Michael Thomas Flynn was born on December 24,1958 and is a retired United States Army lieutenant general who was the 24th US National Security Advisor for the first 22 days of the Trump administration.
110 Facts About Michael Flynn
2.
Michael Flynn resigned in light of reports that he had lied regarding conversations with Sergey Kislyak.
3.
Michael Flynn became the 18th director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in July 2012 until his forced retirement from the military in August 2014.
4.
In December 2015, Michael Flynn was paid $45,000 to deliver a Moscow speech at the ten-year anniversary celebration of RT, a state-controlled Russian international television network, where he sat next to Russian president Vladimir Putin at his banquet table.
5.
In February 2016, Michael Flynn became a national security advisor to Trump for his 2016 presidential campaign.
6.
In March 2017, Michael Flynn retroactively registered as a foreign agent, acknowledging that in 2016 he had conducted paid lobbying work that may have benefited Turkey's government.
7.
On January 22,2017, Michael Flynn was sworn in as the National Security Advisor.
8.
In December 2017, Michael Flynn formalized a deal with Special Counsel Robert Mueller to plead guilty to a felony count of "willfully and knowingly" making false statements to the FBI about the Kislyak communications, and agreed to cooperate with the Special Counsel's investigation.
9.
In June 2019, Michael Flynn dismissed his attorneys and retained Sidney Powell, who on the same day wrote to attorney general Bill Barr seeking his assistance in exonerating Michael Flynn.
10.
On November 25,2020, Michael Flynn was issued a presidential pardon by Trump.
11.
On December 8,2020, Judge Sullivan dismissed the criminal case against Michael Flynn, stating he probably would have denied the Justice Department motion to drop the case.
12.
On July 4,2020, Michael Flynn pledged an oath to the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory, and as Trump sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in which he was defeated, Michael Flynn suggested the president should suspend the Constitution, silence the press, and hold a new election under military authority.
13.
Michael Flynn later met with Trump and their attorney Powell in the Oval Office to discuss the president's options.
14.
Michael Flynn has since become a prominent leader in a Christian nationalist movement, organizing and recruiting for what he characterizes as a spiritual and political war.
15.
Michael Thomas Flynn was born and raised in Middletown, Rhode Island, one of nine siblings born to Helen Frances, who worked in real estate, and Charles Francis Flynn, a small-town banker, both Catholics of Irish descent.
16.
Michael Flynn served time in juvenile detention for what he has described as "serious and unlawful activity" in his youth, the records of which were expunged after he served a year of supervised probation.
17.
Michael Flynn attended the University of Rhode Island where he initially struggled academically, earning a 1.2 GPA during his freshman year, however he was later awarded a three-year scholarship by the Reserve Officers' Training Corps and ultimately decided not to drop out.
18.
Michael Flynn graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in management science in 1981 and was a Distinguished Military Graduate of the ROTC.
19.
Michael Flynn later earned a Master of Business Administration in Telecommunications from Golden Gate University, a Master 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.
20.
Michael Flynn is a graduate of the Military Intelligence Officer Basic Course, Ranger School, Military Intelligence Officer Advanced Course, Army Command and General Staff College, the School of Advanced Military Studies, and Naval War College.
21.
Michael Flynn was commissioned in the US Army as a second lieutenant in military intelligence in 1981.
22.
Michael Flynn served with the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and the Army Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
23.
Michael Flynn served as the assistant chief of staff, G2, XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, from June 2001 and the director of intelligence at the Joint Task Force 180 in Afghanistan until July 2002.
24.
Michael Flynn commanded the 111th Military Intelligence Brigade from June 2002 to June 2004 and was the director of intelligence for Joint Special Operations Command from July 2004 to June 2007, with service in Afghanistan and the Iraq War.
25.
Michael Flynn served as the director of intelligence of the United States Central Command from June 2007 to July 2008, as the director of intelligence of the Joint Staff from July 2008 to June 2009, then the director of intelligence of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan from June 2009 to October 2010.
26.
Michael Flynn was reprimanded for sharing classified US intelligence information on the Haqqani network to Pakistani officials in 2009 or 2010.
27.
On November 10,2015, Michael Flynn gave an interview to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction Lessons Learned project.
28.
