General Michael Flynn: Taking on the Deep State

General Michael Flynn was targeted for destruction by the Deep State, which torpedoed his appointment as national security advisor. He is now fighting back. …

By William F. Jasper

He was an innocent man who was deceived, coerced, and railroaded into pleading guilty to a crime he never committed. He was falsely charged with conspiracy by conspirators at the highest levels of our government and their co-conspirators in the media. He was accused of lying by a gang of liars engaged in a treasonous coup against the constitutionally elected president of the United States. He is a highly decorated combat veteran and intelligence official whose stellar career has been systematically smeared, his personal and family finances destroyed.

He is Lieutenant General Michael Thomas Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and former national security advisor (NSA) to President Donald Trump. For the past nearly eight years he has been subjected to a relentless media onslaught defaming him as a Putin puppet, agent of Russia, agent of Turkey, traitor, felon, liar, insurrectionist, crackpot, Q-anon conspiracist, Islamophobe, racist, extremist, and virtually every other pejorative epithet one might imagine. During much of that time his accusers — in government and the press — were engaging in a vicious game of hit and run, making outrageous charges based on “evidence” that they refused to release on the pretext of “national security.” Except that government officials repeatedly and illegally leaked the same phony “evidence” to the media to poison public opinion against him and deny him due process and a fair trial.

But, at long last, General Flynn is getting a chance to fight back. He is telling his story and awakening a huge swath of the American public to the chilling truth of just how close we are to losing our freedom. He has traveled the country with his new documentary, Flynn: Deliver the Truth. Whatever the Cost, speaking to overflow crowds about the real existence of a Deep State cabal that is perilously close to carrying out a full-fledged coup and imposing a communist-style dictatorship on America.

The nonstop attacks on Flynn are, of course, inextricably intertwined with the nonstop schemes to take down Donald Trump. And they involve the same rogues’ gallery of familiar names: Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Jake Sullivan, James Comey, James Clapper, John Brennan, Sally Yates, Robert Mueller, Peter Strzok, Andrew McCabe, Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and many more of the usual suspects. They also involve many lesser-known names whose criminal activities deserve to be more widely exposed — and prosecuted.

Stellar career: Lieutenant General Michael Flynn accrued a brilliant record as a combat soldier, commander, and intelligence officer, capped with his appointment as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. (Flynn: Deliver the Truth. Whatever the Cost.)

Prime Target

What caused Deep State operatives in the Obama administration to make Flynn the prime target in the Trump takedown coup? According to Trump, in his first meeting as president-elect with then-President Obama at the White House two days after the 2016 election, Obama warned him about two things: North Korea’s communist dictator Kim Jong Un and General Michael Flynn. The Associated Press reported: “Of all the [sic] Trump’s choices, White House officials said it was the selection of Flynn that felt like the most devastating blow.” Astounding! By what strange calculus would Obama equate Flynn with a murderous communist such as Kim Jong Un? And why would Team Obama consider the selection of Flynn as national security advisor “the most devastating blow”?

The reason is obvious: Flynn had that rare combination of integrity, courage, experience, and knowledge, and posed an existential threat to the globalist New World Order of the Uniparty swamp creatures that have been directing America’s ruinous path for most of the past century. As a former director of the DIA, he was intimately familiar with the subversive forces directing the illegal, immoral, and unconstitutional operations of the intelligence community. As Trump’s NSA he would be uniquely positioned to expose the Deep State and help the new president follow through on his pledge to “drain the swamp.”

As national security advisor, Flynn would be the only senior member of the incoming administration not subject to Senate confirmation — which meant that Chuck Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, and the rest of the Democratic hyena pack in the Senate would not be able to derail his appointment. As an outsider, Trump desperately needed someone of Flynn’s caliber, conviction, and experience to help wend his way through the D.C. den of vipers and provide counsel on strategy, policy, and appointments.

The Obama Deep Staters were well aware of Flynn’s capabilities. President Obama had appointed him as assistant director of national intelligence in 2011, and in 2012 nominated him as director of the DIA. Why? Well, first, Flynn was a registered, lifelong “Democrat.” Unfortunately for Team Obama, they didn’t realize he was an “old school” Democrat: Irish Catholic, patriotic, pro-life, pro-gun, pro-American, pro-Constitution, and anti-communist. Flynn also had a gold-star résumé of more than three decades of unblemished service. Admiral Mike Rogers, President Obama’s director of the NSA, praised Flynn as “the best intelligence officer of the past 20 years.” Retired four-star General Barry McCaffrey, an adamant never-Trumper, says “Mike Flynn is the best intelligence officer of his generation.” But it was this excellence combined with his hard-nosed truth-telling that put him at odds with the Obama White House and its globalist minions at the Pentagon, the State Department, and the intelligence community. Flynn repeatedly bucked the contrived, politically correct “consensus” on terrorism, ISIS, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Islamic extremism, and other vital national security issues. Time after time, he was proven correct. But the powers that be didn’t want correct, they wanted politically correct.

