My thoughts on the Flynn pardon are mixed. On one hand it is a really astonishing and grotesque abuse of the pardon power, with long term ramifications. On the other, I'm not especially bothered by Flynn not serving real jail time for the 1001 violation.

It's not that the violation wasn't serious and real. Flynn was in no way railroaded. But he did plead guilty and mostly held up his end of the cooperation. The shenanigans at the end trying to withdraw the plea etc were silly, but hardly enough to merit a lengthy sentence.

Essentially the actual injustice here flows from the vast misconduct of the president and his AG and the American people have cured that in throwing them out of office. Flynn isn't a martyr but it's a mistake to conflate his serving time with validation of the investigators.

The people who investigated Flynn's misconduct and and prosecuted his crime did an immense public service. They defended the nation and by exposing him, prevented a deeply unfit person from holding precious secrets. Trump ensured they paid a huge price for doing their duty.

Pardoning Flynn is corrupt and wrong, but it doesn't erase their service to the nation. And some fantasy scenario where Flynn serves time over DOJ's objection (or after another DOJ reversal) might feel karmically satisfying, but that's not the same thing as justice.