In September 2011, Michael Flynn was promoted to Lieutenant General and assigned as assistant director of national intelligence in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
29.
Michael Flynn simultaneously became commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, and chair of the Military Intelligence Board.
30.
In October 2012, Michael Flynn announced plans to release his paper "VISION2020: Accelerating Change Through Integration", a look at changes he believes are necessary for the DIA in the future.
31.
In June 2013, Michael Flynn became the first US officer to be allowed inside the Russian military intelligence headquarters in Moscow, where he arrived at the invitation of the GRU chief General Igor Sergun.
32.
Michael Flynn wanted to invite high-ranking GRU officials to the US, but this idea was rejected by the director of national intelligence, James Clapper.
33.
Michael Flynn was reportedly effectively forced out of the DIA after clashing with superiors over his allegedly chaotic management style and vision for the agency.
34.
Michael Flynn retired from the US Army with 33 years of service on August 7,2014.
35.
Michael Flynn was founded in the fall of 2014, restarted in June 2015 as a Delaware company, and closed in 2016.
36.
Michael Flynn was paid more than $65,000 by companies connected to Russia in 2015, including $11,250 each from Volga-Dnepr Airlines and the US subsidiary of Kaspersky Lab.
37.
In July 2018, the consulting firm Stonington Global LLC announced that Michael Flynn was joining the firm as its director of global strategy, though Michael Flynn's attorneys disputed that there had ever been a partnership several hours later.
38.
Michael Flynn has links to President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
39.
Michael Flynn was paid $530,000 by Alptekin for Michael Flynn's lobbying work.
40.
Michael Flynn only registered as a foreign agent with the Justice Department later on March 8,2017, for the work completed by November 2016.
41.
On November 8,2016, an op-ed written by Michael Flynn was published by The Hill, now calling for US backing for Erdogan's government and criticizing the regime's opponent, Fethullah Gulen, alleging that Gulen headed a "vast global network" that fit the description of "a dangerous sleeper terror network".
42.
At the time, Michael Flynn did not disclose that his consulting firm had received funds from a company with ties to the Turkish government.
43.
On March 24,2017, former Director of the CIA James Woolsey said that in September 2016 Michael Flynn, while working for the Trump presidential campaign, had attended a meeting in a New York hotel with Turkish officials including foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and energy minister Berat Albayrak, son-in-law of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and had discussed abducting Fethullah Gulen and sending him to Turkey, bypassing the US extradition legal process.
44.
Michael Flynn sat in on classified national security briefings with then-candidate Trump at the same time that Michael Flynn was working for foreign clients, which raises ethical concerns and conflicts of interest.
45.
Michael Flynn was paid at least $5,000 to serve as a consultant to a US-Russian project to build 40 nuclear reactors across the Middle East, which Michael Flynn's failure to disclose was flagged by Representatives Elijah Cummings and Eliot Engel as a possible violation of federal law.
46.
On December 10,2015, Michael Flynn attended a gala dinner in Moscow in honor of RT, a Russian government-owned English-language media outlet, on which he made semi-regular appearances as an analyst after he retired from US government service.
47.
The legislators expressed concern that Michael Flynn had violated the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the US Constitution by accepting money from RT.
48.
Glenn A Fine, the acting Defense Department Inspector General, confirmed an investigation of Flynn was opened in April 2017, though it was placed on hold for more than three years while the Justice Department prosecuted Flynn on unrelated charges.
49.
Michael Flynn was found to have violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which applies to military retirees.
50.
In July 2016, it was reported he was being considered as Trump's running mate; Michael Flynn later confirmed that he had submitted vetting documents to the campaign and, although a registered Democrat, was willing to accept the Republican vice-presidential nomination if chosen.
51.
Six days after the speech, Michael Flynn stirred up a controversy by retweeting anti-Semitic remarks, which he later apologized for and claimed were unintentional.
52.
Michael Flynn was once opposed to waterboarding and other torture techniques that have now been banned.
53.
The Trump transition team during the campaign, chaired by Chris Christie, opposed Michael Flynn serving as National Security Adviser or in any other high-level position because he was viewed as "a loose cannon".
54.
On November 18,2016, Michael Flynn accepted Trump's offer for the position of National Security Advisor.