In 2014, he was forced out of his DIA post and announced his retirement, after 33 years of distinguished service. The knives were already out. The press, which had been singing his praises for years, would now begin claiming he was fired due to vague charges of “bad management style,” “abuse of staff,” “uncooperative attitude,” and the like.

“Russia, Russia, Russia”: Stacking the Deck

However, those attacks on his character and record were minor-league stuff compared to what was coming. Flynn was at the center of “Crossfire Hurricane,” the code name for the completely unsubstantiated, fabricated FBI “investigation” into the false claims of “Trump-Russia collusion.” During the 2016 election season, Flynn became a high-profile personality in the Trump campaign entourage. Trump put him on his short list of four top options for the slot as vice-presidential candidate. The FBI opened a separate “investigation” into Flynn code-named “Crossfire Razor,” which the FBI’s own reports note failed to turn up anything negative.

On November 18, 2016, 10 days after the election, Flynn accepted President-elect Trump’s invitation to become his national security advisor. As is expected of an incoming NSA, and as previous national security advisors (both Democratic and Republican) routinely have done, Flynn contacted dozens of counterparts in dozens of countries to establish the transition. Little did he suspect that all hell was about to break loose over a series of brief nothingburger calls and texts to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

On January 12, 2017, Washington Post writer David Ignatius ambushed Trump and Flynn with a leak about the supposedly nefarious December 29, 2016 call between Flynn and Kislyak. It was the first public mention of the call, and was obviously planted by the intelligence community to discredit Flynn and sabotage Trump. Ignatius has long been known as the favorite go-to guy for leaking strategic misinformation/disinformation of the Deep State’s intelligence community. And The Washington Post has long been one of the CIA/FBI’s chief propaganda spigots, an honor it shares with The New York Times.

As intended, the WaPo/Ignatius piece set off a media frenzy that transformed the completely innocent Flynn-Kislyak conversation into a pearl-clutching political extravaganza of disinformation that continues to this day. While the Department of Justice, populated with many anti-Trump holdovers from the Obama administration, illegally refused to release exculpatory documents requested by Flynn’s attorneys and to which Flynn was entitled, they were illegally leaking those same documents to media outlets they knew they could rely upon to spin the evidence against Flynn and Trump. The outrageous lies have been repeated so often that they have become “fact” in the minds of many.

Consider, for instance, the very first sentence of the entry on Flynn at popular reference source Wikipedia, which describes him as a “pardoned felon,” even though he was never convicted of anything, let alone a felony. And that is but one example of a litany of falsehoods, misinformation, and malicious innuendo that is passed off as balanced and authoritative reporting on Flynn at Wikipedia. As such, it reflects the overwhelming bias of the anti-Trump/anti-Flynn legacy media outlets on which Wikipedia relies.

The Flynn case also illustrates in spades the frightening extent of the corruption and conspiracy throughout America’s institutional power structures. Our constitutional checks and balances, the separation of powers, and the rule of law have been largely eviscerated. As we will detail below, the federal prosecutors, the courts, and the jury pool in the Flynn case were subverted. And of course the corporate media, which should have been in the forefront fighting and exposing this Orwellian persecution of a truth-telling warrior, was aiding and abetting his persecutors.

Out of step: Then-Defense Intelligence Agency Director Flynn is shown at an April 11, 2013, Senate Intelligence Committee hearing with (left to right) then-FBI Director Robert Mueller, National Intelligence Director James Clapper, and CIA Director John Brennan. Mueller, Clapper, and Brennan became key conspirators in the coup attempt against President Trump. (AP Images)

Setting the Trap

It is now not a matter of speculation or wild “conspiracy theory” to state that there was no legitimate predicate for “investigating” Flynn, and that he was set up. That he was ambushed by Jim Comey’s FBI is now established fact, substantiated by numerous admissions, as well as by documents that were previously hidden by the government or so heavily redacted as to obstruct Flynn’s defense and the public’s right to know. In fact, there has been such a volume of shocking revelations over the past seven years that it is difficult to keep them all straight, and impossible to cite more than a small fraction of them in the space here allotted.

