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Former Army Captain Seth Keshel has yet to be credited with an official Wikipedia biography. Read all about his biography.
Seth is a 6-year US Army veteran who previously served as a military intelligence officer. He was trending recently after proving bombshell evence to prove election theft in 2020.
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Seth Keschel
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Seth Keshel Wikipedia Bio
Seth Keshel’s Wikipedia biography is missing from the internet.
He is an election expert, former Army Captain, military intelligence officer and former baseball analyst. He recently released the necessary data showing fraud in the 2020 US election after examining vote counts from all 50 states.
According to Seth’s West Michigan Live Podcast with Justin Barclay.
Who Is Seth Keshel Wife?
Former Army Captain Seth Keshel has been married to his wife Carissa Keshel for 11 years.
They officially tied the knot on February 12, 2010.
In addition, Seth and his wife Carissa are parents to 3 children, a son and two daughters.
Seth Keshel Actual Age
Seth Keshel’s age as of 2021 is under investigation.
Find Seth On Twitter
He is active on the Twitter account with the handle @SKeshel with 41.5k followers in it.
His fan base has grown raply after he revealed the new evence of voter fraud.
Seth’s Net Worth
Seth’s exact net worth is currently unknown.
From the source site’s federal pay, we know that he had an average salary of $4.5K per month.
Dan Ball W/ Former Army Intelligence Officer \u0026 Powell/Wood Legal Team Advisor, Seth Keshel
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Seth Keshel Wikipedia: Everything To Know About The …
The Wikipedia bio of Seth Keshel is missing on the Internet. He is an elections expert, former army captain, a Military Intelligence Officer, and a former …
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Seth Keshel Wikipedia: Everything To Know About … – 650.org
The Wikipedia bio of Seth Keshel is missing on the Internet. He is an elections expert, former army captain, a Military Intelligence Officer, and a former …
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Who Is Seth Keshel? His Wikipedia Bio Age, Wife And Net Worth
Seth is a military veteran and an election expert. He is well known for his tweets on COVID-19 and politics. Seth is a former army.
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Seth Keshel Wikipedia, Bio, Age, Net Worth, Wife, Kids …
Seth Keshel’s estimated age is around 40 years. He was a former American army captain who worked as a Military Intelligence officer for about 6 …
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Seth Keshel Wikipedia, Bio, Age, Net Worth, Wife, Kids, Profession, Education
Seth Keshel, a famous former US Army captain, has been in the news for his statements related to the 2020 US presidential election. According to his investigations, he claims that former US President Trump won the elections in 7 states.
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He believes the vote counts have been altered or manipulated. So far, no details and evidence on his claims are available. Keep reading the post to know more about Seth Keshel Biography, Wiki, Education, Profession, Net worth, Children, Wife and other details.
His claims sparked a new heated argument among Americans.
Because she knows a candidate is over half a million votes more than the most generous forecast in her hard-conservative, populist-leaning state, which lost 300,000 Democratic votes in two straight elections before 2020, and based on a candidate’s total, it was like this again? https://t.co/lNnjEagjMr — Seth Keshel (@SKeshel) August 4, 2021
Seth Keshel Wiki
The estimated age of Seth Keshel is around 40 years. He was a former United States Army Captain who served as a military intelligence officer for about 6 years. In addition, he is also an election data analyst and baseball analyst. Further details about his education and personal life are not known at the time of writing this post.
Visit his Twitter account
Latest tweet from Seth Keshel at the time of writing this article
Dad always told me, “Your attitude determines your height.” Worth sharing again as we deal with so much negativity. I spent my year 2010-11 in Afgh he died of cancer. 3 time Vietnam Vet, all he could think of was to encourage me. Love knows no time zones. pic.twitter.com/nczuJVOOct – Seth Keshel (@SKeshel) June 13, 2021
net worth
No official details have been found about his net worth. Seth Keshel’s net worth is estimated to be around $1 million. Still, many websites present his unverified assets that should not be trusted.
family, wife, children
Seth Keshel is married to a woman named Carissa Keshel. They have 3 children together. Two daughters and a son can be seen on their social media. More details on his family will be updated shortly.
The U.S. military men spreading Trump’s baseless fraud claims
During the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the careers of two military officers often intersected. Army General Michael Flynn and an Army Reserve Colonel named Phil Waldron were working together on clandestine projects in both countries, Waldron said. When Flynn was appointed head of US Defense Intelligence in 2012, Waldron said he worked at the DIA’s intelligence agency.
Flynn was an intelligence expert. Waldron’s specialty was psychological operations, or PSYOPs — targeting foreign adversaries, as described in an Army field manual, “to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals.”
Now the two military veterans, along with at least two other retired and reserve officers, are involved in a new mission, this time with a domestic goal: to be at the center of far-right efforts to convince Americans that the 2020 election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump .
Over the past year, Flynn, Waldron and other intelligence veterans have helped propagate some of the outlandish theories that are eroding Americans’ faith in democracy. They made false accusations to lawmakers and the public about how the election had been compromised, fomented false lawsuits to contest its outcome, and funded efforts to conduct partisan reviews of the results. They briefed members of Congress on methods of overturning the election and worked alongside some of the leaders in Trump’s Stop the Steal movement.
“I think we’re doing a tremendous service,” Waldron told Reuters in an interview.
In this effort, Flynn, Waldron and their colleagues publicly touted their military intelligence training, arguing that their expertise on the battlefield gave them particular insight into alleged voter fraud back home in America.
“When retired military officials, especially senior officers, spread wild conspiracies, America’s confidence in its military gets somewhat eroded.”
The false claims made by the military are dangerous, said Roger Herbert, a former Navy SEAL captain and recently retired ethics professor at the U.S. Naval Academy.
“When retired military officers, particularly senior officers, broadcast wild conspiracies, America’s confidence in its military gets somewhat eroded,” Herbert said. “But when these conspiracies claim that the current United States government is illegitimate, it rightly stirs up those primal fears of a standing army ready to turn their guns inward and overthrow our government. In short, these people are doing great harm to the legitimacy and effectiveness of our military.”
Flynn did not respond to requests for comment on this article. A Trump spokeswoman did not respond to a request for an interview about the role the military played in his bid to overthrow the election.
An Army Reserve officer working with Flynn, Lt. Colonel Ivan Raiklin, now faces an internal Army Reserve investigation into whether he violated the reserve’s rules against partisan political activities, a military official told Reuters. At an election forum in New Hampshire last month, Raiklin touted his military experience — commanding special forces, serving in counter-Taliban operations and the MS-13 gang — to say he has the information needed to uncover fraud . “So I have a bit of experience with threats, right?” he said.
Raiklin declined an interview.
Waldron says he and the Flynn circle do not use military techniques on Americans. He claims that the actions they are taking on Trump’s behalf do not undermine American democracy because he believes they are tracking down voter fraud.
The veterans’ false claims varied over time. They have attributed Trump’s loss to actions by the Chinese government and voting technology companies, alleged misconduct by US state and local election officials, and said hackers used the internet to alter votes after they were cast. They have accused old-school ballot filling, possibly featuring dead voters or Venezuelan interests.
While false, their claims and similar claims circulated by others had great impact, inspiring Trump supporters who took part in the Jan. 6 riots in the US Capitol and providing rhetorical fuel for continued efforts to discredit Joe Biden’s victory. Although there is no evidence to support the claims, nearly 6 in 10 Republicans believe the election was stolen, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed in October.
The battle between military officials and intelligence officers is part of a larger Republican movement that has prompted disgruntled Trump voters to support threats of violence as a means of regaining power. As Reuters has documented, Trump supporters are waging a campaign of intimidation against campaign workers across the country. Reviewing more than 800 emails, calls and online posts from supporters of the ex-president, Reuters found that some of the military veterans’ theories had been referenced in hostile messages to local election officials and featured in public anti-election campaigns Integrity.
A false claim by Flynn and his colleagues that voting machines were hacked to steal votes from Trump is a common theme in much angry news. The machines “are rigged to only vote for those who don’t care about the people,” according to an email accusing election officials in Yavapai County, Arizona, of complicity. Referring to General Flynn by name, the author added: “Every lie will be exposed, every traitor will be punished.”
Flynn’s efforts to help Trump overthrow Biden’s victory have been the subject of extensive coverage by a number of US media outlets. Flynn and his colleagues’ Reuters investigation provides new details about the origins of the former intelligence operatives’ collaboration and the extent to which they worked together to undo the 2020 election.
The coverage, based on interviews with participants, military ethicists and others, and an examination of Reuters’ database of threats against election officials, reveals how Flynn drew in Waldron and others to actively contest the 2020 election. Flynn and his small circle were distinctive because their military credentials lent a patina of seriousness to even the most far-fetched claims.
Military veterans who played a role in “Stop the Steal” included:
Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser in 2017, who helped push the most dramatic conspiracy claims. He called on the president to use the military to overturn the December 2020 election, then ran a public speaking campaign sowing doubts about the vote and urging states to conduct their own reviews. Waldron insisting Trump won. He attracted attention last week when the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riots revealed he was in possession of a PowerPoint presentation he had shown to US lawmakers that outlined methods of overturning the election . He has previously lobbied state officials and spoken out in right-wing media about his theories about stolen elections. Waldron said Flynn drafted him to go public, saying: “No one else can do that. It has to be done, so do it!” Raiklin, a reserve army lieutenant colonel who has known Flynn since 2014, when he said they both worked on military intelligence matters. Raiklin is an attorney and a leading proponent of the “pence card” theory — in which Vice President Mike Pence allegedly could have blocked Biden’s certification by Congress on Jan. 6. Seth Keshel, a former army captain who worked in intelligence and claimed to have developed statistical models proving the 2020 election results were fraudulent. After the election, Keshel told Reuters he contacted Flynn on LinkedIn and they began working together. Keshel released an analysis in August claiming Trump had won seven states that went to Biden. Trump welcomed the claim, saying the report came from a “highly respected Army intelligence captain.”
Keshel told Reuters he stands by that assessment but has never called for violence. “I personally believe the election was compromised,” he said, adding, “I can’t control anyone.”
Though they haven’t worked together on every detail, the four have crossed paths in their endeavors, with Flynn being the common denominator. Raiklin has said he worked with Flynn. Keshel said he reached out to the general to share his concerns and the two worked together in the weeks following the election. Waldron said Flynn pushed him to go public with his research.
Keshel’s work helped fuel calls from Trump supporters in many states for election results audits. His analysis, which provided no documented evidence of fraud, was discredited by political scientists, statistical experts, and Republican and Democratic election officials. In a post on Telegram, Keshel himself described his studies as “indulgent”.
