Only one other U.S. Army general has served his country quite like Michael Flynn:
Benedict Arnold.
Lieutenant Gen. Flynn had retired from the service when he betrayed his country.
But Major Gen. Benedict at least had the sense of shame to leave the country after he betrayed it.
Flynn continues to live in the United States.
What motivated Flynn to turn against his country?
Resentment, money, ego, narcissism.
Donald Trump.
“Flynn was extremely resentful at being fired by President Barack Obama as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and nursed grudges against his rivals in the other intelligence agencies. He had been popular with his own troops but others in the military came to mistrust him and considered him a little unhinged,” Heather Digby Parton wrote on the Salon website on July 4, 2017.
“After Flynn left the government, at first he simply parlayed his insider knowledge into big dollars as a foreign agent lobbying for Russia and Turkey. When he met up with Donald Trump, Flynn evidently found an outlet for his resentment against his former rivals. We don’t yet know whether this actually led him to work with a foreign government to subvert his own. There are certainly allegations that he may have tried. Today Flynn finds himself in the crosshairs of a government investigation into both his financial dealings and his political activities.”
We still don’t know the complete story about whether – or to what degree? – Flynn conspired against his country.
There may not be enough evidence to convict him of treason, but there is more than enough evidence to demonstrate that he should never work in any government-related job again.
At least any U.S. government-related job.
Flynn was convicted for “improper contact with foreign nations” and urged Trump to go to unprecedented lengths to remain in power.
If Trump is re-elected president, Trump says he will offer Flynn a job in his administration.
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-michael-flynn-fd20908ba09b27beef2f8e40698d6d5e
It is not an overreach to say that Trump would hire people who work with our enemies – such as Russia — to undermine our democracy.
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan accused Flynn, who admitted that he had lied to FBI agents, of betraying his country. Judge Sullivan, the Washington Post reported, “asked prosecutors from the office of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III whether Flynn, a career public servant and retired Army lieutenant general, could be charged with ‘treason.’”
The mere asking of such a question is damning of Flynn.
Douglas Wise, a former deputy to Flynn during his brief time as national security adviser, said the “disgraced retired general should never be able to escape the ‘shame’ of his conviction for lying to the FBI regarding improper contact with foreign nations, a crime for which he was pardoned by President Donald Trump,” Newsweek reported in December 2020.
“A pardon allows Flynn to escape punishment, but he can’t escape the shame,” Wise said on Twitter. “Gen. Flynn is a traitor to American ideals & core values.”
Americans need to know Flynn as “the criminal he is,” Wise said.
Wise was responding to Flynn telling Trump to declare martial law to remain in power after losing the 2020 Presidential Election to Democrat Joe Biden a month earlier.
https://www.newsweek.com/michael-flynn-traitor-american-ideals-ex-deputy-trump-martial-law-1556290
Wise is hardly alone in wanting Flynn charged with treason for his crimes against the country, such as illegally cooperating with foreign countries, calling for Trump to use martial law to remain in power, and calling for the violent overthrow of the government.
Flynn suggested that there should be a coup against the United States in a speech to a QAnon conference in June 2021.
“A coup should happen here,” he said.
Flynn denied saying he had called for a coup.
His words were captured on videotape, Slate reported.
Slate columnist Fred Kaplan said that “there seems to be no limit to the depths of disgrace and discredit that retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn will scrape in his plunge toward political extremism. But does his latest headline-grabber cross the line into criminality? Can he somehow be punished for advocating a coup?”
“We’re talking about a retired three-star general who was President Donald Trump’s national security adviser and, before then, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency,” Fred Kaplan wrote in Slate.
“The fact that he was fired from both of those high posts—from the White House for lying to the vice president, from the DIA for running the agency into the ground—doesn’t minimize the dangers of this appalling, reckless breach of the military’s most sacred commitment to obey lawful civilian authority.”
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/06/michael-flynn-coup-court-martial.html
Flynn rose to the rank of three-star general during his Army career and was ousted by President Barack Obama as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency for what was described as a “disruptive” and “chaotic” management style.
Former secretary of state Colin Powell wrote this about Flynn in an email:
“I asked why Flynn got fired. Abusive with staff, didn’t listen, worked against policy, bad management, etc. He has been and was right-wing nutty every [sic] since.”
Flynn’s competence and mental state were questioned; but, at this point, nobody questioned his loyalty to the country – at least openly.
Trump hired Flynn to work for him as an adviser during the 2016 Presidential Campaign. The Washington Post and other sources reported that Trump was considering Flynn, a registered Democrat, to be his running mate.