55.
On January 4,2017, Michael Flynn informed transition team counsel Don McGahn, soon to become the White House Counsel, that he was under federal investigation for secret lobbying work he had done for Turkey during the campaign.
56.
Trump later questioned in May 2019 why he had not been told Michael Flynn was under investigation so he could have removed Michael Flynn from his team.
57.
Sean Spicer questioned why the Obama administration, if they believed Michael Flynn to be a national-security risk, had failed to revoke Michael Flynn's security clearance.
58.
In December 2016, Michael Flynn met with Heinz-Christian Strache, leader of the right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria, at Trump Tower in New York.
59.
Ten days before the inauguration of Donald Trump, Michael Flynn told then-National Security Advisor Susan Rice not to proceed with a planned invasion of Raqqa using Kurdish People's Protection Units.
60.
On November 30,2016, Michael Flynn joined a meeting between Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner and Kislyak at Trump Tower.
61.
Kislyak wanted Russian generals to discuss the topic of American policy in Syria with the Trump transition team on a secure channel; however, Michael Flynn said the Trump transition team did not possess such channels in their offices.
62.
Trump and his transition team feared that the sanctions would damage Russia-US relations, and Michael Flynn spoke with Kislyak that day, urging Russia to only respond in a "reciprocal" manner to the sanctions and not escalate.
63.
McFarland to lie to The Washington Post that Michael Flynn had not discussed the sanctions with Kislyak; McFarland did this, knowing it was false, and The Washington Post reported the denial.
64.
Michael Flynn proceeded to lie about not discussing the sanctions with Kislyak to incoming chief-of-staff Reince Priebus, incoming press secretary Sean Spicer, and Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who repeated Michael Flynn's falsehood to the media.
65.
Per policy regarding American persons, Michael Flynn's identity was masked before accounts of his conversations were distributed to high-level government officials.
66.
Some officials, notably national security advisor Susan Rice, were so concerned by the accounts that they requested Michael Flynn's identity be unmasked, per procedure.
67.
Michael Flynn stated that John Durham, whom Barr had appointed to investigate the origins of the FBI Crossfire Hurricane investigation, had been examining the unmasking issue.
68.
When he was national security adviser, Michael Flynn urged the US Department of Defense to set up a military communication channel with Russia to protect American and Russian air forces from each other in Syria, and possibly cooperate to take on the Islamic State, reported The Daily Beast website in July 2017.
69.
Yates told McGahn that Michael Flynn had misled Pence and other administration officials about the nature of his conversations with Kislyak and was possibly open to blackmail by the Russians.
70.
On February 9,2017, The Washington Post broke the story that Michael Flynn had discussed the US sanctions with Kislyak, contrary to the public denials made by the Trump administration, citing "nine current and former officials".
71.
Michael Flynn gave denials despite The Washington Post journalist Karen DeYoung informing him that officials "have listened to the intercepts" of his calls with Kislyak.
72.
Michael Flynn told the White House officials he "either was not sure whether he discussed sanctions or did not remember doing so".
73.
The propriety, and even the legality, of these words that Trump reportedly said to Comey about Michael Flynn have become a subject of considerable public debate.
74.
Several months after dismissing Michael Flynn, Trump dismissed Comey, which Comey attributed to the FBI's Russia investigation.
75.
Michael Flynn had offered to testify to the FBI or the Senate and House Intelligence committees relating to the Russia probe in exchange for immunity from criminal prosecution.
76.
However, the Senate Intelligence Committee rejected Michael Flynn's offer for testimony in exchange for immunity.
77.
Michael 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 struck a compromise.
78.
The Pentagon inspector general was investigating whether Michael Flynn accepted money from foreign governments without the required approval.
79.
Michael Flynn's firm was paid more than $500,000 by Inovo, a Netherlands firm owned by Turkish businessman Kamil Ekim Alptekin, for work which included investigating Gulen.
80.
On November 23,2017, it was reported that Michael Flynn's lawyers notified Trump's legal team they could no longer discuss anything regarding Mueller's investigation, suggesting Michael Flynn may have been cooperating with prosecutors or negotiating a deal.
81.
Michael Flynn's sentencing had been deferred several times, most recently on November 27,2019 and February 10,2020.
