A well known D.C. attorney, who previously represented Brett Kavanaugh and aides to Hillary Clinton, is now representing the federal judge who’s mired in a dispute over his handling of the Michael Flynn case.
Beth Wilkinson on Tuesday formally entered her appearance on behalf of U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan of D.C. Sullivan’s move to hire the veteran litigator was reported by the Washington Post late last week.
It comes as the tangled mess of Flynn’s case has made it up to U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. Circuit.
The appeals court has asked Sullivan to respond to a request from Flynn that the appeals court order Flynn’s case be dismissed.
Rarely are judges required to themselves file such responses. Sullivan’s decision to hire Wilkinson is the latest in a series of remarkable twists Flynn’s case has taken. Sullivan has been accused of acting inappropriately by refusing to immediately grant a Justice Department request that Flynn’s case be dropped.
Flynn took to the D.C. Circuit last week his issues with how Sullivan has handled his case, which was thrown into chaos when the Justice Department announced earlier this month that it was walking away from its prosecution of Flynn.
Instead of immediately granting the DOJ dismissal request, Sullivan ordered several weeks of “friend of the court” briefing, in which outside parties will be weighing in on whether Sullivan should drop the case. Among those outside parties is John Gleeson, a former judge and ex-mafia prosecutor whom Sullivan appointed to oppose the DOJ request to dismiss the case.
Flynn, who pleaded guilty twice before reversing course, has asked the appeals court to intervene in the matter.
Wilkinson, the attorney whom Sullivan hired to represent him in the appellate dispute, has been involved in several high profile matters before. She represented Kavanaugh while his Supreme Court nomination was before the Senate, according to The Post. Her other former clients include a handful Hillary Clinton aides who were roped into the FBI investigation into Clinton’s private email server.
Before jumping into private practice, Wilkinson was a Justice Department attorney, where she was involved in the prosecution ofTimothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber.
A little help here. Why is Sullivan hiring counsel?
So when a judge hires an attorney to represent him in another court, who is paying the attorney?
Flynn repeatedly lied to the FBI about his contacts with the Russians, and has now almost certainly perjured himself in court. Beth Willinson’s father is a retired Navy captain (guess which country topped America’s enemies list at the time he served) and she was in the Army JAG corp. Beth Wilkinson is not someone to take traitors like Flynn lightly.
Good question, dont. I can’t answer it.
Must say that it must be a lawyer’s dream to be able to list a federal judge as a client on the resume.