His work nonetheless sparked a spate of emails to election officials in areas where his analysis indicated fraud. In Pasco County, Fla., a Republican county that Trump won, officials were inundated with emails calling for an investigation into Keshel’s report. Keshel’s analysis “is literally without statistical validity,” said Brian Corley, the county’s Republican Election Commissioner. “People just took it as fact.”
The Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comment on the Flynn Circle’s activities.
Pauline Shanks Kaurin, a professor of military ethics at the US Naval War College, said a key question is whether Flynn’s staff will publicly cite their military training to lend legitimacy to a partisan cause.
“If you’re talking to an audience that’s interested in what General Flynn thinks and you tell the audience, ‘I did that in this military,’ they tend to be impressed,” Shanks Kaurin said. She said she was speaking in her personal capacity, not on behalf of her government employer.
Waldron denies this criticism. “I have taken an oath to protect the constitution from all enemies at home and abroad, and I believe that our republic is under attack from enemies at home and abroad,” he said. “They want to undermine the republic through the electoral process.”
Earlier this month, a Reuters reporter met with Waldron at One Shot Distillery and Brewing, which he operates on the Texas Hill Country’s “Whiskey Trail.” Bottles of rum, vodka and whiskey with silver labels were on display as Waldron descended the stairs in a gray One Shot Distillery T-shirt and a Glock-19 holstered on his belt.
Waldron, with an easy-going demeanor and a gray-speckled beard, retired as a Colonel in the Army Reserve in 2016. He said he battles powerful forces in search of the truth.
“You’re talking about PSYOPS,” he said. “The election (voting machine) companies and the media have conducted the largest PSYOP on the American people.”
In a series of interviews this year, Waldron vowed he was on the cusp of groundbreaking evidence that the election was stolen. “We’re just decoding the satellite packets,” he said in January. In October, he cited a “37 terabyte” tranche of data that he believed could uncover fraud.
A new mission
Four days after the election, as ballot counting resumed in a handful of swing states, US media predicted Biden had won, establishing an insurmountable lead.
Trump refused to back down. That day, November 7, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, then Trump’s attorney, held a press conference in Philadelphia at which he claimed the result was influenced by suspicious absentee ballots and votes cast on behalf of dead people.
The next day, Waldron said he spoke on the phone with Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Republican from Texas. Waldron, who ran a cybersecurity firm after retiring from the military, said he had been researching voice hacking since August; Biden’s victory accelerated his efforts. Waldron said he told Gohmert he was tracking internet traffic, which was routed through a server in Frankfurt, Germany. Votes could also be diverted, he told Gohmert. Election officials say this claim is false and there is no evidence to support it.
Gohmert immediately called Trump, Waldron said. A spokesman for Gohmert declined to comment.
Two days later, Waldron said, he was on a plane bound for Washington. “It got sporty around that time,” he said, and his theories gained traction.
First he met with Sidney Powell, his old commander Flynn’s attorney. Waldron said he met Powell in a hotel conference room that acted as her headquarters and briefed her in the early hours of the morning. An attorney who worked with Powell, Howard Kleinhendler, confirms that Waldron was part of the group. Powell declined to comment.
Then Waldron snuggled up to Giuliani. “We were supposed to have a 10-minute briefing, but it took 45 minutes,” Waldron said. When Giuliani said he wanted to talk about voter fraud, Waldron said he urged the former mayor that the fraud was on a larger and global scale. “We played it through and worked through it over and over again. He finally came on board,” he said.
Giuliani did not respond to interview requests. He confirmed in a court filing that Waldron shared allegations of fraud with him.
“Colonel of the military, great war record,” Giuliani testified. “I’ve dealt with him a lot and he’s very, very thorough and very experienced in this type of work.”
By the second week of November, Waldron said he had begun working closely with Flynn.
After a distinguished military career, Flynn was appointed head of the Defense Intelligence Agency by President Barack Obama but was fired in 2014, partly because the two clashed over the general’s uncompromising views on countering Islamic extremism. Flynn became a key Trump campaign adviser in 2016 and was appointed national security adviser by the new president. He resigned weeks later after it was revealed he had held secret talks with the Russian ambassador about US sanctions before Trump took office. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about those conversations. Trump would eventually pardon him.
In the days after Biden won the 2020 election, Flynn had set up camp at the sprawling South Carolina estate of attorney L. Lin Wood, another supporter of Trump’s efforts to overthrow the election.
Wood told Reuters Flynn and Powell arrived shortly after the election. So did Keshel, who was working as a technology salesman at the time. Flynn and Keshel stayed until Thanksgiving, when Flynn carved the turkey.
The group, operating from a living room at Wood’s estate, created something of a clearing house for allegations of voter fraud. “They all seemed to work together,” Wood said.
In an interview, Keshel said he spent his time “scanning the numbers and helping write affidavits” for lawsuits Powell was preparing. “There wasn’t much sleep,” Keshel said.
Powell’s lawsuits helped stoke some of the animosity that local officials encountered. The Republican governor and Georgia Secretary of State debunked Powell’s allegations of voter fraud, citing audits and recounts that confirmed the state’s accounts. In response, an irate emailer accused her of resisting further investigation “because of Sidney Powell’s lawsuits and revenge and for no other reason.” … We know that China has disrupted this election by long-distance and mail ballots.”
A secret agent goes public
Three weeks after the election, Giuliani and his associates pushed a new strategy: trying to persuade conservative state lawmakers to simply ignore the election results and declare Trump the winner of their states’ electoral college votes. The Constitution, Trump’s team argued, grants that power.
With Pennsylvania as his focus, Flynn dispatched Waldron to a state senate hearing held there by Republican lawmakers.
Waldron worked behind the scenes for decades. So, he told Reuters, in November 2020 he initially resisted going public with his findings. But he said Flynn and Giuliani urged him to testify about stolen votes. “Rudy’s team had asked me three times.”
On Nov. 25, Waldron appeared in person at the Pennsylvania Senate hearing in a blue jacket, shirt, striped tie and blue COVID mask to present his allegations of fraud. He cited his military credentials. “I’m a retired army colonel for 30 years,” he said. He then claimed that all voting machine technology in the United States could be hacked.
“I have taken an oath to protect the Constitution from all enemies at home and abroad, and I believe our republic is under attack.”
“Our experts and other academics,” Waldron continued, “believe that as many as 1.2 million votes in Pennsylvania may have been altered or forged.” Only “detailed forensic analysis of actual machines and software will truly reveal how many.” Citizens of Pennsylvania had their civil rights violated”.
At the end of the hearing, President Trump intervened over the speakerphone. “I followed the hearing on OAN,” far-right television news channel Trump said. “I’m in the Oval Office right now and it’s very interesting to see what’s going on.”
Waldron said he visited the White House later that day with Giuliani and others. “That was great!” He said Trump told them.
The White House’s focus has been to urge Republican-led legislatures in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia to replace Biden’s voters with those pro-Trump. “This whole strategy started with this hearing in Pennsylvania,” Waldron said.
On the same day, Trump pardoned Flynn in the Russia probe case.
In the end, no state legislature swapped voters. Now Flynn helped present Trump with a new plan.
Election by military power
On Dec. 17, Flynn told right-wing cable newsmax that the president could use the armed forces to hold snap elections in several swing states he’s lost. Trump, he said, “could take military capabilities and place them in those states and basically repeat an election in those states.”
A day later, Flynn, Powell and former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne met with Trump at the White House. They urged the president to use the US government to make digital copies of the hard drives in some voting machines to examine the machines and conduct recounts in at least six counties, Byrne told Reuters. Trump was open to the idea, said Kleinhendler, the attorney working with Powell, but the administration never took those steps. It’s unclear why.
At the same time, Army Reserve Officer Raiklin, a Flynn ally and former Green Beret, was spreading voter fraud theories on social media and right-wing websites. Raiklin describes himself as a constitutional attorney, but he does not appear to practice that area of law. A Reuters review found that he has not argued such a case or written scholarly articles on the subject.
In a Dec. 7 podcast and tweets, Raiklin laid out a plan to reverse the vote, alleging conspiracies involving Pence, intelligence agencies, big tech, China and the Post. He urged Trump to “activate the emergency broadcast system” and used the hashtag #FightLikeAFlynn. “We, the people, will force this plan on them,” he said.
Raiklin’s efforts drew attention on Twitter. On Dec. 22, Raiklin tweeted a copy of a two-page open memo to Trump detailing “Operation Pence Card.” The pitch: Pence, who is acting as “representative of the federal seat of government,” would reject votes from states where Trump alleged fraud and flip the election. The memo was retweeted 23,700 times.
“We, the people, will impose this plan on them.”
Raiklin’s behavior is now under government scrutiny. Army Reserve chief spokesman Lt. Colonel Simon Flake said Raiklin’s superiors are “aware of the situation and are investigating” but privacy regulations prevent him from providing details.
Flake added, “The U.S. Army Reserve follows the Department of Defense’s long-standing policy of prohibiting military personnel from participating in partisan political campaigns to avoid the appearance that DOD is sponsoring, approving, or supporting a partisan political candidate, campaign, or… is a concern. Raiklin did not answer questions from Reuters about the investigation.
On New Year’s Day, Keshel gave a YouTube-streamed interview in which he said the election results were “definitely erratic” because they disrupted what he called historical trends in the US election. “I did a tour in Afghanistan … with a focus on understanding enemy activity,” he said. Now, he said, his focus is on uncovering the “data anomalies” of the election.
Conspiracy PowerPoint
In early January, Waldron said he flew to Washington with a 36-page PowerPoint presentation he allegedly helped prepare. Their goal was to convince Congress and the White House that the election was stolen and Pence should stop confirming Biden’s victory. This month, the House committee investigating the Capitol riots said that Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, provided a copy of that PowerPoint presentation in response to a subpoena.
Waldron’s presentation was titled “Election Fraud, Foreign Interference, and Options for January 6th.” He said he briefed lawmakers on Capitol Hill Jan. 5, outlining a document whose recommendations included “Declare a National Security Emergency” and “Void Electronic Voting in All States.”
Waldron’s pitch echoed the arguments of Trump, who at the time publicly urged Pence to refuse to confirm Democratic electoral votes from a handful of swing states and either declare Trump the winner or not declare a winner at all. Waldron suggested going further, such as using US Marshals and the military to seize ballots nationwide. “A trusted lead counter will be appointed with the authority of the POTUS” to count all votes, the PowerPoint reads.
HOW TO UNLOCK AN ELECTION: Pages from a PowerPoint presentation Phil Waldron gave in D.C. this year. presented. The House of Representatives committee investigating the January 6 riot has received a copy. REUTERS/Courtesy Phil Waldron
“US Marshals will immediately secure all ballots and establish a perimeter of protection around sites in all 50 states,” the PowerPoint said. “The federalized National Guard in each state is provided with detailed procedures and is responsible for counting every legitimate paper ballot.”
