The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 8-2 against Flynn's petition for it to step in and force a district judge to grant the Justice Department's motion to drop charges without holding a hearing on the issue.
The circuit court also denied Flynn's argument that the judge overseeing his case be forced to recuse himself. The former three-star general's legal team had argued that Judge Emmet Sullivan acted improperly by appointing outside counsel to argue against the DOJ's sudden decision to drop its case and by asking the full circuit court to revisit the earlier decision by a three-judge panel.
Flynn's attorney did not immediately respond when asked for comment.
Unless Flynn's lawyers appeal to the Supreme Court, Sullivan will be able to move forward with a hearing about the DOJ's unusual reversal in the case, before deciding whether to allow the Trump administration to withdraw its charges against the president's former close aide.
Flynn had pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. and agreed to cooperate with the special counsel's investigation into Russian interference in 2016 election.
In the past year, however, he backed out of the plea agreement, hired a firebrand conservative lawyer and disavowed his guilty plea, moving to fight the charges instead.
Before he could move forward with changing his plea, the DOJ decided in May to move to drop its case, saying it no longer had faith in the FBI investigation that led to Flynn's interrogation in early 2017.
Comment: That this case against Flynn should even still be on-going is a testament to how politicized and ridiculous Washington's anti-Trump fervor is. See also: