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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 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.
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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 is a 6-year U.S. Army Veteran who previously served as a Military Intelligence Officer. He has been recently trending after he brought …
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Who Is Seth Keshel? 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, 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.
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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.
Another $3.5 million came from The America Project, whose website includes a video of Flynn declaring, “Our great nation has been subjected to a new breed of attack.” Joe Flynn is one of the nonprofit’s three board members and Flynn their senior strategic advisor.
America Project chief executive, former Overstock CEO Byrne, told Reuters Flynn “asked me to come down and set this up.” Flynn “is a driving force” to continue fighting the 2020 election results, the said Group Operations Manager, Carl Johnson. The America Project told Florida regulators it expects to raise $50 million this year, records show. Byrne said the group raised nearly $10 million, mostly from him.
The resulting Arizona audit involved assessors with little training who examined ballots using procedures that were widely criticized by election experts. Logan defended the auditing work. The review confirmed that Biden had won.
On this November 19, retired Captain Keshel and current Reserve Lieutenant Colonel Raiklin were speakers at an “election integrity” rally in Manchester, New Hampshire. Raiklin and Keshel, citing polls that said a growing number of right-wing Americans believe the election was rigged, told a crowd of about 75 their movement was succeeding.
Noting his legal and military background, Raiklin laid out what he called a “deep state” conspiracy theory of a stolen election. “I connected those dots,” Raiklin told the crowd.
Keshel, now a paid consultant for The America Project, said Trump supporters faced a “war on two fronts” – examining the 2020 election and preparing for 2024.
“It sounds a little crazy,” Keshel said. “But I believe with all my heart … that the future will reflect the truth of the 2020 election that Joe Biden was wrongly elected.”
Both men received a standing ovation.
Additional reporting by Chris Kahn and Brian Snyder
The Election Foxhole By Aram Roston, Brad Heath, John Shiffman and Peter Eisler Photography: Brian Snyder Photo Editing: Corinne Perkins Art Direction: John Emerson Edited by 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. Russia eventually decided not to oppose the resolution.[143][144][145][146]
On December 29, President Obama announced that the United States would take retaliatory action in response to the Russian government’s interference in the 2016 US presidential campaign, including the expulsion of 35 suspected Russian intelligence agents.[140][147] Trump and his transition team feared the sanctions would hurt Russian-US exchanges. Relations,[148][149] and Flynn spoke to Kislyak that day and urged Russia to respond only “mutually” to the sanctions and not escalate them.[140] Flynn consulted with new Deputy National Security Advisor K.T. McFarland both before and after calling Kislyak and McFarland briefed other members of the Trump transition team. On December 31, Kislyak called Flynn and informed him that Putin had not returned the favor because Putin had accepted Flynn’s request.[150] The Obama administration was amazed at Russia’s decision not to retaliate.[148] US intelligence agencies routinely monitor Kislyak’s calls, and Obama administration officials discovered on January 2 that Flynn had spoken to Kislyak several times in the past few days.[151]
On January 12, columnist David Ignatius, writing for the Washington Post, revealed that Flynn called Kislyak on December 29 and asked if Flynn had said anything to “undermine US sanctions.” Flynn pointed out to K.T. McFarland is said to lie to the Washington Post that Flynn did not discuss the sanctions with Kislyak; McFarland did so knowing it was wrong,[155] and the Washington Post reported the refusal.[152] Flynn went on to lie to new chief of staff Reince Priebus, new press secretary Sean Spicer and Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who repeated Flynn’s untruth to the media, that he had not discussed the sanctions with Kislyak. 156] The Mueller report states that Obama administration officials feared that these public untruths could result in “a compromise situation for Flynn because the Justice Department determined that the Russian government could prove Flynn’s lie.”[156]
