen L. Henderson, a George Bush appointee, have been more willing in other cases than most of their colleagues to interpret the law in Trump’s favor.

A chief argument against their intervention was that the situation did not qualify for the extraordinary remedy of an immediate order to the trial judge — a so-called writ of mandamus — because an alternative was available: Sullivan could be permitted to make his decision in the normal course, and if Flynn did not like it, he could file an appeal.

The unsigned order from the full court signaled the majority of the judges who wanted to rehear the matter may be focused on that argument.