WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has ordered the dismissal of the criminal case against President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said in a 2-1 ruling that the Justice Department’s decision to abandon the case against Flynn settles the matter, even though Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to prosecutors in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan had declined to immediately dismiss the case, seeking instead to evaluate on his own the department’s unusual dismissal request. Wednesday’s ruling avoids a protracted court fight that would have delved deeper into the reasoning for the Justice Department’s extraordinary decision to drop the charges.