Incidentally, Flynn’s conversations with Kislyak were intercepted by American intelligence as part of routine surveillance of Russian agents. In accordance with the policy regarding American persons, Flynn’s identity was masked before reports of his conversations were distributed to senior government officials. Some officials, most notably National Security Advisor Susan Rice, were so concerned by the reports that they called for Flynn’s identity to be debunked per trial. After the press reported the unmasking, Trump and his allies insisted it was evidence the Obama administration was spying on him and his associates for political gain. In May 2020, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec announced on Fox News host Sean Hannity’s program that Attorney General Bill Barr had hired US Attorney John Bash to conduct the investigation. She also stated that John Durham, whom Barr hired to investigate the origins of the FBI Crossfire Hurricane investigation, also looked into the unmasking issue. The Bash investigation was quietly dropped five months later, with no public announcement or report, reportedly finding nothing inappropriate. Bash’s 52-page report, previously classified as top secret, was released in May 2022. Bash wrote that he found no evidence that requests for unmasking had been made for political or otherwise inappropriate reasons during the 2016 term or subsequent presidential change.[157] ][158][159]
tenure
When he was national security adviser, Flynn urged the US Department of Defense to establish a military communications channel with Russia to protect US and Russian air forces in Syria from one another and potentially work together to take on Islamic State, The Daily Beast website reported in July 2017. The Department of Defense and the U.S. Central Command rejected the idea, the website reported. The 2015 National Defense Authorization Act had banned the US from cooperating with Russia on military matters unless the Secretary of Defense permitted an exception.[160]
Flynn was a key link in Putin-Trump ties in the “Ukraine Peace Plan,” an unofficial plan organized “outside of regular diplomatic channels … at the behest of top aides to President Putin.” This plan, aimed at easing sanctions imposed on Russia, passed from Putin and his advisers to Ukrainian politicians Andrey Artemenko, Felix Sater, Michael Cohen and Flynn, where he would then have 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, shortly before retiring.[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 didn’t respond harshly to US sanctions, and that Vice President Pence, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Press Secretary Sean Spicer had all said Flynn had told them he had made no such request, Comey decided that Flynn needed to be questioned as part of the assessment of whether Flynn was acting under Russian influence.[162] The FBI debated how the interview should be structured, and then FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe called Flynn on January 24 and asked him to meet with two FBI counterintelligence agents. Flynn agreed.[163] McCabe also asked if Flynn wanted an attorney present, to which Flynn said no.
The two agents met Flynn at his office later that day and asked Flynn about his exchanges with Kislyak regarding the United Nations Security Council resolution of late December 2016 regarding Israeli settlements. According to FBI notes, Flynn told agents he had not attempted to influence Russia’s vote on the resolution; In fact, he had asked Kislyak to get Russia to oppose or postpone the resolution.[155][164][165] The FBI agents also asked Flynn if he asked Kislyak to avoid escalating the diplomatic conflict. According to FBI notes, Flynn replied, “Not really. I do not remember. It wasn’t ‘do nothing’.”[165][166][167][168] After the meeting, the agents prepared an FD-302 form for discussion with Flynn, a form used to identify an FBI – Summarize the interview.
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 26-27.[171] Yates told McGahn that Flynn had misled Pence and other administration officials about the nature of his discussions with Kislyak and was potentially susceptible to Russian blackmail. Former United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called the possibility of Flynn being blackmailed “a kind of exaggeration” while acknowledging that his false testimony “was an issue… I would tell the President about”. [174]
Departure
Flynn resignation letter, February 13, 2017
On February 9, 2017, The Washington Post ran the story that Flynn had discussed US sanctions with Kislyak, despite the Trump administration’s public denials, citing “nine current and former officials.” The New York Times corroborated the Washington Post story and stated that a transcript of the conversation between Flynn and Kislyak existed.[153] The Washington Post also reported that Flynn flatly denied them such discussions on February 8.[21] Flynn denied it, although Washington Post journalist Karen DeYoung informed him that officials “tapped the wiretaps” of his conversations with Kislyak.[150]
