As exasperating as the news is that Judge Emmet “Captain Ahab” Sullivan refused to comply with an order by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals and drop the case against Michael Flynn, it’s hardly unexpected. After all, the original Captain Ahab just kept pursuing his great white whale until (spoiler alert!) it finally dragged him down to his watery grave.

The investigation of the attempted coup against the Trump Administration has uncovered widespread misconduct in the FBI and DOJ, including evidence that Flynn was set up, he did nothing wrong and the FBI knew it, and exculpatory evidence that should have been turned over to his attorneys was hidden. The DOJ rightly requested that the case be dropped, which is the prosecutors’ prerogative. But Sullivan, attempting to act as both judge and prosecutor, still refuses, even after being ordered by his superiors to hang it up. He’s clinging to a novel legal theory that if a defendant changes his plea, he can be charged with perjury for making the plea he withdrew (and never mind that we now know Flynn’s initial guilty plea was coerced: after having lost his job, reputation, home and life savings, he was being threatened with having the same done to his son if he didn’t plead guilty.)

It's obvious that there is no real case against Flynn, but Sullivan apparently hopes either to force Trump to pardon Flynn so it can be made into a political issue, or else drag the case out beyond the election in hopes that anti-Flynn conspirator Joe Biden is elected. Then the coup cabal can return to power, kill the investigation into their own misconduct, cover up their crimes and go right back to their unconstitutional abuses of government power against political opponents, just as if Hillary had been elected in 2016.

So now, the case will have to be heard again by the entire DC Circuit Court. If there is any justice remaining in Washington at all, let us pray that the judges quickly dispense with this unfunny farce, release Flynn so that he can get on with the serious legal business of suing the pants off of the people who targeted him, and order that Sullivan be removed from the bench and have to run 15 laps around the courthouse. I know that last part isn’t technically within their constitutional powers, but that hasn’t been much of a factor in this case so far.