Below is a sampling of the many truths that have poured forth from the thousands of pages of court filings, inspector general reports, congressional hearings, special counsel reports (Robert Mueller and John Durham), and other official releases of internal DOJ, FBI, and CIA notes, memos, texts, and emails:

• A discredited series of 17 salacious and unverified reports compiled between June and December 2016 — known as the Steele Dossier, after former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele — served as the pretext for opening the investigation into an alleged “conspiracy” among Trump, Flynn, and other Trump associates with Russia, even though it was facially obvious (and later proven) that the “dossier” was a political ploy orchestrated and paid for by Trump’s political opponents (Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee) and the intelligence community.

One of the Steele reports alleged that “an ethnic Russian close associate of Republican US presidential candidate Donald TRUMP, admitted that there was a well-developed conspiracy of co-operation between them and the Russian leadership” to allegedly hurt Hillary Clinton’s campaign and help Donald Trump’s.

The bogus Steele reports served as the hook to create the “Trump-Russia collusion” narrative and justify the illegal spying by the FBI/DOJ on Flynn, Trump, and those associated with Trump, and their subsequent prosecution/persecution of the same. However, after months of digging, the government was unable to find any substance to the Steele allegations, as admitted by many FBI agents and intelligence officials in their notes and in their testimony before congressional committees and in interviews with special counsel Robert Mueller.

• William Barnett, a lead FBI investigator on the Mueller probe, stated in a DOJ interview that they had turned up “little detail concerning specific evidence of criminal events,” and that he was of the opinion the “prosecution of Flynn by [Mueller] was used as a means to ‘get TRUMP.’”

• The Crossfire Razor investigation of Flynn was scheduled to be closed in December 2016, since it had uncovered “no derogatory information.” However, the December 29 Flynn-Kislyak telephone call, threadbare as it was, provided a pretext for continuing the fishing expedition and propaganda campaign.

• On January 5, 2017, two weeks before President Trump’s inauguration, President Obama held a meeting at the Oval Office to reignite the Flynn investigation as a means to blindside and cripple Trump. At the meeting were Vice President Joe Biden, FBI Director James Comey, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, CIA Director John Brennan, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and National Security Advisor Susan Rice. They agreed not to inform the incoming Trump administration about the Crossfire investigations. Later on, some of the participants would waffle on this issue and argue in favor of going “by the book” and following the standard procedure of informing the new administration.

• At a January 10, 2017, Oval Office follow-up meeting, according to notes taken by attendee FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok, the group was in agreement that General Flynn’s actions with regard to Kislyak were “legit.” They had a transcript of the call, which had been recorded by the National Security Agency. Despite this consensus that Flynn had done nothing criminal or improper, Vice President Biden suggested that Flynn possibly could be prosecuted under the Logan Act, which had been enacted during the presidency of John Adams. The Logan Act prohibits negotiation by private U.S. citizens with a foreign government with which the United States is in dispute. Controversial since its enactment more than two centuries ago, it has rarely been used, and no one has ever been successfully prosecuted under it.

• The consensus of the Oval Office group was that prosecuting Flynn under the Logan Act was not a viable option, as he had done nothing wrong. However, they were not averse to leaking the idea to the press — which is what they did, causing breathless “news” cycles about the supposed dangers to the Republic from Flynn’s alleged Logan Act violations.

Ambushing Flynn — Again and Again

Team Obama’s default move was to go with the FBI/DOJ’s favored standby method for dealing with subjects being targeted for elimination: Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 1001. Noted white-collar-crime defense attorney and media commentator Solomon Wisenberg explains, “Did you know that it is a crime to tell a lie to the federal government? Even if your lie is oral and not under oath? Even if you have received no warnings of any kind? Even if you are not trying to cheat the government out of money? Even if the government is not actually misled by your falsehood? Well it is.”

Title 18, U.S.C., S. 1001, Wisenberg notes, “makes it a crime to: 1) knowingly and willfully; 2) make any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation; 3) in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative or judicial branch of the United States. Your lie does not even have to be made directly to an employee of the national government, as long as it is ‘within the jurisdiction’ of the ever-expanding federal bureaucracy.” That’s pretty comprehensive, and very scary. It is a popular entrapment tool utilized not only by the DOJ, FBI, and other intelligence and law-enforcement agencies, but also by the IRS and the myriad federal regulatory agencies that now plague our existence. This is why experienced counselors such as Wisenberg advise against agreeing to any interview with any federal agent in the absence of an attorney.