After the Washington Post published her story, Flynn’s rep released a statement on February 9 that softened Flynn’s denial, describing that Flynn “had no recollection of speaking about sanctions” but also “couldn’t be certain that the subject never came up”. ][175] This happened after Flynn was confronted with Reince Priebus, Don McGahn and John Eisenberg, who also informed Flynn that there were transcripts of his conversations with Kislyak. Flynn told White House officials he was “either not sure he spoke about sanctions or he doesn’t remember” (which was different than what he told Mike Pence and Sean Spicer in January).[150 ] Meanwhile, Mike Pence only found out on February 9 that Flynn had lied to him about the calls; Pence was informed by the media reports of the day, said Pence’s spokesman.[176]
As a result of this news, public pressure on Flynn increased.[153] On February 12, Trump’s adviser, Kellyanne Conway, said Trump had “complete faith” in Flynn; However, an hour later that same day, Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer described Trump as “judgemental” of Flynn.[153]
On February 13, Flynn resigned as National Security Advisor, writing that he had given “incomplete information” about his talks with Kislyak.[177] Flynn’s 24-day tenure as National Security Advisor was the shortest in the office’s 63-year history.[24] Before Flynn’s resignation, he told the Daily Caller that he had told Kislyak in his conversation with Kislyak that he was aware of the expulsion of the 35 Russians and that: “We will check everything.”[176]
On February 14, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump asked Flynn to resign “not because of a legal issue, but because of a trust issue” because he “misled the vice president and others or had the opportunity to that he had forgotten critical details of that important conversation”, which “created a critical mass and an untenable situation”.[178]
Later, in December 2017, President Trump said he “must fire General Flynn for lying to the Vice President and the FBI,” noting that Flynn “pled guilty to those lies.”[179] Also in December 2017, Vice President Pence said when Flynn left the Trump administration, “I knew 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 clearly see your path to letting this go, letting Flynn go,” adding, ” He’s a good guy.” [181] Comey then testified: “I understood that the President wanted us to drop all investigations into Flynn in connection with false testimonies about his conversations with the Russian Ambassador in December… I didn’t understood that the President was talking about the broader investigation into Russia or possible links to his campaign”.[182] The appropriateness and even legality of these words Trump reportedly said to Comey about Flynn have become the subject of considerable public debate.[ 183] Several months after Flynn was fired, Trump also fired Comey, which Comey attributed to the FBI’s Russia investigation.[184]
Flynn had offered to testify before the FBI or Senate and House intelligence committees in connection with the Russia probe in exchange for immunity from prosecution.[185] However, the Senate Intelligence Committee declined Flynn’s offer of testimony in exchange for immunity. 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 compromised. The Pentagon Inspector General also investigated whether Flynn was accepting money from foreign governments without the necessary approval.[188]
On November 5, 2017, NBC News reported that Robert Mueller had sufficient evidence to charge Flynn and his son, Michael G. Flynn.[189] On November 10, The Wall Street Journal reported that Flynn was being investigated by Mueller for allegedly plotting the kidnapping and extrajudicial transfer of Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen to Turkey. On November 22, NBC News reported that Flynn’s business partner, Bijan Kian, was the subject of the Mueller investigation.[192] NBC reported that a Turkish businessman named Reza Zarrab, who was picked up by US authorities in Miami in 2016 for violating Iranian sanctions and allegations of money laundering, presented evidence against Flynn.[193][194] Flynn’s company received more than $500,000 from Inovo, a Dutch company owned by Turkish businessman Kamil Ekim Alptekin, for work that included investigating Gülen.[12][195] In return, Alptekin received $80,000, which a Reuters report describes as a bribe.[196]
On November 23, 2017, it was reported that Flynn’s attorneys notified Trump’s legal team that they could no longer discuss Mueller’s investigation, suggesting that Flynn may have been colluding with prosecutors or brokering a deal.
plea bargain
On December 1, 2017, Flynn and Special Counsel Robert Mueller agreed to a plea bargain in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. In the agreement, Flynn pleaded guilty to “willfully and knowingly” making “false, fictitious and fraudulent statements” to the FBI about conversations with the Russian ambassador. Flynn agreed in The Statement of the Offense that he falsely denied that on December 29, 2016, he asked Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak “to refrain from escalating … in response to sanctions against which.” imposed by the United States on Russia the same day.”[200] Flynn’s guilty plea confirmed that he was cooperating with the Mueller investigation and it was accepted by the court.[201][202]
Delayed sentencing
Flynn’s sentencing had been delayed 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.
