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Headline Roundup May 8th, 2020

Perspectives: The DOJ's Dismissal of Michael Flynn's Case

Summary from the AllSides News Team

The media is starkly divided along partisan lines in reacting to the Justice Department's decision to dismiss charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the bureau as part of the Russia probe. Many left-rated voices decried perceived White House interference in getting the case dropped, with some accusing the Trump administration of fueling public animosity toward federal law enforcement. Many right-rated voices applauded the decision as the right move in correcting the FBI's supposedly politically-motivated investigation. Others took a less partisan stance, with some questioning why Flynn wouldn't tell the truth initially instead of pleading guilty.

Featured Coverage of this Story

If Michael Flynn did nothing wrong, why didn’t he tell the truth?
If Michael Flynn did nothing wrong, why didn’t he tell the truth?

Washington Post

Opinion

With the Justice Department’s move Thursday to drop its case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn, it’s useful to go back to a basic question: If Flynn did nothing wrong when he called the Russian ambassador on Dec. 29, 2016, the day President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Russia for interfering in the presidential election, why did he conceal it?

One issue from the beginning was whether Flynn’s call to Ambassador Sergey Kislyak violated the Logan Act, which bars private U.S. citizens from trying to influence another country about...

Open on David Ignatius
Ending the Flynn False-Statement Case Was the Right Judgment
Ending the Flynn False-Statement Case Was the Right Judgment

National Review (News)

Analysis

Judgments and rules are two different things. Rules are, or should be, clear bright lines that can produce yes-or-no answers. Judgments are more complicated than that. They need not be as standardless as Potter Stewart’s famous definition of pornography (“I know it when I see it”), but judgments typically involve a good deal more weighing and balancing of multiple factors, sometimes in ways that don’t reduce to a mathematical formula. The Justice Department’s decision to drop the Michael Flynn false-statement prosecution, three years after he pleaded guilty, might not pass...

Open on National Review (News)
The Appalling Damage of Dropping the Michael Flynn Case
The Appalling Damage of Dropping the Michael Flynn Case

New York Times (Opinion)

Opinion

Criminal law specialists and members of the law enforcement community are tough to really shock. But the Justice Department’s announcement that it would drop criminal charges against Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, has provoked, in addition to outrage, a sense of utter demoralization among them. They’ve never seen such a thing before. After all, Mr. Flynn twice pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I.

But it’s important to understand why all Americans should be not just shocked but outraged. It’s not just because Mr. Flynn won’t go...

Open on New York Times (Opinion)

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