On January 5, Flynn told a pro-Trump crowd at Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., “We will not tolerate lies!” The House Committee investigating the January 6 riots has subpoenaed Flynn to test his Efforts to overthrow the election to testify.
A week after the attack, Waldron told Reuters he blamed Pence for the mess. Pence’s offense, he said, was refusing to go along with plans to block Biden’s certification. That was the main cause of the uprising, he said. “One could logically argue that he had more to do with inciting riots than anyone else on this stage,” he said.
The Secret Service had to evacuate the Vice President from the Capitol complex during the riots. Videos show some of the rioters storming the Capitol and chanting, “Hang Mike Pence.”
A spokesman for Pence declined to comment.
Congressional voting in the early hours of Jan. 7 to ratify Biden’s victory ended nearly all court efforts by the Trump camp to keep him in power.
“After that, it was pencils down,” said Powell colleague Kleinhendler. “There was just nothing else to do.”
The Flynn circle was not ready to let go.
Arizona Audit
Everett Stern, a Republican candidate for the US Senate in Pennsylvania who runs a private intelligence firm, said he was approached in April by two Republican politicians who asked him to gather information on elected officials in order to conduct a state audit of the to initiate voting in 2020. They also helped link him to Raiklin, said Stern, who said the agents told him they were acting on Flynn’s direction. Stern said he declined to participate because he viewed the approach as “an attempt at blackmail,” alerting the FBI, who said it had no comment.
In Arizona, Republicans in the state Senate have been pushing for a “forensic review” of voting in the state’s largest district.
Arizona Senate President Karen Fann approached Doug Logan, a Florida-based cybersecurity contractor, to get the job done. Logan’s company, Cyber Ninjas, had no experience conducting audits or elections, although Logan said he previously worked on reviewing 2020 election disputes. Logan told Reuters he wasn’t sure how his company was chosen for the job; He said he didn’t submit a proposal until Fann contacted him.
However, Logan had connections. He confirmed to Reuters that he was among those who huddled with Flynn at Wood’s estate after the election. And he received confirmation from Waldron, who called him “very reputable” in a text message to Sen. Fann before she chose him to conduct the exam, records released in a public records lawsuit.
“If you’re speaking to an audience that’s interested in what General Flynn thinks and you tell the audience, ‘I did that in this military,’ they tend to be impressed.”
“We did things right,” Logan said. Through a spokesman, Fann declined to comment.
The Arizona Senate audit cost $5.7 million. It was largely funded by Flynn’s team.
Nearly $1 million came from a nonprofit called America’s Future, which had been largely inactive until then, Internal Revenue Service filings show. Flynn now chairs its board of directors. His brother Joe Flynn was a director. And his sister Mary O’Neill was executive director.
Joe Flynn declined to comment. O’Neill did not respond to a request for comment.
Michael and Joe Flynn also briefly served as directors of Powell’s nonprofit organization Defending The Republic, which raised $550,000 for the Arizona exam.
Weitere 3,5 Millionen Dollar kamen von The America Project, dessen Website ein Video von Flynn enthält, in dem erklärt wird: „Unsere großartige Nation wurde einer neuen Art von Angriffen ausgesetzt.“ Joe Flynn ist eines der drei Vorstandsmitglieder der gemeinnützigen Organisation und Flynn ihr leitender strategischer Berater.
Der Geschäftsführer des America Project, der frühere CEO von Overstock, Byrne, sagte gegenüber Reuters Flynn: „hat mich gebeten, herunterzukommen und dies einzurichten.“ Flynn „ist eine treibende Kraft“, um die Ergebnisse der Wahlen 2020 weiter zu bekämpfen, sagte der Betriebsleiter der Gruppe, Carl Johnson. Das America Project teilte den Aufsichtsbehörden in Florida mit, dass es erwartet, in diesem Jahr 50 Millionen US-Dollar aufzubringen, wie Aufzeichnungen zeigen. Byrne sagte, die Gruppe habe fast 10 Millionen Dollar gesammelt, hauptsächlich von ihm.
Das daraus resultierende Arizona-Audit umfasste Gutachter mit wenig Ausbildung, die Stimmzettel mit Verfahren untersuchten, die von Wahlexperten allgemein kritisiert wurden. Logan verteidigte die Auditing-Arbeit. Die Überprüfung bestätigte, dass Biden gewonnen hatte.
An diesem 19. November waren der pensionierte Kapitän Keshel und der derzeitige Oberstleutnant der Reserve Raiklin Redner bei einer Kundgebung zur „Wahlintegrität“ in Manchester, New Hampshire. Raiklin und Keshel zitierten Umfragen, die besagten, dass eine wachsende Zahl rechter Amerikaner glaubt, die Wahl sei manipuliert worden, und sagten einer Menge von etwa 75, dass ihre Bewegung erfolgreich sei.
Raiklin bemerkte seinen juristischen und militärischen Hintergrund und legte eine, wie er es nannte, „Deep State“-Verschwörungstheorie einer gestohlenen Wahl dar. „Ich habe diese Punkte verbunden“, sagte Raiklin der Menge.
Keshel, jetzt ein bezahlter Berater für The America Project, sagte, die Trump-Anhänger seien mit einem „Zwei-Fronten-Krieg“ konfrontiert – der Prüfung der Wahlen 2020 und der Vorbereitung auf 2024.
“Es klingt ein bisschen verrückt”, sagte Keshel. „Aber ich glaube von ganzem Herzen … dass die Zukunft die Wahrheit der Wahl von 2020 widerspiegeln wird, dass Joe Biden unrechtmäßig gewählt wurde.“
Beide Männer erhielten Standing Ovations.
Zusätzliche Berichterstattung von Chris Kahn und Brian Snyder
The Election Foxhole Von Aram Roston, Brad Heath, John Shiffman und Peter Eisler Fotografie: Brian Snyder Fotobearbeitung: Corinne Perkins Künstlerische Leitung: John Emerson Herausgegeben von Ronnie Greene
Michael Flynn
US Army General and former US National Security Advisor
Michael Thomas Flynn (born December 24, 1958) is a retired US Army Lieutenant General who was the 24th US National Security Adviser[1] during the first 22 days of the Trump administration. He resigned amid reports he lied about talks with Sergey Kislyak. Flynn’s military career included a key role in shaping US counter-terrorism strategy and dismantling insurgent networks in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and he received numerous high-level intelligence assignments in combat arms, conventional and special operations. He became the 18th Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in July 2012 until his forced retirement from the military in August 2014.[5][6][7] During his tenure, he gave a lecture on leadership at the Moscow headquarters of the Russian military intelligence agency, the GRU, the first American official allowed into the headquarters.[8][9][10]
After leaving the military, he founded the Flynn Intel Group in October 2014, which provided intelligence services to companies and governments, including in Turkey.[11][12][13] In December 2015, Flynn received $45,000 for a Moscow speech at the 10th anniversary celebrations of RT, a Russian state-controlled international television network, where he sat at the banquet table alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin.[14]
In February 2016, Flynn became Trump’s national security adviser for his 2016 presidential campaign.[15][16] In March 2017, Flynn retrospectively registered as a foreign agent and admitted that he had engaged in paid lobbying work in 2016 that may have benefited the Turkish government.[17][18] On January 22, 2017, Flynn was sworn in as National Security Advisor.[19] On February 13, 2017, he resigned after information emerged that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and others about the nature and content of his communications with Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak.[20][21 ][22] Flynn’s tenure as National Security Advisor is the shortest in the position’s history.[23][24]
In December 2017, Flynn formalized a contract with Special Counsel Robert Mueller to plead guilty to a felony charge of “willfully and knowingly” providing the FBI with false information about the Kislyak communications and agreed to assist in the Special Counsel’s investigation to work together.[25] In June 2019, Flynn fired his attorneys and retained Sidney Powell, who wrote to Attorney General Bill Barr the same day asking for his assistance in exonerating Flynn. Powell had discussed the case on Fox News and spoken to President Trump several times about it.[26][27][28] In January 2020, two weeks before his scheduled sentencing, Flynn withdrew his guilty plea, alleging that the government was vindictive and breached the plea agreement.[29] On May 7, 2020, at Barr’s direction, the Justice Department filed a court motion to drop all charges against Flynn.[30][31] Presiding federal judge Emmet Sullivan ruled that the matter should be shelved pending amicus curiae briefs from third parties.[32] Powell then asked the DC Circuit Court of Appeals to force Sullivan to drop the case, but her request was denied.[33] On November 25, 2020, Flynn was issued a presidential pardon by Trump.[34] On December 8, 2020, Judge Sullivan dismissed the criminal case against Flynn, saying he likely would have denied the Justice Department’s motion for a dismissal.[35]
On July 4, 2020, Flynn swore an oath to the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory[36] and when Trump sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in which he was defeated, Flynn proposed to the President to change the Constitution to suspend. to silence the press and to hold new elections under military authority.[37] Flynn later met with Trump and her attorney, Powell, in the Oval Office to discuss the president’s options. Trump denied reports that Flynn’s idea of martial law had been discussed.[38][39][40] On January 8, 2021, Twitter permanently banned Flynn, Powell, and others who promoted QAnon.[41]
Early life
Michael Thomas Flynn was born and raised in Middletown, Rhode Island, one of nine siblings[3] of Helen Frances (née Andrews), who worked in real estate, and Charles Francis Flynn, a small-town banker, both Irish Catholic descent.[42][43][44][45][46] Flynn’s family has a long history of military service; Helen’s brother was a Navy submarine captain and her father was a World War II officer, Charles’ father, Henry E. “Harry” Flynn, served in the Army during World War I, and Charles himself served in World War II and fought during the battle the bulge while under General George S. Patton.[47] Flynn’s younger brother, Charles A. Flynn, is a four-star general.[48]
On July 24, 1972, after a local girl climbed into a car and accidentally released the parking brake, Flynn and a friend of his rushed to rescue two toddlers on his way; For this heroic deed he was honored by the local city council.[47] Flynn was serving a stint in juvenile detention for what he described as “serious and unlawful activity” in his youth, the records of which were erased after he served a year of supervised probation. While at Middletown High School, Flynn met Lori Andrade, the daughter of a prominent Portuguese family on Aquidneck Island, whom he married in 1981.