In a sentencing note released on December 4, 2018, the Mueller Inquiry found that Flynn “deserves credit for taking responsibility in a timely manner and providing significant assistance to the government” and should receive little or no prison time.[210]
Flynn’s attorneys filed a sentencing memorandum on December 11, 2018, asking for leniency and noting that FBI agents tricked him into lying during the January 24, 2017 White House interview, and not advising him that that Lying to federal agents is a crime. The memo also claimed that Flynn’s relaxed demeanor during the interview indicated he was being honest. Trump repeated this claim on Twitter and Fox News two days later, claiming, “They convinced him he was lying and he made some sort of deal.”[211]
Mueller’s office denied those claims the next day, saying agents told Flynn parts of what he discussed with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak to refresh his memory, but Flynn did not waver from his false statements. FBI agents concluded that Flynn’s relaxed demeanor during the interview was actually because he was fully committed to his lies. Mueller’s office also documented instances of Flynn lying about the Kislyak conversation in the days leading up to the FBI interview.[212] Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordered that documents related to the interview prior to Flynn’s sentencing on December 18, 2018 be made available to him.[212] The New York Times reported that Flynn’s “decision to attack the FBI in his own parole request appeared to be a move for a pardon from Mr. Trump, whose former attorney raised the prospect with counsel for Mr. Flynn last year.” “. [212][213]
Sullivan, who has been skeptical of the government’s behavior in the past,[214] rebuked Flynn at his sentencing hearing on December 18, 2018. Citing evidence that was not released to the public, the judge told him: “You probably sold your land”[215][216] and warned: “I cannot assure you that you will not be sentenced to imprisonment , if you continue today.” He offered to delay sentencing until Flynn’s cooperation with investigators was complete. After consulting his attorneys, Flynn accepted the delay. During the hearing, Sullivan indicated that he was offended by the suggestion in the sentencing memorandum submitted by Flynn’s attorneys that the FBI misled Flynn, as it made it appear that Flynn was accepting and at the same time alleging a generous plea deal from prosecutors wanted he had fallen into the trap . He asked Flynn’s attorney, Robert Kelner, several questions to determine whether the defense alleged that the FBI acted improperly in its investigation of Flynn, including whether he had been included. Kelner answered “No, Your Honor” to each question. Judge Sullivan also asked Flynn several questions under oath, including whether he wished to retract his guilty plea, still accepted responsibility for his false testimony, and wished to plead guilty, and was satisfied with his legal representation. Flynn repeated his guilty plea and admitted to Sullivan that he was aware that lying to federal investigators was a crime at the time of his first FBI interview in January 2017. Sullivan then delayed sentencing. [221]
On May 16, 2019, an unedited version of a December 2018 government sentencing memo for Flynn showed that he told investigators that both before and after his guilty plea, he or his attorneys “received communications from persons associated with the government or.” associated with Congress and who may be concerned, both his willingness to cooperate and the completeness of that cooperation.” The Mueller report described a November 2017 voicemail that Flynn’s attorneys received from Trump’s “personal counsel,” allegedly John Dowd , who said, “[I]f … there’s information implicated in the President, then we have a national security problem. … so, you know … we need some kind of heads-up,” reiterated the “President’s sentiments towards Flynn and that remains.” The newly unedited information also revealed that members of the Trump campaign about contacting WikiL eaks for releasing emails and “potential efforts to disrupt SCO investigations.” On the day the unedited court filing was released, Sullivan ordered that the full transcript of the voicemail be released to the public by May 31, along with the transcript of Flynn’s conversation with Kislyak and unedited 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 reports by the New York Times and Washington Post in March 2018, six days after he resigned as Trump’s attorney, that he brought up the idea of a presidential pardon for Flynn with his attorneys in 2017.