Flynn campaigned for Trump and in a speech at the Republican National convention attacked the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, urging the crowd to chant “Lock her up!”
He called for Clinton to drop out of the race, saying, “if I did a tenth — a tenth — of what she did, I would be in jail today.”
https://www.vox.com/2016/7/19/12221346/republican-convention-hillary-clinton-lock-her-up
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/2/14/14609618/michael-flynn-trump-hillary-clinton
Don’t be so humble, Mikey, what you did was a thousand times worse than what Hillary Clinton did, and you should be arrested, tried, and, if found guilty, stripped naked, covered in butter and mushrooms, and dragged through a village of starving cannibals.
Less than a week after his speech at the GOP convention, Flynn retweeted an anti-Semitic remark that said, “not anymore, Jews . . . not anymore.”
He also posted anti-Muslim tweets and shared a series of Clinton-related lies, including one by Trump-loving pedophile Milo Yiannopoulos.
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/michael-flynn-twitter-226091
https://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/18/politics/kfile-flynn-tweets
SEE MILO YIANNOPOULOS
A number of news stories and columns have questioned Flynn’s close ties to Russia.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-supporter-defends-payment-russian-175611942.html
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-flynn-congress-idUSKBN15G5MT/
Flynn had secret telephone conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak that coincided with President Barack Obama leveling sanctions against Russia in relation for its meddling in the presidential election. Flynn, according to official, said that President-elect Donald Trump would end the sanctions.
“That would mean Flynn had been actively trying to undermine Obama Administration policy while not yet in office — a big, questionably legal no-no. Indeed, the FBI is currently investigating the content of the Flynn calls,” Zack Beauchamp wrote on the Vox. website
https://www.vox.com/world/2017/2/10/14575456/michael-flynn-phone-call-russia-explained
Flynn’s devotion to Russia raises questions about his devotion to the United States.
The same can be said for Donald Trump.
Politico called Trump “the Kremlin’s choice.”
President Obama warned President-elect Trump against hiring Flynn.
Trump ignored Obama’s advice and appointed Flynn his national security adviser.
New York Times reporters Matthew Rosenberg and Maggie Haberman wrote that Flynn had a reputation for “Islamophobia” and demonstrated “a loose relationship with facts: General Flynn, for instance, has said that Shariah, or Islamic law, is spreading in the United States (it is not). His dubious assertions are so common that when he ran the Defense Intelligence Agency, subordinates came up with a name for the phenomenon:
“They called them ‘Flynn facts.’”
Like Trump facts, they’re facts that are not facts.
Flynn did not initially reveal the speaking fees he received from Russia, CNBC reported.
He also did not reveal that he had had telephone conversations with the Russian ambassador.
Flynn remained as national security adviser for the first 22 days of the administration – just short of the requisite 25 days before receiving privileges to the Oval Office espresso machine — before he was forced to resign, giving him the dubious distinction of serving the shortest term of any national security advisor.
Flynn’s ouster came after he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence and other administration officials about his telephone conversations with Kislyak.
The New York Times reported that such discussions “represented a remarkable breach of protocol.”
Pence then repeated during television interviews Flynn’s lie that the national security advisor had had conversations with Kislyak.
Flynn’s resignation came seven hours before after Trump’s top adviser Kellyanne Conway – her of the “alternate facts” — had told MSNBC that Trump had “full confidence” in the retired general.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller began scrutinizing Flynn’s words and actions as part of his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 Presidential Election.
Flynn then lied to the FBI about his communications with Kislyak.
Flynn pleaded guilty in federal district court on Dec. 1, 2017 to “willingly and knowingly” committing a felony by lying to the FBI and agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s office.
It might be worth repeating here that Flynn pleaded guilty — as in, he admitted to lying to the FBI.
Trump tweeted: “I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2017
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/michael-flynn-trump-fired-flynn-because-he-lied-to-fbi-pence/
There was one thing Flynn hid:
The truth.
Flynn and Trump both said that Flynn had lied to the FBI.
Flynn later withdrew his guilty plea and hired Sidney Powell as his attorney … yes, that Sidney Powell, who FOX News anchor Tucker Carlson would later call a liar, Laura Ingraham, another Fox News anchor, would call “a bit nuts,” and another Trump insider said the following : “There is literally not one motherf—-r in the president’s entire orbit — his staunchest group of supporters and allies — who doesn’t think that Sidney Powell should be on that first rocket to Mars.”