He attended the University of Rhode Island, where he initially struggled academically, earning a 1.2 GPA in his freshman year. However, he later received a three-year scholarship from the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and ultimately chose not to drop out. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Management in 1981 and was a ROTC Distinguished Military Graduate. Flynn later earned a Masters of Business Administration in Telecommunications from Golden Gate University, a Masters of Military Art and Science from the United States Army Command and General Staff College, and a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College. He is a graduate of the Military Intelligence Officer Basic Course, Ranger School, Military Intelligence Officer Advanced Course, Army Command and General Staff College, School of Advanced Military Studies, and Naval War College.[7]
military career
US Army
Flynn enlisted in the US Army in 1981 as a second lieutenant in military intelligence.[7] His military duties included several tours of Fort Bragg, North Carolina with the 82nd Airborne Division, the XVIII. Airborne Corps and the Joint Special Operations Command, where he served in the invasion of Grenada and Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti. He also served with the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and at the Army Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.[7]
Flynn was not originally scheduled to be posted to Grenada in 1983, but he persuaded a superior to accept him. While serving there, Flynn made a 40-foot leap off a cliff to recover two soldiers stranded in the ocean and bring them back to land for airlift. Despite being reprimanded for his unauthorized actions, Flynn garnered respect among his fellow soldiers for what he did.
Flynn served as Deputy Chief of Staff, G2, XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, North Carolina from June 2001 and Director of Intelligence at Joint Task Force 180 in Afghanistan until July 2002. He commanded the 111th Military Intelligence Brigade from June 2002 through June 2004[7] and was Director of Intelligence of the Joint Special Operations Command from July 2004 to June 2007, with deployment in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom) and in the Iraq War (Operation Iraqi Freedom). He and his superior, General McChrystal, streamlined all intelligence agencies to increase the pace of operations and weaken al-Qaeda networks in Iraq.[55]: 24 He served as Director of Intelligence for United States Central Command from June 2007 to July 2008 Director of Intelligence of the Joint Staff from July 2008 to June 2009, then Director of Intelligence of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan from June 2009 to October 2010.[7][56] Flynn was reprimanded for leaking classified US intelligence information to Pakistani officials via the Haqqani network in 2009 or 2010. The network accused of attacking American troops was a proxy ally of Pakistan.[57]
On November 10, 2015, Flynn gave an interview to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) project Lessons Learned.[58] The Washington Post published an audio recording of the interview and SIGAR’s summary as part of the Afghanistan Papers.[59]
defense intelligence
Flynn speaks during the Defense Intelligence Agency directorate change at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, D.C.
In September 2011, Flynn was promoted to Lieutenant General and installed as Deputy Director of National Intelligence in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. On April 17, 2012, President Barack Obama appointed Flynn as the 18th Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.[60][61] Flynn assumed command of the DIA in July 2012.[62] At the same time he became commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance and chairman of the Military Intelligence Board.
In October 2012, Flynn announced plans to publish his paper “VISION2020: Accelerating Change Through Integration”, a look at changes he believes are needed for DIA going forward.
In June 2013, Michael Flynn became the first US officer to gain access to the Russian Military Intelligence Service (GRU) headquarters in Moscow, where he arrived at the invitation of GRU chief General Igor Sergun.[65] His follow-up trip to visit GRU headquarters as director of DIA was not permitted.[8] Flynn also wanted to invite senior GRU officials to the US, but this idea was turned down by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.[66]
Stefan Halper, who worked for three Republican presidents and was a longtime informant for the American intelligence community, had an encounter with Flynn at a London intelligence conference in February 2014. Halper was so alarmed by Flynn’s close association with a Russian woman that a Halper aide raised concerns with American authorities that Flynn may have been compromised by Russian intelligence.
Colleagues were concerned about Flynn’s chaotic leadership style and his increasingly hard-edged views on counterterrorism, and his superiors viewed him as unruly, according to Pentagon officials. In mid-2014, his two-year term at the DIA was not extended.[68]
retirement from the military
On April 30, 2014, Flynn announced his retirement effective later that year, about a year earlier than he was originally scheduled to vacate his position. He was reportedly effectively forced out of DIA after clashing with superiors over his allegedly chaotic leadership style and vision for the agency.[69][5][70][71] In a private email leaked online, Colin Powell said he heard at the DIA (apparently from future DIA director Vincent R. Stewart) that Flynn was fired for “abusing staff, not listening, working against it Politics, bad management, etc.”[70] According to The New York Times, Flynn displayed a loose connection with the truth, leading his subordinates to label Flynn’s repeated dubious claims as “Flynn facts.”[72]
According to what Flynn said in a recent interview as DIA director, he felt like a lonely voice when he thought the United States was less safe from the threat of Islamist terrorism in 2014 than it was before the 9/11 attacks ; He went on to believe he was pushed into retirement for challenging the Obama administration’s public narrative that al-Qaeda was on the verge of defeat.[6] Journalist Seymour Hersh wrote: “Flynn confirmed [Hersh] that his agency had been broadcasting a steady stream of secret alerts … about the dire consequences of the fall of [Syrian President] Assad.” Flynn recounted that his agency produced intelligence reports showing it that radical Islamists were the main force in the Syrian uprising and “that Turkey looked the other way when it came to the growth of the Islamic State in Syria”. According to Flynn, these reports “have met with tremendous opposition from the Obama administration,” which he says “didn’t want to hear the truth.” According to former DIA official W. Patrick Lang, “Flynn drew the wrath of the White House by insisting on telling the truth about Syria…they pushed him out. He wouldn’t shut up.”[ 73] In an interview with Al Jazeera, Flynn criticized the Obama administration for its delay in supporting the opposition in Syria, thereby enabling the growth of Al-Nusra and other extremist forces: “If you don’t step in and help somebody, they will finding others means achieving their goals” and that “we should have done more in this endeavor sooner than we did.”[74]
Flynn retired from the US Army on August 7, 2014 with 33 years of service.[75]
Post-Military Career
consulting firm
Flynn, with his son Michael G. Flynn, ran the Flynn Intel Group Inc, which provided intelligence services to corporations and governments.[11][76] The company was incorporated in the fall of 2014, relaunched as a Delaware corporation in June 2015, and closed in 2016.
Flynn received more than $65,000 in 2015 from companies with ties to Russia, including $11,250 each from Volga-Dnepr Airlines and Kaspersky Lab’s US subsidiary.[76][77] Other customers included Palo Alto Networks, Francisco Partners, Brainwave Science, and Adobe Systems.[76]
During his tenure as a consultant, Flynn has served on the boards of several organizations including GreenZone Systems, Patriot Capital, Brainwave, Drone Aviation, and OSY Technologies.[76][78][79] Flynn Intel Group subsidiaries included FIG Cyber Inc. led by Timothy Newberry and FIG Aviation.
In July 2018, consulting firm Stonington Global LLC announced that Flynn would join the firm as director of global strategy, although a few hours later Flynn’s attorneys denied there had ever been a partnership.[81]
Foreign agent
[82] Flynn’s former business partner, Bijan Rafiekian, was accused of acting illegally as an unregistered agent of Turkey. In 2019, a federal judge overturned the guilty verdicts against Rafiekian, citing insufficient evidence to support his convictions in both cases.
In July 2016, Flynn spoke at a meeting of ACT! for America when the 2016 Turkish coup attempt against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was underway. Speaking positively about the putschists, he said Erdoğan had moved from a secular state towards an Islamist state, and the putschists wanted Turkey to be secular and be seen as secular – a goal “worth commending for.” “. .[83]
At the end of September 2016, Flynn’s consulting firm was hired by Inovo BV, a company owned by Kamil Ekim Alptekin, Chairman of the Turkish-American Economic Council, which is an arm of the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey (DEIK). [84][85] The company has ties to the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.[86] Flynn received $530,000 from Alptekin for Flynn’s lobbying.[18][85] Flynn only later registered as a foreign agent with the Department of Justice on March 8, 2017 for work completed by November 2016. Flynn acknowledged that his work may have benefited the Turkish government.[18]
On November 8, 2016 (election day in the United States), an op-ed by Flynn was published by The Hill, now calling for US support for the Erdoğan government and criticizing the regime’s opponent Fethullah Gülen, who claims Gülen has a “huge global network” that fits the description of a “dangerous sleeper terror network.”[87][88] At the time, Flynn did not disclose that his consulting firm had received funding from a company with ties to the Turkish government.[89] After Flynn’s connections were exposed by The Daily Caller, Politico and others, the editor of The Hill added a note to Flynn’s comment noting that Flynn had failed to disclose that at the time he was engaged in “consulting, that may have helped the Turkish government,” that his firm had received payments from a company with close ties to the Turkish government, or that the company reviewed the draft comment before submitting it to The Hill.[87]
On March 24, 2017, former CIA Director James Woolsey said that in September 2016, while working for the Trump presidential campaign, Flynn attended a meeting at a New York hotel with Turkish officials, including Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavuşoğlu and Minister of Energy Berat Albayrak, son-in-law of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and had discussed kidnapping Fethullah Gülen and sending him to Turkey, bypassing the US extradition process.[90][91]
Flynn attended secret national security briefings with then-candidate Trump while Flynn worked for foreign clients, raising ethical concerns and conflicts of interest.[92][93] Flynn was paid at least $5,000 as a consultant for a US-Russian project to build 40 nuclear reactors in the Middle East, whose non-disclosure by Flynn was called a possible violation of federal law by Congressmen Elijah Cummings and Eliot Engel. 94][95]
Participation in the RT Gala Dinner
On December 10, 2015, Flynn attended a gala dinner in Moscow honoring RT (formerly “Russia Today”), an English-language media outlet of the Russian government, where he served as a semi-annual analyst after retiring from the US government service.[96 ]
Flynn sat next to Russian President Vladimir Putin at dinner, prompting Politico journalist Michael Crowley to report that “at a moment of semi-enmity between the US and Russia, the presence of such an important figure at Putin’s table startled US officials.” [77][97][99] As part of the celebrations, Flynn gave a lecture on world politics for which he received at least $45,000.[96] Flynn defended the RT payment in an interview with Michael Isikoff.[99]
On February 1, 2017, senior Democratic members of six House Committees sent a letter to Secretary of Defense James Mattis calling for a Department of Defense investigation into Flynn’s connection to RT.[100][101][102] Lawmakers expressed concern that Flynn had violated the US Constitution’s foreign earnings clause by accepting money from RT.[100]
According to House Oversight Committee Representative Elijah Cummings, Flynn told the Department of Defense in February 2016 that he had received no money from foreign companies and had only “minor contact” with foreigners.[77] Glenn A. Fine, acting inspector general for the Department of Defense, confirmed that an investigation into Flynn was launched in April 2017, but was suspended for more than three years while the Justice Department prosecuted Flynn on unrelated charges. After Trump pardoned Flynn in November 2020, the Justice Department notified the Pentagon that the inspector general’s investigation could reopen. The inquiry was completed on January 27, 2021 and its findings forwarded to Acting Secretary of the Army John Whitley.[104]
In May 2022, the Army told Flynn it would seek to recover over $38,000 in compensation he received for the Moscow speech. Flynn was found to have violated the Constitution’s emoluments clause that applies to retired military personnel.[105]
US Presidential Election 2016
Flynn at a campaign event in October 2016
Having previously been consulted on national security issues by Carly Fiorina and other candidates, including Scott Walker, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump,[106] Flynn was asked in February 2016 to serve as an advisor to the Trump campaign .[106] 107]
In July 2016, it was reported that he was considered Trump’s running mate; Flynn later confirmed that he had submitted verification documents for the campaign and, although he was a registered Democrat, was willing to accept the Republican vice presidential nomination if selected. However, Trump chose Indiana Governor Mike Pence instead.
