Full DC appeals court agrees to rehear Michael Flynn case

An appeals court has agreed to take up the case against retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, which the Justice Department is attempting to dismiss. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an order on Thursday that states that oral arguments for the en banc review by the full appeals court are scheduled for Aug. 11, after a three-judge appeals court panel agreed with the Trump administration and Flynn’s legal team, ordering the district court to allow DOJ lawyers to drop the charges. The order vacates the one dealt by the smaller panel last month.

Judge Emmet Sullivan, who is overseeing the Flynn case, had filed a petition for a rehearing of the case against President Trump's former national security adviser by the full appeals court.

Flynn, a target of the special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to FBI investigatorsabout his December 2016 conversations with a Russian envoy, but after changing legal teams, Flynn began to claim he was innocent and had been set up by the FBI. After Attorney General William Barr appointed U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Jensen to review the Flynn case, who has unearthed a host of new documents deemed exculpatory by Flynn’s lawyers, the Justice Department engaged in an effort to get the case dropped.