Michael Flynn Was Central to the Coup Conspiracy. The January 6 Committee Wants Him To Testify.
At the center of much of the conspiracy inside the White House to overturn the 2020 election is former Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a man who a year ago had been issued a blanket pardon from the former president after being convicted of lying to the FBI. The January 6 Committee has now subpoenaed him to find out what he knows, and their timing is good: New revelations, contained in ABC News’ Chief Washington Correspondent Jon Karl’s book “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show,” portray Flynn as an out-of-control, election Big Lie purveyor who appears to know a lot about the plot to keep Trump in office.
Given Flynn’s presence at a key meeting on December 18, 2020 in the waning days of the Trump administration, during which Flynn reportedly advocated for the imposition of martial law and the seizing of ballots, it’s worth reviewing what we know about Flynn, the circles in which he has traveled, and the people who continue to support him.
Flynn was once an intelligence officer known for successfully tracking down extremists in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He rose through the ranks and ultimately was named head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, but his combative style and all-or-nothing strategy against Islam and Islamist states had him at odds with the Obama Administration. His extremist was evident in a book Flynn later wrote: “We can’t win this war by treating radical Islamic terrorists as a handful of crazies….The political and theological underpinnings of their immoral actions have to be demolished.”
According to reporting by the Observer, Flynn had radical plans to remake the DIA, which is often seen as a stepchild within the greater U.S. Intelligence family. He repeatedly threatened to fire those under him who wouldn’t go along with his more ambitious plans for the agency. But his schemes went nowhere, and after just two years at the DIA, he was fired by then-President Obama. Flynn then retired from the Army.
As a private citizen, Flynn used his intelligence background to provide consulting services to international clients, including some with ties to the government of Turkey. Even though he admitted to receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars for his work, Flynn did not disclose his foreign state connections, as he was required by law to do.
His relationship with Russia raised even more eyebrows. In 2016, he was in Moscow being paid $30,000 to give a speech. He was seated at a table next to Russian President Vladimir Putin. This all happened while he was an advisor to the Trump campaign, where he advocated a softer approach with Russia. Flynn also became well-known during the campaign for leading anti-Clinton chants of “Lock Her Up.”
Despite an express warning from outgoing President Obama not to bring Flynn into the new administration, President-elect Trump named Flynn his National Security Advisor. Before Trump was even inaugurated, however, Flynn got into hot water by meeting with the Russian Ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, and requesting that Russia delay or defeat an upcoming U.N. Resolution on Israeli sanctions, even though Flynn was still only a private citizen. Flynn also met with Kislyak to discuss new sanctions imposed on Russia for meddling in the 2016 election. When asked whether he had spoken with the Russians about the request and sanctions, however, Flynn lied to the FBI about those contacts.
In the wake of the scandal, Trump fired him after less than a month on the job, and Flynn later pled guilty to lying to federal investigators. After initially cooperating with the FBI in the Mueller probe, Flynn withdrew his plea and began a protracted legal battle that only ended when Trump pardoned him in November of 2020. By December of 2020, when Flynn began communicating with the former president and his advisors about the election, Flynn had long been outside any official capacity with the administration.
The January 6 Committee has subpoenaed Flynn and has stated it is primarily interested in learning more about an infamous meeting that took place in the Oval Office on December 18, 2020. Karl’s new book gives new insight into the election and the coup discussions during that meeting.
Karl writes that Flynn was making urgent phone calls to a senior Trump administration official named Ezra Cohen who had worked under Flynn at the DIA and the National Security Council. “Where are you?” Flynn asked Cohen, who responded that he was traveling in the Middle East. Flynn demanded Cohen “cut his trip short and get back to the United States immediately because there were big things about to happen,” according to the book. “We need you,” Flynn told Cohen, because “there was going to be an epic showdown over the election results.” The showdown reportedly included the seizing of ballots and the signing of “orders” so that the White House could “stop the Democrats from stealing the election.”
Cohen was concerned. “As Flynn ranted about the election fight, he felt his old boss sounded manic,” Karl reports in the book. “He didn’t sound like the same guy he had worked for.” Cohen told Flynn to stand down. “Sir, the election is over,” Cohen reportedly said to him. “It’s time to move on.” Flynn, according to Karl, fired back: “You’re a quitter! This is not over! Don’t be a quitter!”
Flynn is now active on the QAnon and faith-based speaking circuit where, earlier this year, he made headlines by seeming to support a Myanmar-style military coup to restore former president Trump to power. More recently, Flynn demanded that the U.S. be not just “one nation under God” but instead “One nation under God and one religion under God”—a call for which he was widely condemned. Flynn’s speech was part of the “ReAwaken America” tour supported by American Faith, a right-wing organization that has called for, among other things, further election audits and bans on vaccine and mask mandates.
The outstanding subpoena by the January 6 Committee raises the stakes once again for Flynn. This time, no presidential pardon for any criminal activity post-November 2020 will be possible. Flynn also knows that, as a non-official who was communicating with a former president in his campaigning capacity, all within the context of an apparent conspiracy to keep Trump in power, any claims of executive privilege likely would not gain traction with the courts.
The indictment of Steve Bannon for failing to comply with the January 6 Committee subpoena may also be having an effect. Flynn told Fox News host Tucker Carlson last week on Friday, after Bannon was indicted and an arrest warrant for him had issued, that he intends to comply with the subpoena. “In my case, we’re gonna respond to the request. I mean, I don’t have anything to hide,” Flynn stated.
That of course has not historically been the case with Flynn, who at every turn has lied about and hidden his contacts and connections with foreign agents and governments. If Flynn does appear eventually before the Committee, expect that he will quickly assert the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination or perhaps decide to say nothing at all, just as his co-conspirator Jeffrey Clark recently did. Expect others also to quickly distance themselves from him, as Flynn’s particularly bizarre and often embarrassing form of conspiracy theorizing, together with his calls for military intervention and presidential coups, threaten to tarnish all others within his circle.
May he be the unavoidable taint that brings the rest of them down.