As one of the keynote speakers on the first night of the 2016 Republican National Convention, Flynn delivered what the Los Angeles Times described as a “fiery” speech, in which he said, “We’re sick of Obama’s idle talk and misguided rhetoric. As a result, the world neither respects America’s word nor fears our power.”[110] He accused Obama of covering up the actions of Osama bin Laden and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.[110] 111] Flynn continued to criticize political correctness and joined the crowd to shout “U-S-A! U-S-A!” to sing. During the chants, he told viewers, “Fire yourself! This is about our country.”[110][112]
During the speech, Flynn attacked Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton; he encouraged the crowd to chant “Lock her up!”; He said, “Damn right! Just right! There’s nothing wrong with that!”[6] He urged Clinton to pull out of the race, claiming that “if I do a tenth – a tenth – of what she did , would do it, I’d be in prison today.”[57] He reiterated in later interviews that she should be “locked up.”[106] During his campaign for Trump, Flynn also referred to Clinton as an “enemy camp.”[57] Six days after the speech, Flynn sparked controversy by retweeting anti-Semitic statements, which he later apologized for and claimed were unintentional.[113] During the campaign, Flynn also posted links to false articles and conspiracy theories related to Clinton on Twitter,[114] including the Pizzagate conspiracy theory.[115]
Flynn was once opposed to waterboarding and other torture techniques that are now banned. However, according to an August 2016 Washington Post article, in connection with Trump’s apparent openness to reintroducing such techniques, he said that he “would not be willing to take options off the table.”[57] In May 2016, an Al Jazeera reporter asked Flynn if he would support Trump’s stated plan to eliminate “[the] families”[116][117] of people suspected of being involved in terrorism. In response, Flynn said, “I would have to see the circumstances of this situation.”[57] In an interview with Al Jazeera, Flynn criticized US reliance on drones as a failed strategy, saying, “What we have is this continued investment in the conflict. The more weapons we give, the more bombs we drop, which…only fuels the conflict.”[74][118]
On August 16, 2016, the FBI opened a case against Flynn as part of its investigation into the Crossfire hurricane.[119] The purpose of the investigation was to determine whether Flynn knowingly or unknowingly “was engaged in activities on behalf of the Russian Federation that constitute a federal crime or a national security threat” of the United States.[120] A review of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation conducted by Attorney General Michael Horowitz was completed in December 2019. She concluded that “the amount of information articulated by the FBI to initiate the ‘individual investigation into Flynn’ was sufficient to meet the low threshold established by the [Justice] Department and the FBI.” The review” found no documentary or compelling evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced decisions to open the Flynn investigation.”
The Trump transition team, chaired by Chris Christie, declined to appoint Flynn as a national security adviser or any other senior position during the campaign because he was viewed as “a loose gun.”[55]: 46
Advocating technology transfer to Saudi Arabia
During Donald Trump’s 2016 US presidential campaign and subsequently, Flynn and Jared Kushner were involved in promoting IP3 International’s plan to transfer nuclear technology from the US to Saudi Arabia for use in a proposed joint US-French-Russian British project to use. in possible violation of the law.[122][123][124][125][126]
National Security Advisor
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe meets with President-elect Trump, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump and Flynn in November 2016.
Transition of the Trump administration
On November 18, 2016, Flynn accepted Trump’s offer for the position of National Security Advisor.[127] During their meeting in the Oval Office two days after the election, Obama expressed “deep concern” about the placement of Flynn in a sensitive, high-level national security post and warned President-elect Trump against hiring Flynn.[128] On January 4, 2017, Flynn informed transition team adviser Don McGahn, who would soon become a White House adviser, that he was under federal investigation for secret lobbying he had done during Turkey’s election campaign. Trump later questioned in May 2019 why he wasn’t told Flynn was under investigation so he could have removed Flynn from his team. Sean Spicer questioned why the Obama administration did not revoke Flynn’s security clearance if it believed Flynn posed a national security risk.[132]
Prior to his appointment, media sources including The Washington Post and Associated Press had criticized his alleged close ties with Russia[97][99][133][134] and his alleged promotion of anti-Clinton conspiracy theories and fake news during the presidential campaign 2016.[114][135]
In December 2016, Flynn met with Heinz-Christian Strache, leader of the right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), at Trump Tower in New York.[136]
Ten days before Donald Trump’s inauguration, Flynn instructed then-National Security Advisor Susan Rice not to carry out a planned invasion of Raqqa with Kurdish People’s Defense Forces.[137] Flynn’s decision would delay the campaign, which had taken seven months to plan, by several months, but was consistent with Turkish objections to working with Kurdish forces.[138]
Flynn’s history with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak dates to 2013; They met when Kislyak coordinated Flynn’s trip to Moscow for Flynn’s work with the Defense Intelligence Agency.
On November 30, 2016, Flynn attended a meeting between Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner and Kislyak at Trump Tower.[140] US intelligence intercepted Kislyak’s report to Russian officials about the meeting.[141] Kislyak wanted Russian generals to discuss American policy in Syria with the Trump transition team on a secure channel; However, Flynn said the Trump transition team does not have such channels in its offices. Kushner wanted to use secure channels at the Russian embassy, but Kislyak refused.[142]
Flynn and Kislyak then spoke to each other several times over the phone in late December and January. On behalf of the Israeli government, Trump and his transition team called several foreign governments to oppose or delay a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements in Palestine. Flynn was assigned by Kushner to speak to Kislyak about it, and they spoke on December 22nd and 23rd. Russland entschied sich schließlich, die Resolution nicht abzulehnen.[143][144][145][146]
Am 29. Dezember kündigte Präsident Obama an, dass die Vereinigten Staaten als Reaktion auf die Einmischung der russischen Regierung in den US-Präsidentschaftswahlkampf 2016 Vergeltungsmaßnahmen ergreifen würden, einschließlich der Ausweisung von 35 mutmaßlichen russischen Geheimdienstagenten.[140][147] Trump und sein Übergangsteam befürchteten, dass die Sanktionen den russisch-amerikanischen Austausch schädigen würden. Beziehungen,[148][149] und Flynn sprach an diesem Tag mit Kislyak und drängte Russland, nur „gegenseitig“ auf die Sanktionen zu reagieren und nicht zu eskalieren.[140] Flynn beriet sich mit dem neuen stellvertretenden nationalen Sicherheitsberater K.T. McFarland sowohl vor als auch nach dem Anruf bei Kislyak und McFarland informierte andere Mitglieder des Trump-Übergangsteams. Am 31. Dezember rief Kislyak Flynn an und teilte ihm mit, dass Putin nicht revanchiert habe, weil Putin Flynns Bitte akzeptiert habe.[150] Die Obama-Regierung war erstaunt über die Entscheidung Russlands, keine Vergeltung zu üben.[148] US-Geheimdienste überwachen routinemäßig Kislyaks Anrufe, und Beamte der Obama-Regierung entdeckten am 2. Januar, dass Flynn in den vergangenen Tagen mehrere Male mit Kislyak gesprochen hatte.[151]
Am 12. Januar machte der Kolumnist David Ignatius, der für die Washington Post schrieb, öffentlich, dass Flynn Kislyak am 29. Dezember angerufen und gefragt hatte, ob Flynn irgendetwas gesagt habe, um “die US-Sanktionen zu untergraben”. Flynn wies K.T. McFarland soll die Washington Post anlügen, dass Flynn die Sanktionen nicht mit Kislyak besprochen habe; McFarland tat dies, obwohl er wusste, dass es falsch war,[155] und die Washington Post berichtete über die Ablehnung.[152] Flynn fuhr fort, gegenüber dem neuen Stabschef Reince Priebus, dem neuen Pressesprecher Sean Spicer und dem designierten Vizepräsidenten Mike Pence, der Flynns Unwahrheit gegenüber den Medien wiederholte, zu lügen, dass er die Sanktionen nicht mit Kislyak besprochen habe. 156] Der Mueller-Bericht besagt, dass Beamte der Obama-Regierung befürchteten, dass diese öffentlichen Unwahrheiten zu „einer Kompromisssituation für Flynn führen könnten, weil das Justizministerium feststellte, dass die russische Regierung Flynns Lüge beweisen könnte“.[156]
Flynns Gespräche mit Kislyak wurden übrigens vom amerikanischen Geheimdienst im Rahmen der routinemäßigen Überwachung russischer Agenten abgefangen. Gemäß der Richtlinie in Bezug auf amerikanische Personen wurde Flynns Identität maskiert, bevor Berichte über seine Gespräche an hochrangige Regierungsbeamte verteilt wurden. Einige Beamte, insbesondere die nationale Sicherheitsberaterin Susan Rice, waren so besorgt über die Berichte, dass sie die Entlarvung von Flynns Identität pro Verfahren forderten. Nachdem die Presse über die Demaskierung berichtet hatte, bestanden Trump und seine Verbündeten darauf, dass dies ein Beweis dafür sei, dass die Obama-Regierung ihn und seine Mitarbeiter zu politischen Zwecken ausspionierte. Im Mai 2020 gab die Sprecherin des Justizministeriums, Kerri Kupec, in der Sendung von Fox News-Moderator Sean Hannity bekannt, dass Generalstaatsanwalt Bill Barr den US-Anwalt John Bash mit der Untersuchung beauftragt habe. Sie erklärte auch, dass John Durham, den Barr beauftragt hatte, die Ursprünge der FBI Crossfire Hurricane-Untersuchung zu untersuchen, sich ebenfalls mit der Demaskierungsfrage befasst habe. Die Bash-Untersuchung wurde fünf Monate später stillschweigend eingestellt, ohne öffentliche Ankündigung oder Bericht, wobei Berichten zufolge nichts Unangemessenes festgestellt wurde. Bashs 52-seitiger Bericht, der zuvor als streng geheim eingestuft wurde, wurde im Mai 2022 veröffentlicht. Bash schrieb, er habe keine Beweise dafür gefunden, dass während der Wahlperiode 2016 oder des darauffolgenden Präsidentenwechsels Anträge auf Demaskierung aus politischen oder anderweitig unangemessenen Gründen gestellt worden seien.[157] ][158][159]
Amtszeit
When he was national security adviser, Flynn urged the U.S. Department of Defense to set up a military communication channel with Russia to protect American and Russian air forces from each other in Syria, and possibly cooperate to take on the Islamic State, reported The Daily Beast website in July 2017. The Department of Defense and U.S. Central Command rejected the idea, reported the website. The National Defense Authorization Act, from 2015, had banned the U.S. from cooperating in military matters with Russia unless the Secretary of Defense allowed an exception.[160]
Flynn was an important link in the connections between Putin and Trump in the “Ukraine peace plan”, an unofficial plan “organized outside regular diplomatic channels … at the behest of top aides to President Putin”. This plan, aimed at easing the sanctions imposed on Russia, progressed from Putin and his advisors to Ukrainian politician Andrey Artemenko, Felix Sater, Michael Cohen, and Flynn, where he would have then presented it to Trump. The New York Times reported that Sater delivered the plan “in a sealed envelope” to Cohen, who then passed it on to Flynn in February 2017, just before his resignation.[161]
Investigations during his tenure