In June 2019, Flynn fired the Covington & Burling attorneys who negotiated his plea deal and hired Sidney Powell, who had earlier urged Flynn to withdraw his guilty plea. Trump complimented Flynn and Powell on Twitter.[228] Testimonies by Flynn contractors in the Bijan Rafiekian trial suggest that their foreign client was interested in classified government information about Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, surveillance of Gülen supporters and likely terrorist connections made by their own investigations into the Turkish cleric clerics could be exposed.[82][229] Bijan Rafiekian, who was a partner of Michael Flynn in the Flynn Intel Group and worked with the new Trump administration’s transition team, was accused of acting illegally as an unregistered agent of Turkey . In 2019, a federal judge overturned the guilty verdicts against Bijan Rafiekian, citing insufficient evidence to support his convictions in both cases.[230][82][231]
In August 2019, Flynn’s attorneys filed a motion to contempt prosecutors for “malicious conduct” and accused them of withholding material benefiting his case in order to get him to plead guilty. They claimed that parts of the federal government tried to “slander” him as a Russian agent “or as a victim of a criminal leak or other abuses in connection with secret wiretapping of his conversations with Kislyak”.[232] In October 2019, Flynn’s attorneys further alleged in court filings that “senior FBI officials orchestrated an ambush interview…not to discover evidence of criminal activity…but to get him to make statements they could claim as false.”[ 233][234]
On December 16, 2019, following a review of possible case-related findings in Michael Horowitz’s report, Sullivan dismissed the allegations of FBI involvement and prosecutorial misconduct and set his sentencing date for January 28, 2020.[235] Sullivan asked prosecutors to produce a new sentencing memorandum; They had previously recommended little or no prison sentences, but more recently suggested they could change their position.[236] On January 7, 2020, prosecutors issued a sentencing memorandum requesting that Flynn be sentenced to up to six months in prison.[237] A week later, Flynn’s lawyers filed a motion seeking permission to withdraw his guilty plea “on the grounds of bad faith, vindictiveness and breach of the plea agreement” by the government.[29] On January 16, Sullivan pushed back Flynn’s sentencing date to February 27. On January 22, Flynn requested that he be sentenced to probation and community service if his motion to withdraw his guilty plea was not granted.[239] On January 29, 2020, Flynn filed a personal statement with the court declaring under penalty of perjury that he was innocent, he still doesn’t remember if he spoke to Kislyak about sanctions or the details of their discussion of the United Nations vote Nations spoke to Israel that his attorneys in Covington had failed to provide effective counsel and that he “did not knowingly or intentionally lie” to the FBI agents who questioned him.[240] After senior Justice Department officials intervened in February 2020 to recommend a lighter sentence for Roger Stone than prosecutors recommended the day before, NBC News reported that senior DOJ officials had also intervened the previous month to recommend Flynn’s Sentence of up to six months reduce the original probation recommendation.[241]
Days before Flynn’s scheduled sentencing, Attorney General William Barr hired Jeffrey Jensen, the US Attorney for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, to review Flynn’s charges. On February 10, 2020, Flynn’s sentencing was indefinitely delayed to allow both sides to prepare arguments for his allegation that his previous attorneys violated his constitutional rights by providing inadequate legal representation.[208]
Justice Department motion to drop charges
In February 2020, Attorney General William Barr stated that there would be a review of Flynn’s case.[243][244] Barr selected St. Louis Attorney General Jeffrey Jensen to conduct the review. Jensen himself was nominated by President Trump for the St. Louis position.[244] Trump had publicly called for the charges against Flynn to be dropped. In late April or early May, Jensen Barr recommended that the charges be dropped, and Barr agreed to the recommendation.[31]
On May 7, 2020, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a motion to dismiss without prejudice to the criminal information against Flynn.[245] The motion, filed by Timothy Shea, interim United States Attorney for the District of Columbia and Barr’s longtime adviser, says Flynn’s questioning “was not tied to and warranted by the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation.” Senior DOJ Attorney Brandon L. Van Grack withdrew from the case, and no DOJ attorneys involved in the case signed Shea’s motion.[246] Van Grack had claimed in previous filings that “the sanctions issues were at the core of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigations and that any attempt to undermine those sanctions could have been evidence of ties or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.” Sidney Powell, Flynn’s attorney, said the indictments were filed in “bad faith” and Brady materials were withheld.[246] US District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan previously ruled that Flynn’s comments were relevant to the investigation into Russia’s campaign meddling.[246] It was left to Sullivan to decide whether the charges should be dropped and also to prevent a retrial of the charges.[246] Sullivan had the opportunity to solicit written submissions on the motion and was also able to determine if additional Brady disclosure material that should have been provided to the defense could be added to the records.
