The government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is suing the Department of Defense in hopes of obtaining communication records that may exist showing conversations around the 2021 Capitol attack and involving figures both at the department and outside of it. The latter category includes Michael Flynn.
Flynn, of course, served as Trump’s presidential national security adviser shortly after he took office, but Michael’s stint in that role didn’t last long. CREW outlined allegations pointing to at least the possibility that deploying the D.C. National Guard to the Capitol was delayed because of interest by leadership, particularly Gen. Charles Flynn, in supporting Trump, an ambition that may have been promoted to Charles by his retired brother. The communications that CREW are hoping to obtain were the subject of a previous public records request, but beyond initial information after receiving that request, military authorities haven’t provided the organization with further updates. CREW made its initial request over a year ago, in early 2022.
CREW points to allegations from Col. Earl G. Matthews, who helped lead the D.C. National Guard on the day of the Capitol attack, in making its case there is cause for concern here. “It is speculated that Gen. Flynn’s lies may have been at the instruction of Michael Flynn, Charles A. Flynn’s brother,” the organization added, potentially implicating Michael in not just the initial lack of the needed response but subsequent stonewalling and deception when pressed by oversight authorities. Others whose communications CREW is seeking include Ryan McCarthy, who was Secretary of the Army, and Christopher Miller, who was acting head of the Department of Defense.
“Revealing the truth of DOD’s response to the insurrection and holding its leaders accountable is long overdue,” CREW said. “If the DOD IG’s report on January 6 is characterized by lies, especially at the behest of a former intelligence agent and powerful conspiracy theorist such as Michael Flynn to keep Trump in power, the records of its real response must be made public as urgently as possible.” Michael Flynn was among those prominently promoting baseless conspiracy theories after the last presidential race ended. He even raised the possibility of the military redoing portions of the race — which would obviously amount to a hostile takeover by the country’s armed forces of the democratic process, which isn’t great!
Elsewhere, another brother of Flynn’s and that brother’s wife remain mired in a legal dispute with CNN over contentions about the accuracy of a report from the outlet tying the family to belief in QAnon after they took a video in which Flynn family members, including Michael, recited a slogan regularly used by the group.