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/14/politics/michael-flynn-withdraw-guilty-plea/index.html
https://www.yahoo.com/now/trump-reportedly-meeting-michael-flynn-062121690.html
Yes, Flynn’s attorney was the same Sydney Powell who pleaded guilty in August 2023 to criminal charges related to interfering with the Georgia election during the 2020 Presidential Election.
Former President Donald Trump is among the defendants in the case.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/20/trump-georgia-election-case-lin-wood-is-witness-da-says.html
SEE SIDNEY POWELL
Federal district Judge Emmet Sullivan delayed sentencing for Flynn in December 2018 and questioned Flynn’s defense that the case should be dropped against Flynn even though he had pleaded guilty.
“All along, you were an unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the national security advisor to the president of the United States,” Sullivan told Flynn.
“That undermines everything this flag over here stands for,” Sullivan said, pointing to the U.S. flag. “Arguably you sold your country out.”
Flynn then reaffirmed his guilty plea.
“I cannot recall any incident in which the court accepted a guilty plea in which he was not guilty, and I don’t intend to start today,” Sullivan said.
“Are you continuing to accept responsibility for your false statements?” Sullivan asked.
“I am, your honor,” Flynn answered.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/18/judge-tells-michael-flynn-you-sold-your-country-out-at-hearing.html
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/michael-flynn-sentencing/h_325baaa2dd882235347a59621f20eecc
Flynn had an attorney who would be indicted and will likely face disbarment over her involvement overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential Election.
In December 2020, President Trump pardoned Flynn, who had twice pleaded guilty.
https://www.nytimes.com2020/11/25/us/politics/michael-flynn-pardon.html
https://www.justice.gov/pardon/page/file/1341606/download
Trump, who had once said that Flynn had lied and had pleaded guilty to those lies, then declared Flynn an innocent man.
“He was an innocent man,” Trump declared.
Trump’s pardon of Flynn came a month after Trump lost the presidential election to Joe Biden.
Flynn and Sidney Powell then called for Trump to suspend the Constitution, seize voting machines, declare martial law, and have the military oversee a re-doing the Presidential Election to overturn the results during a meeting of Trump and other advisers.
Trump denied reports that Flynn’s martial law idea had been discussed.
Trump was not – and this will shock you – telling the truth.
Martial law was discussed.
Flynn did not just bring it up martial law at the meeting with Trump and his advisors.
He expressed the need for martial law on Newsmax.
Flynn told Newsmax that President Trump should use the military to “seize” voting machines and then order a new election.
“There is no way in the world we are going to be able to move forward as a nation,” said Flynn, “He could immediately, on his order, seize every single one of these machines, on his order.
“He could order the, within the swing states, if he wanted to, he could take military capabilities, and he could place those in states and basically rerun an election in each of those states,” Flynn said. “I mean, it’s not unprecedented. These people are out there talking about martial law like it’s something that we’ve never done.”
https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-flynn-trump-military-martial-law-overturn-election-2020-12
Tony Thomas, a retired general who headed the Joint Special Operations Command, remarked on Twitter:
“Mike, stop. Just stop. You are a former soldier.”
The Military Times condemned the former general for calling for actions that the publication said were “manifestly illegal and harmful to the Republic.”
The New York Times reported that Flynn had emerged from his post-pardon depression to embrace QAnon and all its conspiracies to question American democracy.
“Mr. Flynn’s dark view of Islam and eagerness to cultivate Vladimir V. Putin of Russia have given way to an embrace of QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy theory, and a readiness to question the very fabric of American democracy,” Matthew Rosenberg wrote in The Times. “He has swapped a government job and an obsessive focus on ‘radical Islamic terrorism’ for selling QAnon-branded T-shirts and a new media partnership with conspiracy theorists called Digital Soldiers.”
A GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania called Flynn a “traitor” during a primary debate in February 2022.
Everett Stern, a former banking whistleblower, interrupted his opponent Kathy Barnette and snapped: “You’re being backed by General Flynn. You’re being backed by a traitor.”
The website Just Security, an online forum that includes essays on “the rigorous analysis of security, democracy, foreign policy, and rights,” quoted retired Major General Paul Eaton who started a petition to have Flynn recalled to active duty and then court martialed for treason.
“What Flynn did is sedition. And to be absolutely clear – it’s a treason that our men and women in uniform would never ever countenance.
“I’m calling for Michael Flynn to be recalled to active duty and court martialed for his treason.
Do you agree with me? Add your name today to say you support court martialing Michael Flynn for his treason.
“Flynn violated the oath we all took when we enlisted – to support and defend the Constitution. That oath doesn’t retire when you do.”