There can be no doubt that the Obama DOJ/FBI schemed to entrap Flynn from the get-go. How do we know? It’s documented in their own words and actions. They seem to have been unanimous in their desire to “get” Trump, with no apparent ethical qualms expressed. However, arguments did erupt over potential legal ramifications. Some of the co-conspirators were more wary than others about protecting themselves against possible civil and criminal penalties for their contemplated course of action.Let’s take a look:

• FBI Assistant Director Bill Priestap is one of the few who expressed second thoughts about the Flynn entrapment plan. His notes from an FBI meeting held on January 24, 2017, show him asking whether the FBI’s goal in this case is to get the truth, or to “get [Flynn] to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?” Priestap warned that such “games” posed a danger to the credibility of the FBI as an institution.

• FBI Director Comey decided to send agents for a friendly “interview” with Flynn about Kislyak. As noted above, the FBI/DOJ already had the Flynn/Kislyak transcript, knew the call was “legit,” and had deviously leaked the transcript to their allies in the press (while refusing to provide the same to the new administration). So the only possible explanation for the “interview” was that they intended to trap him in a prosecutable “lie,” which could be even a single harmless, imprecise, and immaterial statement. They had the transcript; Flynn was merely going from memory.

• Ignoring the advice of an FBI attorney, Comey insisted that the Flynn interview be done in violation of the standard procedure of going through the Office of White House Counsel. He knew that if he followed procedure, the White House might either deny permission for the interview or insist on Flynn being accompanied by counsel. Either way would foil the entrapment plans.

• Comey had FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe call General Flynn on January 24, 2017 to set Flynn up for the kill, presenting the “interview” as an informal, friendly meeting that was intended to quell the media kerfuffle (which Team Obama had created) over Kislyak. That same day, McCabe sent FBI counterintelligence agents Peter Strzok and Joe Pientka to interview Flynn at his office in the White House. Neither agent informed Flynn that he was under investigation or that his statements could, and likely would, be used against him in a criminal prosecution.

• According to filings by Flynn’s second defense team, Acting Attorney General Sally Yates was “flabbergasted and dumbfounded” by Comey’s actions, and “other DOJ leadership hit the roof” upon hearing of the unauthorized interview.

• On January 20, 2017, only minutes before the White House would be relinquished to President Trump, Obama’s National Security Advisor Susan Rice sent what became known as her “infamous CYA email” to herself and all participants in the January 5 Oval Office meeting. Her email claimed that President Obama had three times asserted that all Crossfire Hurricane/Razor investigations be done “by the book.” It was obviously a last-ditch effort to provide a semblance of propriety to their activities and protect themselves against possible future legal action.

It was unwise of General Flynn to have accepted the FBI “invitation” for a friendly chat, considering the high stakes involved and the scheming snakes with which he was dealing. Nevertheless, Agents Strzok and Pientka reported back that Flynn appeared to view them as allies; exhibited a sure, unguarded demeanor; and gave no indicators of deception. Both agents expressed the opinion that Flynn had told no lies.

• Agents Strzok and Pientka had made multiple false statements (a felony offense) to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in order to secure surveillance warrants.

• In violation of FBI regulations requiring interview notes to be submitted within five days of the interview, Strzok took three weeks to doctor the Flynn interview notes. Also in violation of regulations, Strzok consulted FBI lawyer Lisa Page (with whom he was having an adulterous affair) on how to “edit” the Flynn notes. Strzok and Page would become infamous when their texts and emails later revealed their hatred for Donald Trump and their intentions and efforts to prevent him from becoming president, and, later, their efforts to sabotage his presidency.

• Andrew McCabe, who supervised Strzok and Page, is a Democratic Party stalwart who came under an ethics probe for violation of the Hatch Act regarding his involvement in his wife’s failed political campaign as a Democrat for the state Senate in Virginia. His wife, Jill McCabe, was closely allied with, and heavily funded by, longtime Clinton ally Terry McAuliffe. McCabe, along with Comey, came under fire for going easy on Hillary Clinton during her email/national security scandal, in contrast to their treatment of Flynn and other Trump associates.