On May 12, 2020, Judge Sullivan ordered a stay of the DOJ’s intent to drop the charges, saying he expected independent groups and legal experts to step in. Judge Sullivan said he would establish timetables for filing friend-of-the-court or amicus briefs.[32] On May 13, Judge Sullivan appointed retired U.S. District Judge John Gleeson to serve as amicus curiae “to present arguments against the government’s dismissal request” and “to discuss whether the court should issue an order to show why.” Mr. Flynn should not be criminally disregarded for perjury.”[247] On May 19, Judge Sullivan issued a timeline for amicus briefs (to be filed no later than June 10, 2020), responses (with various dates in June 2020), and oral hearing (held on July 16, 2020).[248] On June 10, Judge Gleeson filed his amicus brief, stating that the government’s request should be denied because “the government’s rationale for requesting a dismissal is fabricated” and “there is clear evidence of gross abuse.” the prosecution,” and concluded that “Flynn actually committed perjury at this proceeding,” which should be taken into account in his sentencing.[249] On June 17, the DOJ filed a brief with Sullivan , in which it asserted that even if Gleeson’s findings of gross abuse were true, the Department still had sole authority to drop the case without judicial review. made by Flynn’s attorney, Sidney Powell, was “unfounded and no basis for the prosecutors’ challenge b rent”.[250]
Full pardon issued on behalf of Flynn by President Donald Trump, November 25, 2020
On May 19, 2020, Flynn filed an urgent action for a mandamus writ in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, seeking an injunction directing the district court to (1) comply with the government’s motion to dismiss Vorurteil stattzugeben, ( 2) seine Anordnung zur Ernennung eines Amicus Curiae aufzuheben und (3) den Fall einem anderen Richter für weitere Verfahren zuzuweisen.[251] Am 21. Mai wies das Gremium Richter Sullivan an, innerhalb von zehn Tagen nach der Anordnung eine Antwort auf Flynns Antrag einzureichen, und forderte auch das Justizministerium auf, darauf zu antworten.[252] Als Antwort auf die Anordnung beauftragte Richter Sullivan Beth Wilkinson, ihm bei seiner Antwort zu helfen.[253] Am 1. Juni reichten Richter Sullivan und das Justizministerium entsprechende Schriftsätze beim Berufungsgericht ein.[254][255] Am 10. Juni reichten Flynn, das Justizministerium und Richter Sullivan Antwortbriefe ein.[256] Am 12. Juni wurden mündliche Verhandlungen vor dem Senat des Berufungsgerichts per Telefonkonferenz angehört.[257] Am 24. Juni entschied der Senat des Berufungsgerichts, der Klage stattzugeben, „das Bezirksgericht anzuweisen, dem Antrag der Regierung nach Regel 48(a) auf Abweisung stattzugeben … [und] die Anordnung des Bezirksgerichts zur Ernennung eines amicus als strittig“, wobei Richterin Neomi Rao für die Mehrheit schrieb, zusammen mit Richterin Karen Henderson und Richter Robert L. Wilkins, die teilweise anderer Meinung waren.[258] Am 9. Juli reichte Sullivan einen Antrag beim Berufungsgericht ein, um den Fall erneut zu verhandeln.[259] Am 30. Juli stimmte das gesamte Gericht zu, den Fall anzuhören, hob das Urteil vom 24. Juni auf, plante die mündlichen Verhandlungen für den 11. August und riet den Parteien, „sich darauf vorzubereiten, zu erörtern, ob es ‚keine anderen angemessenen Mittel gibt, um den gewünschten Rechtsbehelf zu erreichen‘ .”[260][261] Am 11. August hörte das gesamte Berufungsgericht Argumente des DOJ und von Sullivans Anwalt.[262] Das Berufungsgericht entschied am 31. August 2020 mit 8:2, den Antrag auf Abweisung des Falls oder Neuzuweisung des Falls von Sullivan abzulehnen.[263]
Weitere mündliche Verhandlungen fanden am 29. September 2020 statt, die aufgrund der COVID-19-Pandemie in den Vereinigten Staaten aus der Ferne durchgeführt wurden.[264] Flynn erhielt am 25. November 2020 eine Begnadigung durch den Präsidenten.[265] Richter Sullivan wies daraufhin das Strafverfahren gegen Flynn am 8. Dezember 2020 als strittig ab.[266]
Politische Sichten
Inmitten von Spekulationen, dass Flynn 2016 als Trumps Vizekandidat ausgewählt werden könnte, diskutierte er seine Registrierung als Demokrat und erklärte: „Ich bin als Demokrat in einer sehr starken demokratischen Familie aufgewachsen, aber ich werde Ihnen sagen, dass es die demokratische Partei gibt, die es in diesem Land gibt nicht die Demokratische Partei, mit der ich in meiner Erziehung aufgewachsen bin”, und lehnte es ab zu sagen, ob sich seine Zugehörigkeit geändert hatte.[267] Er war einer der Hauptredner am ersten Abend des Republikanischen Nationalkonvents 2016[110] und er war ein Stellvertreter und oberster nationaler Sicherheitsberater von Präsident Donald Trump.