In January 2017, then-FBI director James Comey decided to send FBI agents to interview Flynn. Knowing that Flynn had asked Kislyak to ensure Russia did not respond harshly to U.S. sanctions and also that Vice President Pence, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, and Press Secretary Sean Spicer had all said Flynn told them he hadn’t made such a request, Comey decided that Flynn needed to be interviewed as part of assessing whether Flynn was acting under Russian influence.[162] The FBI discussed how to structure the interview, and then-deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe called Flynn on January 24, asking him to meet with two FBI counterintelligence agents; Flynn agreed.[163] McCabe also asked if Flynn wanted a lawyer present, to which Flynn said no.[150]
The two agents met Flynn at his office later that day and asked Flynn about his exchanges with Kislyak regarding the late December 2016 United Nations Security Council resolution regarding Israeli settlements. According to the FBI notes, Flynn told the agents he had not tried to influence Russia’s vote on the resolution; in fact, he had asked Kislyak to have Russia oppose or delay the resolution.[155][164][165] The FBI agents also asked Flynn whether he had asked Kislyak to avoid escalating the diplomatic conflict. According to FBI notes, Flynn responded: “Not really. I don’t remember. It wasn’t, ‘Don’t do anything'”.[165][166][167][168] After the meeting, the agents prepared an FD-302 form, a form used to summarize an FBI interview, for the discussion with Flynn.[169]
Based on the results of the FBI interview, Acting Attorney General Sally Yates made an “urgent” request to meet with White House counsel Don McGahn,[170] and they met on January 26 and January 27.[171] Yates told McGahn that Flynn had misled Pence and other administration officials about the nature of his conversations with Kislyak and was possibly open to blackmail by the Russians.[133][172][173] Former United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called the possibility of Flynn being blackmailed “kind of a stretch”, while acknowledging that his false statement was “a problem … that I would tell the president about”.[174]
Departure
Resignation letter provided by Flynn, February 13, 2017
On February 9, 2017, The Washington Post broke the story that Flynn had discussed the U.S. sanctions with Kislyak, contrary to the public denials made by the Trump administration, citing “nine current and former officials”.[153][21] The New York Times confirmed the story by The Washington Post, stating that a transcript of Flynn-Kislyak conversation existed.[153] The Washington Post also reported that on February 8 Flynn had given them flat denials about such discussions.[21] Flynn gave denials despite The Washington Post journalist Karen DeYoung informing him that officials “have listened to the intercepts” of his calls with Kislyak.[150]
After The Washington Post published their story, Flynn’s spokesman released a statement on February 9 tempering Flynn’s denial, describing that Flynn “had no recollection of discussing sanctions”, but also “couldn’t be certain that the topic never came up”.[21][175] This happened after Flynn was confronted by Reince Priebus, Don McGahn, and John Eisenberg, who also informed Flynn that there were transcripts of his calls with Kislyak. Flynn told the White House officials he “either was not sure whether he discussed sanctions or did not remember doing so” (which was different from what he told Mike Pence and Sean Spicer in January).[150] Meanwhile, Mike Pence only learned on February 9 that Flynn had lied to him regarding the calls; Pence was informed by that day’s media reports, said Pence’s spokesman.[176]
As a result of these news reports, public pressure on Flynn increased.[153] On February 12, Trump’s adviser Kellyanne Conway declared that Trump had “full confidence” in Flynn; however, one hour later on the same day, Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer described Trump as “evaluating” Flynn.[153]
On February 13, Flynn resigned as National Security Advisor, writing that he had given “incomplete information” of his conversations with Kislyak.[177] Flynn’s 24-day tenure as National Security Advisor was the shortest in the 63-year history of the office.[24] Before Flynn’s resignation, he told the Daily Caller that, in his conversation with Kislyak, he told Kislyak he was aware of the expulsion of the 35 Russians, and that: “We’ll review everything.”[176]
On February 14, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Trump had asked for Flynn to resign, “not based on a legal issue, but based on a trust issue”, due to “misleading the Vice President and others, or the possibility that he had forgotten critical details of this important conversation”, which “created a critical mass and an unsustainable situation”.[178]
Later, in December 2017, President Trump said he “had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI”, noting that Flynn had “pled guilty to those lies”.[179] Also in December 2017, Vice President Pence said that by the time Flynn departed the Trump administration, “I knew that he lied to me.” Pence also said Trump “made the right decision” to remove Flynn.[180]
Investigations after leaving the Trump administration
On February 14, 2017, President Trump met with FBI Director James Comey in the Oval Office and reportedly told him “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go”, adding “he’s a good guy.”[181] Comey subsequently testified that, “I had understood the President to be requesting that we drop any investigation of Flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador in December … I did not understand the president to be talking about the broader investigation into Russia or possible links to his campaign”.[182] The propriety, and even the legality, of these words that Trump reportedly said to Comey about Flynn have become a subject of considerable public debate.[183] Several months after dismissing Flynn, Trump also dismissed Comey, which Comey attributed to the FBI’s Russia investigation.[184]
Flynn had offered to testify to the FBI or the Senate and House Intelligence committees relating to the Russia probe in exchange for immunity from criminal prosecution.[185] However, the Senate Intelligence Committee rejected Flynn’s offer for testimony in exchange for immunity.[186] Flynn initially declined to respond to a subpoena from the Senate Intelligence Committee, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, but he and the committee later struck a compromise.[187][77] The Pentagon inspector general was also investigating whether Flynn accepted money from foreign governments without the required approval.[188]
On November 5, 2017, NBC News reported that Robert Mueller had enough evidence for charges against Flynn and his son, Michael G. Flynn.[189] On November 10, The Wall Street Journal reported that Flynn was under investigation by Mueller for allegedly planning a kidnapping and extrajudicial rendition of Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen to Turkey.[190][191] On November 22, NBC News reported that Flynn’s business partner Bijan Kian was a subject of the Mueller probe.[192] NBC reported that a Turkish businessman named Reza Zarrab, who was picked up in 2016 by U.S. authorities in Miami on Iranian sanctions violations and money laundering charges, was offering evidence against Flynn.[193][194] Flynn’s firm was paid more than $500,000 by Inovo, a Netherlands firm owned by Turkish businessman Kamil Ekim Alptekin, for work which included investigating Gülen.[12][195] In turn Alptekin received $80,000, said to be a kick-back in a report done by Reuters.[196]
On November 23, 2017, it was reported that Flynn’s lawyers notified Trump’s legal team they could no longer discuss anything regarding Mueller’s investigation, suggesting Flynn may have been cooperating with prosecutors or negotiating a deal.[197][198][199]
Plea bargain
On December 1, 2017, Flynn and special counsel Robert Mueller agreed to a plea bargain in the District of Columbia’s U.S. District Court. In the agreement, Flynn pleaded guilty to “willfully and knowingly” making “false, fictitious and fraudulent statements” to the FBI regarding conversations with Russia’s ambassador. Flynn agreed in The Statement of the Offense that he had falsely denied that on December 29, 2016, he had asked Russia’s Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak “to refrain from escalating … in response to sanctions that the United States had imposed against Russia that same day.”[200] Flynn’s guilty plea acknowledged that he was cooperating with the Mueller investigation, and it was accepted by the court.[201][202]
Delayed sentencing
Flynn’s sentencing had been deferred several times,[203][204] most recently on November 27, 2019[205] and February 10, 2020.[206][207][208] As part of Flynn’s plea negotiations, his son, Michael G. Flynn, was expected to avoid charges.[209]
In a sentencing memorandum released on December 4, 2018, the Mueller investigation stated Flynn “deserves credit for accepting responsibility in a timely fashion and substantially assisting the government” and should receive little or no jail time.[210]
Flynn’s attorneys submitted a sentencing memo on December 11, 2018, requesting leniency and suggesting FBI agents had tricked him into lying during the January 24, 2017 White House interview and did not advise him that lying to federal agents is a felony. The memo also asserted that Flynn’s relaxed behavior during the interview indicated he was being truthful. Trump echoed this assertion two days later on Twitter and Fox News, asserting, “They convinced him he did lie, and he made some kind of a deal.”[211]
Mueller’s office rejected these assertions the next day, stating agents had told Flynn portions of what he had discussed with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak to jog his memory, but Flynn did not waver from his false statements.[212] FBI agents concluded that Flynn’s relaxed behavior during the interview was actually because he was fully committed to his lies.[212] Mueller’s office also documented instances when Flynn lied about the Kislyak conversation during the days before the FBI interview.[212] Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordered documents related to the interview be provided to him prior to Flynn’s December 18, 2018 sentencing.[212] The New York Times reported that Flynn’s “decision to attack the FBI in his own plea for probation appeared to be a gambit for a pardon from Mr. Trump, whose former lawyer had broached the prospect last year with a lawyer for Mr. Flynn.”[212][213]
Sullivan, who had a history of skepticism about government conduct,[214] rebuked Flynn at his December 18, 2018 sentencing hearing. Citing evidence not released to the public, the judge told him, “arguably you sold your country out”,[215][216] and warned, “I cannot assure that if you proceed today you will not receive a sentence of incarceration.” He offered to delay the sentencing until Flynn’s cooperation with investigators was complete. After conferring with his attorneys, Flynn accepted the delay. During the hearing, Sullivan indicated he was offended by the suggestion in the sentencing memo submitted by Flynn’s attorneys that the FBI had misled Flynn, as it created an appearance that Flynn wanted to accept a generous plea deal from prosecutors while also contending he had been entrapped. He asked several questions of Flynn’s attorney, Robert Kelner, to determine if the defense was maintaining that the FBI had acted improperly in its investigation of Flynn, including whether he had been entrapped. Kelner responded, “No, your honor” to each question. Judge Sullivan also asked Flynn multiple questions under oath, including whether he wanted to withdraw his guilty plea, still accepted responsibility for his false statements and wanted to plead guilty, and was satisfied with his legal representation.[217] Flynn restated his guilty plea, and acknowledged to Sullivan he was aware that lying to federal investigators was a crime at the time of his initial FBI interview in January 2017. Sullivan then delayed sentencing.[217][218][219][220][221]