82.
Michael Flynn's attorneys submitted a sentencing memo on December 11,2018, requesting leniency and suggesting FBI agents had tricked him into lying during the January 24,2017, White House interview and did not advise him that lying to federal agents is a felony.
83.
The memo asserted that Michael Flynn's relaxed behavior during the interview indicated he was being truthful.
84.
FBI agents concluded that Michael Flynn's relaxed behavior during the interview was actually because he was fully committed to his lies.
85.
Mueller's office documented instances when Michael Flynn lied about the Kislyak conversation during the days before the FBI interview.
86.
Michael Flynn asked several questions of Flynn's attorney, Robert Kelner, to determine if the defense was maintaining that the FBI had acted improperly in its investigation of Flynn, including whether he had been entrapped.
87.
Michael Flynn restated his guilty plea, and acknowledged to Sullivan he was aware that lying to federal investigators was a crime at the time of his initial FBI interview in January 2017.
88.
On January 7,2020, prosecutors presented a sentencing memo calling for Michael Flynn to be sentenced to a term of up to six months.
89.
On January 29,2020, Michael Flynn filed a personal declaration with the court, declaring under penalty of perjury that he was innocent, that he still didn't remember whether he had discussed sanctions with Kislyak or the details of their discussion of the United Nations vote on Israel, that his Covington attorneys had not provided effective counsel, and that he "did not consciously or intentionally lie" to the FBI agents who had interviewed him.
90.
Days before Michael Flynn's scheduled sentencing, attorney general William Barr appointed Jeffrey Jensen, the US attorney for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, to examine Michael Flynn's prosecution.
91.
On February 10,2020, Michael Flynn's sentencing was postponed indefinitely, to allow both sides to prepare arguments in response to his claim that his previous lawyers violated his constitutional rights by providing inadequate legal counsel.
92.
The motion, filed by Timothy Shea, interim United States Attorney for the District of Columbia and a longtime adviser of Barr's, stated that Michael Flynn's questioning "was untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI's counterintelligence investigation".
93.
On May 19,2020, Michael Flynn filed an Emergency Petition for a Writ of Mandamus in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit requesting a writ ordering the district court to grant the government's Motion to Dismiss with prejudice, vacate its order appointing an amicus curiae, and assign the case to another judge for any additional proceedings.
94.
Amid speculation that Michael Flynn might be selected as Trump's 2016 running mate, he discussed his registration as a Democrat, stating "I grew up as a Democrat in a very strong Democratic family, but I will tell you that Democratic Party that exists in this country is not the Democratic Party that I grew up around in my upbringing", and declined to say whether his affiliation had changed.
95.
Michael Flynn was a headlining speaker during the first night of the 2016 Republican National Convention, and he was a surrogate and top national security adviser for President Donald Trump.
96.
The next day, Michael Flynn said on Fox News that he is a "pro-life Democrat".
97.
Michael Flynn is an opponent of the Iran nuclear deal.
98.
Michael Flynn accused Yemen's Houthi rebels of being one of Iran's "proxy terrorist groups" in February 2017.
99.
Michael Flynn criticized Obama's administration for arming Syrian rebels linked to Salafi jihadism.
100.
Michael Flynn has said the US "should extradite Fethullah Gulen" to Turkey and "work constructively with Russia" in Syria.
101.
Michael Flynn was a scheduled speaker for a "Digital Soldiers Conference" in Atlanta in September 2019, along with other Trump associates George Papadopoulos and Gina Loudon.
102.
On Independence Day 2020, Michael Flynn tweeted a video of himself leading others in an oath to QAnon.
103.
In May 2021, Michael 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.
104.
Michael Flynn became active on speaking tours in 2021, including the ReAwaken America Tour which Michael Flynn helped launch.
105.
Some QAnon supporters alleged the prayer was Satanic because Michael Flynn used terms they considered antithetical to Christian doctrine.
106.
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.
107.
Reuters reported in December 2021 that Michael Flynn and associated military-intelligence veterans played a central role in spreading false information alleging the 2020 election had been stolen from Trump.
108.
Michael 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 repeatedly exercised his Fifth Amendment right to not answer questions.
109.
Michael 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.
110.
Flynn is 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.