This is Marbury v. Madison level brilliant. Emmet Sullivan's maneuver is like tai chi. He has just put off accepting or denying Barr's motion to withdraw charges, and he has done it in a way that is almost completely immune to appeal or judicial pressure. https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1260336453617410049

He is saying "I'm not ready to give Barr what he wants or face an appeal to the D.C. Circuit. Instead, I'm going to make it clear that anyone and his brother can file a motion and clog this up for months. And I'm not yet going to tell you when this free-for-all starts."

Barr has no procedural tools of which I am aware to force the court to rule on the motion. (DC practitioners, let me know if I am wrong.) Sullivan could let this go on through the fall. So if Trump wants Flynn to walk before the election, Trump is going to have to pardon him.

Because as soon as the amici start to fly, the responses thereto come out, and the rebuttals, and the surrebuttals, and the hearings and all the best pornography the procedural rules have to off. When this is over, everyone is going to need a long bath.

But bottom line, unless Trump wants to pardon the same man he fired for lying to his deputy, Mike Flynn goes to bed an admitted felon tonight, tomorrow, the next day, the day after that...