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Here's the Judge That Smacked Down The Trump Administration--Twice

Here's the Judge That Smacked Down The Trump Administration--Twice
CREDIT: DOMINIC BRACCO II FOR THE WASHINGTON POST SLUG:na/sullivan DATE:4/9/2009 CAPTION: Judge Emmet G. Sullivan poses for a portrait at his office on April 9, 2009 in D.C. Sullivan threw out the indictment against former Sen. Ted Stevens this week.
By Britni Danielle ·
This week, Judge Emmet Sullivan issued a scathing rebuke against the Trump Administration and its former officials. On Tuesday, Sullivan scolded Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, for lying to FBI agents and working as an unregistered agent for a foreign government. Flynn’s lawyer filed a brief with the court ahead of the disgraced official’s sentencing hearing to argue his client may not have been aware that lying to federal agents was a crime. But Sullivan wasn’t having it. “I am not hiding my disgust, my disdain for your criminal offense,” the district court judge told Flynn after questioning him under oath about whether or he understood the charges levied against him. He added: “Arguably, you sold your country out.” The following day, Sullivan issued a ruling striking down a Justice Department policy that prohibited immigrants from seeking asylum if they are fleeing domestic abuse or gang violence. In a 107-page ruling, Sullivan called the guidelines put in place by former Attorney General Jeff Session “arbitrary” and said Congress has the power to change the rules for asylum-seekers, not the Executive Branch. Because “it is the will of Congress — not the whims of the Executive—that determines the standard for expedited removal, the Court finds that those policies are unlawful,” Sullivan wrote. During his decision, Sullivan also prevented the government “from continuing to apply those policies and from removing plaintiffs who are currently in the United States without first providing credible fear determinations consistent with the immigration laws.” He also ordered officials “to return to the United States the plaintiffs who were unlawfully deported and to provide them with new credible fear determinations consistent with the immigration laws.” This isn’t the first time Sullivan excoriated the government for the way it treated undocumented immigrants. Back in August, he ordered government lawyers to return a woman and her child who had been hastily deported, telling DOJ attorneys to “turn that plane around and bring those people back to the United States.” So who is Judge Sullivan? He is a Washington D.C. native and two-time Howard University graduate, receiving both his bachelor’s and Juris Doctor degrees at the esteemed institution. In 1984, Sullivan was appointed to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia by President Reagan. A decade later, President Clinton nominated him to the U.S. District Court and he was later confirmed by the Senate. Today, Sullivan is the longest-serving judge the U.S. District Court in Washington and has been hailed as a “fiercely independent judge” and someone who can be “extremely demanding” in the courtroom. “He’s very polite, civil and cordial, and extremely demanding and exacting, particularly of the prosecution,” Glenn Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor, told NBC News. “He’s somebody that loathes any hint of governmental misconduct. If we’re doing something not to his liking, he’ll let us know about it.” This week, the Trump Administration and its former officials learned that lesson, loud and clear.
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