(Photo by the Defense Department via Wikimedia)
Michael Flynn is suing the US government for $50 million because of the Mueller investigation.
Yes, this column was precipitated by a PACER alert in the case last night. But let’s be honest, it will never not be hilarious that Flynn got picked up on a wiretap promising sanctions relief to the Russian ambassador, lied about it to the FBI, pled guilty to it twice, finagled AG Bill Barr into dropping the case, scored a presidential pardon, and is actually suing the FBI over it.
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The stones on this guy!
Ret. Gen. Michael Flynn was briefly the National Security Advisor to Donald Trump, before getting canned for lying about his discussions with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak during the presidential transition. He’s since gone on to a lucrative career as the holy martyr of Wingnutistan, traveling the country preaching the gospel of conspiracy Jesus to a receptive flock.
In early March, Flynn filed a two-count Federal Tort Claims Act complaint alleging malicious prosecution and abuse of process, larded with 47 pages of arglebargle about the Deep State and its bloodthirsty quest to destroy Donald Trump by locking up Mike Flynn. He’s represented by Jared Roberts, an attorney from the shop of Trump’s regular Kraken lawyer Jesse Binnall.
The case is likely time-barred: since 1) the events at issue took place in 2017 and the statute of limitations is two years; and 2) under 28 U.S.C. § 2401, you have to bring an FTCA action within six months of a final denial of an administrative claim, and Flynn didn’t file his until February 24, 2022. Meaning it was deemed denied six months later, and he had until February 24, 2023 to file. But he waited until March — WHOOPSIE!
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When he finally did mosey into court, Flynn filed in the Middle District of Florida’s Tampa Division, and drew Judge Mary Scriven. This was was probably not what he was hoping for, since Judge Scriven refused to issue emergency relief when Flynn sued the January 6 Select Committee and dismissed a defamation complaint against CNN brought by his sister Valerie Flynn. So perhaps Flynn will be pleased that the Justice Department is now seeking to transfer the case to the US District Court for the District of Columbia and off of Judge Scriven’s docket.
The government makes several different arguments in favor of moving the case out of the venue where the plaintiff resides and has chosen to make his claims. First they argue that all of the events in question took place in DC at a time when Flynn himself resided in or near the District. Second they note most of the witnesses are former Justice Department employees in DC who will be unavailable to subpoena in Tampa.
Based upon Plaintiff’s own allegations, if this matter survived a motion to dismiss, there would appear to be eleven key non-party witnesses in this matter. All but one of these non-party witnesses are located within the subpoena power of the DDC and none are within the subpoena power of the MDFL.
On top of this, they point to the familiarity of DDC judges with DC law and the relative convenience of travel for Flynn, who flies around the country giving speeches about the evil FBI and so could presumably make a stop in the belly of the beast. They do not note that Binnall’s office is in Alexandria, so he could presumably find his way to the E. Barrett Prettyman courthouse.
And while they’re throwing spaghetti, the government makes the slightly humorous argument that federal judges in DC have oodles of time on their hands, while their counterparts in the Middle District of Florida are running ragged, writing that “according to the Federal Court Management Statistics for the period ending December 31, 2022, the docket of each judge within the MDFL appears more congested than that of their colleagues in the DDC[.]” They even include a helpful visual aid!
This might be news to the jurists in DC whose dockets are currently groaning under the weight of January 6 prosecutions, but YMMV.
US v. Flynn [Docket via Court Listener]
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics and appears on the Opening Arguments podcast.