On May 16, 2019, an unredacted version of a December 2018 government sentencing memo for Flynn showed that he advised investigators that both before and after his guilty plea “he or his attorneys received communications from persons connected to the Administration or Congress that could have affected both his willingness to cooperate and the completeness of that cooperation.” The Mueller Report described a November 2017 voicemail Flynn’s attorneys received from Trump’s “personal counsel”, reportedly John Dowd, who said: “[I]f… there’s information that implicates the President, then we’ve got a national security issue … so, you know … we need some kind of heads up,” reiterating the president’s “feelings toward Flynn and, that still remains.” The newly unredacted information also showed that members of the Trump campaign discussed contacting WikiLeaks about the release of emails and “potential efforts to interfere with the SCO’s investigation.”[222][223] The day the unredacted court filing was released, Sullivan ordered that the full transcript of the voicemail be released to the public by May 31, as well as the transcript of Flynn’s conversation with Kislyak and unredacted portions of the Mueller Report relating to Flynn.[224] The Justice Department released the Dowd transcript on May 31, but not the Flynn materials.[225]
Dowd denied March 2018 reports by The New York Times and The Washington Post six days after he resigned as Trump’s attorney that in 2017 he had broached the idea of a presidential pardon for Flynn with his attorneys.[226][227]
In June 2019, Flynn fired the Covington & Burling attorneys who had negotiated his plea deal and hired Sidney Powell, who had previously urged Flynn to withdraw his guilty plea. Trump complimented Flynn and Powell on Twitter.[228] Testimony of contractors of the Flynn company in the Bijan Rafiekian trial indicates their foreign customer was interested in classified government information on Turkey’s cleric Fethullah Gülen, surveillance of Gülen supporters, and likely terrorist links that might be turned up by their own investigations of the Turkish cleric.[82][229] Bijan Rafiekian, who was a partner of Michael Flynn in the Flynn Intel Group and worked with the incoming Trump administration’s transition team, was charged with illegally acting as an unregistered agent of Turkey. In 2019 a federal judge threw out the guilty verdicts against Bijan Rafiekian, citing insufficient evidence to sustain his conviction on either count.[230][82][231]
In August 2019, Flynn’s attorneys filed a motion to hold prosecutors in contempt for “malevolent conduct”, accusing them of withholding material that benefited his case to cause him to plead guilty. They alleged that parts of the federal government had attempted to “smear” him as a Russian agent, “or the victim of a criminal leak or other abuses related to classified intercepts of his calls with Kislyak”.[232] In October 2019, Flynn’s lawyers further alleged in court filings that “high-ranking FBI officials orchestrated an ambush-interview … not for the purpose of discovering any evidence of criminal activity … but for the purpose of trapping him into making statements they could allege as false.”[233][234]
On December 16, 2019, after a review of possible case related findings in the Michael Horowitz report, Sullivan rejected the assertions of FBI entrapment and prosecutorial malfeasance, setting his sentencing date for January 28, 2020.[235] Sullivan asked prosecutors to present a new sentencing memo; they had previously recommended little or no jail time, but more recently suggested they might change their position.[236] On January 7, 2020, prosecutors presented a sentencing memo calling for Flynn to be sentenced to a term of up to six months.[237] One week later, Flynn’s lawyers filed a motion seeking permission to withdraw his guilty plea “because of the government’s bad faith, vindictiveness, and breach of the plea agreement”.[29] On January 16, Sullivan postponed Flynn’s sentencing date to February 27.[238] On January 22, Flynn requested he be sentenced to probation and community service if his request to withdraw his guilty plea is not granted.[239] On January 29, 2020, Flynn filed a personal declaration with the court, declaring under penalty of perjury that he was innocent, that he still didn’t remember whether he had discussed sanctions with Kislyak or the details of their discussion of the United Nations vote on Israel, that his Covington attorneys had not provided effective counsel, and that he “did not consciously or intentionally lie” to the FBI agents who had interviewed him.[240] After senior Justice Department officials intervened in February 2020 to recommend a lighter sentence for Roger Stone than prosecutors had recommended the day before, NBC News reported that the previous month senior DOJ officials had also intervened to recommend Flynn’s sentence be reduced from up to six months in the original recommendation to probation.[241]
Days before Flynn’s scheduled sentencing, attorney general William Barr appointed Jeffrey Jensen, the U.S. attorney for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, to examine Flynn’s prosecution.[242] On February 10, 2020, Flynn’s sentencing was postponed indefinitely, to allow both sides to prepare arguments in response to his claim that his previous lawyers violated his constitutional rights by providing inadequate legal counsel.[208]
Justice Department’s motion to drop charges
In February 2020, Attorney General William Barr declared that there would be a review of Flynn’s case.[243][244] Barr chose St. Louis’ chief federal prosecutor, Jeffrey Jensen, to conduct the review. Jensen himself was nominated by President Trump for the St. Louis position.[244] Trump had publicly called for Flynn’s charges to be dropped. In late April or early May, Jensen recommended to Barr that the charges be dropped, and Barr agreed with the recommendation.[31]
On May 7, 2020, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a Motion to Dismiss with prejudice the criminal information against Flynn.[245] The motion, filed by Timothy Shea, interim United States Attorney for the District of Columbia and a longtime adviser of Barr’s, stated that Flynn’s questioning “was untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation”.[246] Lead DOJ prosecutor Brandon L. Van Grack withdrew from the case, and no DOJ attorneys who had been involved in the case signed on to Shea’s motion.[246] Van Grack had contended in previous filings that the “topics of sanctions went to the heart of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation, [and] any effort to undermine those sanctions could have been evidence of links or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.” Sidney Powell, Flynn’s attorney, said prosecution filings had been made in “bad faith”, and Brady materials had been withheld.[246] US District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan had previously ruled that Flynn’s statements were material to the Russia campaign interference inquiry.[246] It was left to Sullivan to determine whether to dismiss the charges and also to prevent a retrial on the charges.[246] Sullivan had the option of requesting written submissions on the motion and also could determine if additional Brady disclosure materials that should have been provided to the defense could be added to the record.[246]
On May 12, 2020, Judge Sullivan ordered a hold on the DOJ’s intent to drop charges, saying he expected that independent groups and legal experts will wish to intervene. Judge Sullivan said he will set schedules for filing “friend-of-the court” or amicus briefs.[32] On May 13, Judge Sullivan appointed retired U.S. District Judge John Gleeson to act as an amicus curiae “to present arguments in opposition to the government’s Motion to Dismiss” and to “address whether the Court should issue an Order to Show Cause why Mr. Flynn should not be held in criminal contempt for perjury.”[247] On May 19, Judge Sullivan set a schedule for amicus briefs (to be submitted no later than June 10, 2020), replies (with various dates in June, 2020), and oral arguments (on July 16, 2020).[248] On June 10, Judge Gleeson filed his amicus brief stating that the government’s motion be denied as “the Government’s statement of reasons for seeking dismissal is pretextual” and “there is clear evidence of a gross abuse of prosecutorial power” and concluding that “Flynn has indeed committed perjury in these proceedings” that should be taken into account in his sentencing.[249] On June 17, the DOJ filed a brief with Sullivan asserting that even if Gleeson’s findings of gross abuse were true, the Department still had sole authority to drop the case without judicial review. A footnote in the brief stated that assertions of prosecutorial misconduct made by Flynn’s attorney, Sidney Powell, were “unfounded and provide no basis for impugning the prosecutors.”[250]
Full pardon issued on behalf of Flynn by President Donald Trump , November 25, 2020
On May 19, 2020, Flynn filed an Emergency Petition for a Writ of Mandamus in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit requesting a writ ordering the district court to (1) grant the government’s Motion to Dismiss with prejudice, (2) vacate its order appointing an amicus curiae, and (3) assign the case to another judge for any additional proceedings.[251] On May 21, the panel ordered Judge Sullivan to file a response addressing Flynn’s request within ten days of the order and also invited the Department of Justice to respond.[252] In response to the order, Judge Sullivan retained Beth Wilkinson to help with his response.[253] On June 1, Judge Sullivan and the Department of Justice filed responsive briefs with the appellate court panel.[254][255] On June 10, Flynn, the Department of Justice, and Judge Sullivan filed reply briefs.[256] On June 12, oral arguments were heard by the appellate court panel by teleconference.[257] On June 24, the appellate court panel ruled to grant the writ, “direct[ing] the district court to grant the government’s Rule 48(a) motion to dismiss … [and] vacat[ing] the district court’s order appointing an amicus as moot,” with Judge Neomi Rao writing for the majority, joined by Judge Karen Henderson, and Judge Robert L. Wilkins dissenting in part.[258] On July 9, Sullivan filed a petition with the full appellate court to rehear the case.[259] On July 30, the full court agreed to hear the case, vacating the June 24 ruling, scheduling oral arguments for August 11, and advising the parties to “be prepared to address whether there are ‘no other adequate means to attain the relief’ desired.”[260][261] On August 11, the full appeals court heard arguments from the DOJ and from Sullivan’s attorney.[262] The appeals court ruled 8–2 on August 31, 2020, to deny the request to dismiss the case or reassign the case from Sullivan.[263]
More oral arguments took place on September 29, 2020, conducted remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.[264] Flynn received a presidential pardon on November 25, 2020.[265] Judge Sullivan subsequently dismissed the criminal case against Flynn as moot on December 8, 2020.[266]
Political Views
Amid speculation that Flynn might be selected as Trump’s 2016 running mate, he discussed his registration as a Democrat, stating “I grew up as a Democrat in a very strong Democratic family, but I will tell you that Democratic party that exists in this country is not the Democratic Party that I grew up around in my upbringing”, and declined to say whether his affiliation had changed.[267] He was a headlining speaker during the first night of the 2016 Republican National Convention,[110] and he was a surrogate and top national security adviser for President Donald Trump.