Während eines Interviews am 10. Juli 2016 in ABC News ‘ This Week sagte Flynn, als sie von Moderatorin Martha Raddatz nach dem Thema Abtreibung gefragt wurde: “Frauen müssen in der Lage sein, zu wählen”. Am nächsten Tag sagte Flynn in Fox News, er sei ein „pro-life Democrat“.[269]
Flynn ist ein Unterstützer der aktuellen israelischen Politik.[270][271] Er ist auch ein Gegner des Atomabkommens mit dem Iran. Im Februar 2017 sagte Flynn, „die Obama-Regierung habe es versäumt, angemessen auf Teherans bösartige Aktionen zu reagieren – einschließlich Waffentransfers, Unterstützung des Terrorismus und anderer Verstöße gegen internationale Normen“.[272] Flynn beschuldigte die Houthi-Rebellen im Jemen im Februar 2017, eine der „stellvertretenden terroristischen Gruppen“ des Iran zu sein.[273] Flynn kritisierte auch Obamas Regierung für die Bewaffnung syrischer Rebellen, die mit dem Salafi-Dschihadismus in Verbindung stehen.[274] Laut Flynn befinden sich die USA “im Krieg mit einer radikalen Komponente des Islam”.[274] Flynn war Vorstandsmitglied von ACT! für Amerika[275] und sieht den muslimischen Glauben als eine der Hauptursachen des islamistischen Terrorismus.[72]
Flynn hat den Islam als eine politische Ideologie beschrieben, die sich „definitiv dahinter versteckt, eine Religion zu sein“ und zu einem „bösartigen Krebs“ metastasiert hat.[72][276] Videolink, in dem behauptet wird, der Islam wolle „80 % der Menschen versklaven oder ausrotten“.[277] Ursprünglich unterstützte Flynn Trumps Vorschlag, Muslimen die Einreise in die USA zu verbieten, sagte später gegenüber Al Jazeera, ein pauschales Verbot sei undurchführbar und forderte stattdessen eine „Überprüfung“ von Einreisenden aus Ländern wie Syrien.[275] Flynn sagte, die USA „sollten Fethullah Gülen“ an die Türkei ausliefern und in Syrien „konstruktiv mit Russland zusammenarbeiten“.[73][278] Im Jahr 2016 sagte er, er habe Fotos von Schildern im südwestlichen Grenzgebiet gesehen, die auf Arabisch waren, um Muslimen bei der illegalen Einreise in die Vereinigten Staaten zu helfen. Shawn Moran, ein Vizepräsident des National Border Patrol Council, antwortete CNN, dass die Gruppe [der National Border Patrol Council] die Schilder, auf die Flynn Bezug nahm, nicht kenne, aber über die Bedrohung durch den Terrorismus an der Südgrenze besorgt sei.[279]
Flynn war im September 2019 zusammen mit anderen Trump-Mitarbeitern George Papadopoulos und Gina Loudon ein geplanter Redner für eine „Digital Soldiers Conference“ in Atlanta.[280] Die Konferenz wurde nach einem Zitat von Flynn aus dem Jahr 2016 benannt, wonach Trump von einer „Armee digitaler Soldaten“ gewählt wurde.[281] Der erklärte Zweck war, „patriotische Social-Media-Krieger“ auf einen kommenden „digitalen Bürgerkrieg“ vorzubereiten. Die Ankündigung für die Veranstaltung zeigte deutlich ein in Sternen geschriebenes Q auf dem blauen Feld einer amerikanischen Flagge, und der Gastgeber der Veranstaltung hatte zahlreiche Hinweise auf QAnon auf seinem Twitter-Account.[280][282] Am Unabhängigkeitstag 2020 twitterte Flynn ein Video von sich selbst, wie er andere in einem Eid auf QAnon anführte.[283][284][285] Flynns Anwalt Sidney Powell bestritt den Eid in Bezug auf QAnon und sagte, es sei lediglich eine Aussage, die auf einer Glocke auf John F. Kennedys Segelboot eingraviert sei. In den vorangegangenen Tagen hatten jedoch zahlreiche QAnon-Follower den gleichen sogenannten „digitalen Soldatenschwur“ auf Twitter geleistet, indem sie den gleichen #TakeTheOath-Hashtag wie Flynn verwendeten.[286]
