So was Sullivan a "left-wing hack" when Reagan appointed him and Bush initially promoted him? How about in 2009 when he threw out Ted Stevens's conviction based on prosecutorial misconduct.
Must not have been when Flynn's firebrand right-wing nut attorney Sidney Powell sent him a copy of her book in 2014...
"
Michael Flynn's attorney and conservative commentator Sidney Powell sent
Judge Emmet Sullivan a copy of her book in 2014, about a criminal case he handled where he obliterated the Justice Department's work.
Writing to the judge she's called a hero, the Texas-based lawyer inscribed on the third page: "Judge Emmet Sullivan, to all those who seek, hallow, and do Justice. With the greatest respect and gratitude for your honorable service."
Five years later, Powell stood face-to-face with Sullivan in her first hearing representing Flynn, President Donald Trump's former national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI days into the new administration. It was a short meet-and-greet type of hearing. Sullivan held up the book in his Washington, DC, courtroom, acknowledged he had read the complimentary parts about him, thanked her for sending it, and moved on. Powell left the courtroom glowing."
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/13/politics/judge-emmet-sullivan-flynn-case/index.html
I'm gonna humbly submit that Judge Sullivan became the latest Trump cult villain when he sat in for Michael Flynn's plea session in Jan 2018, and openly expressed his contempt for both Flynn and the deal which allowed Flynn to plead guilty to the lesser charge of "lying to the FBI".
His more serious crime- being paid $500,000 by Turkey as part of a plot to basically kidnap a Turkish citizen who the Erdogan regime was desperate to get their hands on was basically ignored then and continues to (oddly enough) still be ignored by the right-wing press. But I submit this is the offense that Sullivan viewed as Flynn's most serious crime, and why he's reticent about letting Flynn just skate.
Mueller allowed Flynn to plead to the lesser charge, in exchange for Flynn's testimony regarding the involvement of his business partner's in the plot. Probably not a coincidence that Flynn's plea hearing was held 2 days after his business partners were indicted in a VA court. Judge Sullivan clearly though the deal was too lenient... He asked why Flynn wasn't being charged with Treason and said this to Flynn...
“All along, you were an unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the National Security Adviser to the President of the United States. That undermines everything this flag over here stands for,” Judge Sullivan told Mr. Flynn. “Arguably, you sold your country out.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/us/politics/emmet-sullivan-flynn-judge.htm
The only reason Sullivan didn't actually sentence Flynn at the time (Dec 2018) was that he felt Flynn's lawyers didn't understand that he (Sullivan) felt that the case required prison time. He felt they were underprepared and assumed that he would give him some
nominal sentence (lacking incarceration), which he (Judge Sullivan) did not intend to do...