Michael Flynn To Get Job Back After DOJ Dropped His Criminal Case?

Will Michael Flynn, the former national security advisor for the Trump Administration, return to his old job at the White House now that the Justice Department just announced that it has dropped all charges—and closed the full case— against him?

President Trump communicated, as recently as last week, the he’d indeed “consider” rehiring Michael Flynn if he were exonerated. Now that the DOJ has dropped the case against him today, the question about Flynn’s next career move is inescapable. Will Donald Trump follow through with what he eluded to and actually return Flynn to his old job or find some other role for him in the White House?

Evidence that Flynn is likely to get his job back.

Here’s the evidence—recent comments by Donald Trump—that makes it seem highly likely that Michael Flynn will be able to restore his career within the Trump Administration in one role or another.

When asked about rehiring Flynn, Trump has responded this way:

• “You are asking me for the first time, I would certainly consider it, yeah, I would,” Trump said when asked during a White House briefing whether he’d rehire Flynn, who was fired after less than two months on the job.” – New York Daily News
• President Donald Trump said he would “certainly consider” bringing Michael Flynn, a convicted felon who served as Trump’s first national security advisor, back into his administration. – CNBC
• I would “consider” rehiring retired Army Gen. Michael Flynn if he is “exonerated.” – HuffPost

The lynchpin seems to be that the White House is fully open to a Flynn rehire so long as Flynn is legally exonerated. By dropping the case against Flynn and asking the federal judge to drop the prosecution as well, Trump and the DOJ are demonstrating their commitment to Flynn’s exoneration. They are taking all the necessary steps to ensure that the full criminal and legal cases as well as Flynn’s guilty plea simply disappear (at least from a legal standpoint).

Michael Flynn’s career downfall.

Michael Flynn served 33 years in the U.S. Army and spent his last two years serving as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency under President Obama. After retiring in 2014 from the Army, Flynn later accepted an appointment by President Trump to serve as his national security advisor. He began that role in January 2017. Flynn held that position for less than a month before his government career—and reputation—fell off the cliff in February 2017.

As The Atlantic highlights, back in February 2017 Michael Flynn resigned his position after it had been discovered that he lied to Vice President Pence and federal officials at the DOJ about communications and interactions with the Russian ambassador to the United States. In December of that same year, Flynn pled guilty to willfully making false and fraudulent statements to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador.

Outstanding matters for the rehire.

Though the DOJ has dropped its case against Michael Flynn, Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan has yet to throw out the prosecution and guilty plea. It remains to be seen what Judge Sullivan will do. If he refuses to dismiss the prosecution, Flynn won’t get the full exoneration he seeks. The question would then go to whether or not Donald Trump would rehire Flynn if the judge decides he won’t dismiss the prosecution outright.

Some high-profile responses to these actions.