Nach seiner Begnadigung im November 2020 vertiefte Flynn sein Engagement für QAnon, indem er Waren im Zusammenhang mit der Verschwörungstheorie unterstützte, ein Medienunternehmen Digital Soldiers gründete[287] und ankündigte, dass er plane, ein Nachrichtenmedium namens „Digital Soldiers“ zu gründen. 288] Als Flynn in bei QAnon-Anhängern beliebten Podcasts wie „Bards of War“ auftauchte, sagten QAnon-Geschichten voraus, dass er ihnen helfen würde, die Kontrolle zu übernehmen,[287] einige Anhänger spekulierten sogar, dass Flynn Q war.[288]
Wahl 2020 und später
Tage nachdem er von Trump begnadigt worden war, twitterte Flynn eine Pressemitteilung der „We the People Convention“, in der der Präsident aufgefordert wurde, „die außerordentlichen Befugnisse seines Amtes auszuüben und das begrenzte Kriegsrecht zu erklären, um die Verfassung und die zivile Kontrolle über diese Bundesstaaten vorübergehend auszusetzen Wahlen, damit das Militär eine nationale Neuwahl durchführt, die den wahren Willen des Volkes widerspiegelt.”[283][289]
Am 17. Dezember 2020 erklärte Flynn während eines Fernsehinterviews: „Die Leute da draußen sprechen über das Kriegsrecht, als hätten wir es noch nie getan. Das Kriegsrecht wurde 64 Mal eingeführt.“ Obwohl das Kriegsrecht 68 Mal in der Geschichte der Nation verhängt worden war, hatte sich nur ein amtierender Präsident darauf berufen – Abraham Lincoln während des Bürgerkriegs. Keine der Anrufungen des Kriegsrechts betraf Wahlfragen, wie Flynn es sich vorgestellt hatte. Im Januar 2022 tauchte ein Entwurf einer Durchführungsverordnung vom 16. Dezember 2020 auf, der eine militärische Beschlagnahme von Wahlmaschinen und die Ernennung eines Sonderermittlers zur Untersuchung der Wahl vorschlug, da der Präsident und seine Verbündeten nach Wegen suchten, die Wahl, die er verloren hatte, rückgängig zu machen . In einer Sitzung des Oval Office am 18. Dezember, an der Flynn teilnahm, drängte Sidney Powell Trump, Wahlmaschinen zu beschlagnahmen und sie als Sonderanwältin zu ernennen, obwohl nicht sofort klar war, wer den Verordnungsentwurf verfasst hatte.[290][291]
Flynn erschien im Dezember bei einer Stop the Steal-Kundgebung in Washington, D.C., nachdem der Oberste Gerichtshof der USA entschieden hatte, Texas gegen Pennsylvania nicht anzuhören. Er wies die Entscheidung des Gerichts zurück und sagte: „Das Volk entscheidet“, wer Präsident wird, und sagte: „Ich werde Ihnen noch einmal sagen – weil ich gefragt wurde – auf einer Skala von eins bis zehn, wer der nächste Präsident von sein wird die Vereinigten Staaten, und ich sage 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]
Schriften
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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