Michael Flynn Is Suing The Government for $50 Million
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Former Trump National Security Advisor and retired US. Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn is suing the U.S. government on grounds of wrongful prosecution, according to a new legal filing obtained by Rolling Stone. He is seeking $50 million in damages.
The lawsuit stems from a 2016 FBI investigation during the Obama administration over Flynn’s suspected ties to Russia. In 2017, Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI regarding his association with Russian contacts. Shortly after the 2020 election, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) received a pardon from Trump.
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“This lawsuit seeks accountability and damages against the United States for these wrongs committed against General Flynn through its agents and agencies,” reads the filing, calling his prosecution “wrongful and malicious” and a “gross abuse of process.”
The filing states that as a result of the government’s actions Flynn was “falsely branded as a traitor to his country, lost at least tens of millions of dollars of business opportunities and future lifetime earning potential, [and] was maliciously prosecuted and spent substantial monies in his own defense.”
The filing seeks compensatory damages to an amount “expected to exceed $50,000,000.00.”
Defendants named in the filing include the Department of Justice, FBI, former Special Counsel Robert Muller, former FBI Director James Comey, and former FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. The suit argues that Flynn was unfairly targeted by federal investigators because of his “lawful association with the 2016 Presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump and his position as National Security Advisor in the Trump Administration.”
The suit also paints Flynn as a “hands-on disruptor at DIA” who had publicly criticized the “the politicization of the intelligence community.” The filing alleges that the FBI and prosecutors working under special counsel Robert Mueller, targeted him for political reasons and considered him a “direct threat” to “exposing their prior and ongoing efforts to derail and discredit President Trump.”
Flynn’s suit also claims that the government coerced him into a plea by threatening prosecution of his son. “As a direct and proximate result of Defendant’s actions, General Flynn suffered harm,” the filing alleges.
Since his departure from the Trump administration Flynn has become a prominent figure within the QAnon conspiracy movement, and a central ally and advocate to Trump’s claims of fraud in the 2020 election.
In the aftermath of Trump’s election loss, Flynn pushed for the Department of Defense to seize ballots, and called for them to intervene in order to prevent Trump’s departure from office. Flynn was subpoenaed by the House Jan. 6 Committee in relation to Flynn’s participation in a Dec. 2021 meeting Trump held at the White House where “participants discussed seizing voting machines, declaring a national emergency, invoking certain national security emergency powers, and continuing to spread the message that the November 2020 election had been tainted by widespread fraud.”
Flynn attempted to counter-sue the committee in an effort to halt their request for his testimony and materials related to his election activity. The lawsuit was rejected, and Flynn ultimately pled the fifth amendment in his testimony to investigators.
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