• During a December 2018 interview with NBC News’ Nicolle Wallace, Comey admitted that he probably wouldn’t have “gotten away with” sending FBI agents to the White House to interrogate a senior official without notice in a “more organized” administration. Comey appeared to be boasting about his cunning in taking advantage of the usual disorder in the early days of a White House transition.

Fighting Irish, family strength: Flynn and his wife, Lori, arrive at federal court on December 18, 2018. Flynn’s eight siblings and extended family rallied to his aid in his battle against the overwhelming forces of the federal government and the hostile corporate media. (AP Images)

“But He Lied”

On May 17, 2017, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed former FBI head Robert Mueller to serve as special counsel to oversee the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Mueller and his team, which was loaded with anti-Trump “investigators” (including Peter Strzok), knew that Strzok and Pientka had characterized Flynn’s interview responses as truthful. They also knew that the participants in the January 5 Oval Office meeting had agreed that Flynn’s call with Kislyak was “legit.” Nevertheless, in order to get Trump, they were laser-focused on destroying Flynn. How could they do that, since he hadn’t lied in his FBI “interview”? Here’s how it played out:

• Following his retirement, Flynn had formed a consultancy company with his son, Michael Flynn, Jr. One of their clients was a private Turkish company. The Mueller team falsely alleged that the Flynns were in violation of the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) by failing to register as foreign agents. They threatened to prosecute his son, who was the father of a new baby, if General Flynn did not cop to a plea of lying to the FBI.

• If General Flynn had had proper legal counsel, he would not have caved to such extortion. However, he was relying on the prominent legal firm Covington & Burling, whose lawyers persuaded him the plea deal was his only option if he wanted to spare his son from a prison term. But Covington had a fatal conflict of interest in the matter, since they had prepared the Flynns’ company affairs and would be financially impacted if it became public that they had violated FARA. It is not clear whether the Covington attorneys were working with the DOJ/FBI/Mueller team from the start, or whether the feds used the FARA leverage to get them to go along with railroading Flynn. Either way, they threw Flynn under the bus.

• Flynn sensed something was wrong with the Covington-Mueller relationship and tried to get his Covington lawyers to fight the plea deal. One of the most egregious aspects of the affair was that, in violation of federal rules, Covington and Mueller had hidden from the court the fact that the plea deal had been arranged by use of duress, i.e., the threat of prosecution of Flynn’s son. That fact did not come out until Flynn fired his Covington attorneys and brought in Sidney Powell and Jesse Binnall for his legal team.

• The DOJ appointed U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen to independently assess the Flynn case. Jensen found that, in view of the many prosecutorial abuses and the lack of evidence of a crime, the case should be dismissed. However, activist Judge Emmet Sullivan, who was presiding over the case, did not want to let it go. He had intemperately denounced Flynn in court so vociferously that it had shocked even the prosecution.

• General Flynn had earlier rejected an offer of a pardon from President Trump, since it would imply an admission of guilt. However, the 2020 election got closer and it became evident that even if the case was successfully dismissed, the feds likely would reopen it and start the crucifixion all over again. Reluctantly, he accepted a “Pardon of Innocence” from President Trump.

The Real Liars and Conspirators

As noted above, it is the federal agents and officials who accused Flynn of lying and conspiring who are the real liars and conspirators. In Flynn’s case and Crossfire Razor alone there are many additional examples that could be cited. They tried to destroy his family and career and throw him in prison on false charges. What about the real crimes committed by his persecutors? Were any of them punished? Many of them admitted to lying to federal investigators. Were they prosecuted under 18 U.S.C., S. 1001? Hah! Except for lower-level FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith (who was sentenced to probation and community service), they got off scot-free.

As government officials, their criminal abuse of office is far more atrocious than a similar action by a private citizen. They should be prosecuted under the federal “color of law” statute, 18 U.S.C., S. 242. That law provides that “Whoever, under color of any law … willfully subjects any person … to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States … shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.”

When the Justice Department decided to drop charges against General Flynn, ex-President Obama declared that “The rule of law is at risk.” In truth, it is the lying criminals in the Obama-Biden administration who trampled the rule of law and who deserve vigorous prosecution.

William F. Jasper

Senior editor William F. Jasper is an author/journalist/commentator/documentary producer with a well-earned reputation as one of America’s top investigative reporters, most renowned for his in-depth, years-long investigation of the Oklahoma City bombing and its aftermath. For more than three decades he served as an accredited correspondent at the United Nations in New York and UN summits around the world.

Published with permission of thenewamerican.com