During a July 10, 2016, interview on ABC News’ This Week, when asked by host Martha Raddatz about the issue of abortion, Flynn said, “women have to be able to choose”.[267][268] The next day, Flynn said on Fox News that he is a “pro-life Democrat”.[269]
Flynn is a supporter of current Israeli policies.[270][271] He is also an opponent of the Iran nuclear deal. In February 2017, Flynn said “the Obama administration failed to respond adequately to Tehran’s malign actions—including weapons transfers, support for terrorism and other violations of international norms”.[272] Flynn accused Yemen’s Houthi rebels of being one of Iran’s “proxy terrorist groups” in February 2017.[273] Flynn also criticized Obama’s administration for arming Syrian rebels linked to Salafi jihadism.[274] According to Flynn, the U.S. is “at war with a radical component of Islam”.[274] Flynn has been a board member of ACT! for America,[275] and sees the Muslim faith as one of the root causes of Islamist terrorism.[72]
Flynn has described Islam as a political ideology that “definitely hides behind being a religion” and has metastasized into a “malignant cancer.”[72][276] He once tweeted that “fear of Muslims is RATIONAL”[275] and included a video link claiming that Islam wants “80% of people enslaved or exterminated”.[277] Initially supportive of Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the U.S., Flynn later told Al Jazeera a blanket ban was unworkable and has called instead for “vetting” of entrants from countries like Syria.[275] Flynn has said the U.S. “should extradite Fethullah Gülen” to Turkey and “work constructively with Russia” in Syria.[73][278] In 2016, he said he had seen photos of signs in the Southwest border area that were in Arabic to help Muslims entering the United States illegally. Shawn Moran, a vice president of the National Border Patrol Council responded to CNN that the group [National Border Patrol Council] was not aware of the signs Flynn referenced, but they were concerned about the threat of terrorism at the southern border.[279]
Flynn was a scheduled speaker for a “Digital Soldiers Conference” in Atlanta in September 2019, along with other Trump associates George Papadopoulos and Gina Loudon.[280] The conference was named after a 2016 quote from Flynn about Trump having been elected by an “army of digital soldiers”.[281] The stated purpose was to prepare “patriotic social media warriors” for a coming “digital civil war.” The announcement for the event prominently displayed a Q spelled in stars on the blue field of an American flag, and the host of the event had numerous references to QAnon on his Twitter account.[280][282] On Independence Day 2020, Flynn tweeted a video of himself leading others in an oath to QAnon.[283][284][285] Flynn’s attorney, Sidney Powell, denied the oath related to QAnon, saying it was merely a statement engraved on a bell on John F. Kennedy’s sailboat. However, during preceding days numerous QAnon followers had taken the same so-called “digital soldier oath” on Twitter, using the same #TakeTheOath hashtag as Flynn had.[286]
Following his November 2020 pardon, Flynn deepened his involvement with QAnon by endorsing merchandise related to the conspiracy theory, creating a Digital Soldiers media company,[287] and announcing that he planned to launch a news media outlet also called “Digital soldiers”.[288] As Flynn appeared on podcasts popular with QAnon followers such as “Bards of War,” QAnon stories predicted that he would help them take control,[287] some adherents even speculating that Flynn was Q.[288]
2020 election and later
Days after being pardoned by Trump, Flynn tweeted a press release by the “We the People Convention” that called on the president to “exercise the Extraordinary Powers of his office and declare limited Martial Law to temporarily suspend the Constitution and civilian control of these federal elections in order to have the military implement a national re-vote that reflects the true will of the people.”[283][289]
On December 17, 2020, Flynn stated during a television interview, “People out there talk about martial law like it’s something that we’ve never done. Martial law has been instituted 64 times.” Although martial law had been imposed 68 times in the nation’s history, only one sitting president had invoked it — Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. None of the invocations of martial law involved electoral issues as Flynn envisioned. In January 2022, a draft executive order dated December 16, 2020 surfaced that proposed a military seizure of voting machines and the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the election, as the president and his allies sought ways to overturn the election which he had lost. In a December 18 Oval Office meeting Flynn attended, Sidney Powell urged Trump to seize voting machines and to appoint her as a special counsel, though it was not immediately clear who wrote the draft order.[290][291]
Flynn appeared at a Stop the Steal rally in Washington, D.C. in December following the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court not to hear Texas v. Pennsylvania. He dismissed the court’s decision saying “the people decide” who’ll be president, saying, “I will tell you one more time—because I’ve been asked—on a scale of one to ten, who will be the next president of the United States, and I say Donald Trump. Ten. A ten”.[292][293] Flynn likened the protesters at Stop the Steal events to the biblical soldiers and priests breaching the walls of Jericho in the Battle of Jericho, echoing the rally organizers’ call for “Jericho Marches” to overturn the election result.[294][295] After the meeting, the largest Three Percenters group announced that they were “ready to enter into battle with General Flynn leading the charge”.[287]
Not long afterward, Flynn and Powell met with Trump in the Oval Office, where they reportedly railed on White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and accused them of abandoning the president post-election.[39][38]
On January 8, 2021, two days after the storming of the Capitol, Flynn’s Twitter account was permanently suspended, along with those of many other QAnon-affiliated personalities such as Sidney Powell. A Twitter representative said the accounts of Flynn and others had “been suspended in line with our policy on Coordinated Harmful Activity”.[296]
On February 2021, Flynn distanced himself from QAnon views, stating that rumors about Trump using the Insurrection Act to take back control of the country were “nonsense”, and commenting : “There’s no plan. There’s so many people out there asking, ‘Is the plan happening?’ We have what we have, and we have to accept the situation as it is.” However, he did not disavow QAnon outright, nor did he admit that Biden’s win was legitimate.[287]
Media Matters published analysis in February 2021 finding that QAnon adherents had praised the February 2021 Myanmar coup d’état in which the military overthrew the democratically elected government, and advocated a similar coup in the United States.[297] In May 2021, Flynn was one of the keynote speakers at the “For God & Country: Patriot Roundup” conference, organized in Dallas by QAnon activists. When an audience member stated, “I want to know why what happened in Myanmar can’t happen here,” Flynn responded, “No reason, I mean, it should happen here. No reason. That’s right.” After his words were reported, Flynn asserted he had “not at any time called for any action of that sort” and accused the press of “boldface fabrication based on twisted reporting.”[298][299][300]
In May 2021, Flynn asserted the COVID-19 pandemic was fabricated as “a distraction to what happened on 3 November,” referring to the 2020 presidential election which he maintains was stolen from Trump. He added, “Everything we hear about Covid, and how Covid started before November 3, it is all meant to control, it is all meant to gain control of a society to be able to force decisions on society, instead of allowing ‘we the people’ to make decisions.” Flynn falsely suggested that getting the COVID-19 vaccine was required to get an identification card or to travel.[301][302][303]
Flynn became active on speaking tours in 2021. Will Sommer of The Daily Beast observed that a prayer Flynn gave in September bore a striking resemblance to one by Elizabeth Clare Prophet, leader of the Church Universal and Triumphant, an anticommunist doomsday cult. Some QAnon supporters alleged the prayer was Satanic because Flynn used terms they considered antithetical to Christian doctrine.[304]
While speaking before a “ReAwaken America” audience in November 2021, Flynn stated, “If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God, and one religion under God.”[305] causing outrage.[306]
In December 2021, lawyer and QAnon follower L. Lin Wood leaked a text exchange and a phone conversation between himself and Flynn, in which Flynn commented that QAnon was “a set up and a disinformation campaign to make people look like a bunch of kooks” and accused “the Left” or the CIA of being behind the campaign.[307]
Reuters reported in December 2021 that Flynn and associated military-intelligence veterans played a central role in spreading false information alleging the 2020 election had been stolen from Trump. Phil Waldron, a psychological operations expert, said he worked with Flynn on secret projects during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and worked in clandestine services under Flynn at the Defense Intelligence Agency. Waldron had distributed a 38-page PowerPoint presentation detailing an elaborate theory that China and Venezuela had taken control of voting machines — a theory also promoted by Trump and Flynn attorney Sidney Powell. Waldron said he had conveyed his theory to congressman Louie Gohmert who immediately called Trump. Waldron soon met with Powell and Rudy Giuliani before attending a meeting with Trump in the Oval Office. Waldron said he spoke with Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows several times and discussed his theory with several members of Congress. The presentation recommended that Trump declare a national security emergency to delay the January 6 certification of electors, reject all ballots cast by machine, and have paper ballots secured by U.S. marshals and National Guard troops to conduct a recount. Flynn also worked with Ivan Raiklin, a former special forces officer who presented himself as a constitutional attorney, though Reuters could not find evidence he had such expertise. Raiklin promoted conspiracy theories involving Pence, intelligence agencies, big tech, China and the postal service. On December 22, he tweeted to Trump a two-page memo entitled, “Operation Pence Card,” describing how the vice president might reject electors from states Biden won and in which Trump alleged fraud. Trump retweeted the Raiklin tweet. Seth Keshel, a former Army intelligence officer, conducted a statistical analysis that falsely[308] claimed to prove the 2020 election results were fraudulent; he told Reuters he contacted Flynn and they began collaborating. Shortly after the election, Flynn, Powell, Keshel and others gathered for days of strategy sessions at the South Carolina estate of Lin Wood. Also present was Doug Logan, the CEO of Cyber Ninjas, which managed the controversial election audit in Maricopa County, Arizona after Waldron recommended him to Arizona Senate president Karen Fann. A Flynn fundraising organization provided most of the $5.7 million funding for that audit, which ultimately affirmed Biden’s victory in Arizona without proving fraud.[309][310][311]
Flynn was subpoenaed for testimony and documents by the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack in November 2021; he appeared before the committee in March 2022 but exercised his Fifth Amendment right to decline to answer questions.[312]
Writings
Flynn co-authored a report in January 2010 through the Center for a New American Security, entitled Fixing Intel: A Blueprint for Making Intelligence Relevant in Afghanistan.[313] That report, which became influential,[314] argued that U.S. intelligence agencies “must open their doors to anyone who is willing to exchange information, including Afghans and NGOs [non-governmental organizations] as well as the U.S. military and its allies”.[315]
Flynn is also an author of The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies, co-authored with Michael Ledeen, which was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2016.[316] In reviewing the book, Will McCants of the Brookings Institution described Flynn’s worldview as a confused combination of neoconservatism (an insistence on destroying what he sees as an alliance of tyranny, dictatorships, and radical Islamist regimes) and realism (support for working with “friendly tyrants”), although he acknowledged that this could be due to the book’s having two authors.[317]
Awards and decorations
Flynn’s decorations, medals and badges include:[7][318]
Other awards and recognitions
See also
references
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