Donald Trump and his allies raised $250 million for a nonexistent Official Election Defense Fund after the 2020 presidential election, but instead the money went to his newly created Save America PAC. That PAC distributed millions of dollars to pro-Trump organizations, including his own hotel properties and the company that produced the Ellipse rally outside the White House that preceded the attack on the Capitol.
On the last day of his presidency, Trump pardoned former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon after he was charged by federal prosecutors for allegedly defrauding donors to his We Build the Wall Inc., which claimed to be raising money to build a barrier along the border with Mexico. Bannon was indicted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on state charges for allegedly siphoning off money from the fund for his own personal use.
And that brings us to former Trump aide and disgraced retired Gen. Michael Flynn. He had his own legal defense fund set up in September 2017, which was administered by family members. At the time, Flynn was under investigation as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
On Monday, Semafor reported that Flynn and his family kept leftover donations to his legal defense fund:
Members of former Trump aide Michael Flynn’s family pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars in leftover money from a legal defense fund that was set up for the retired general as he faced a federal investigation over the 2016 election, Flynn’s sister testified in a defamation case involving CNN.
Flynn, Trump’s former national security advisor, also sat for a sworn deposition in the case, in which his wife and sister-in-law are accusing CNN of defaming them by associating them with the QAnon conspiracy theory, newly filed documents show. Flynn’s deposition is sealed.
In a filing made public Thursday, CNN asked a federal judge in Florida to dismiss the suit before going to trial. The motion argues the family was connected to QAnon, “exploited” Michael Flynn’s ties to the movement, and fundraised off of its supporters.
In 2020, Flynn posted a 53-second video showing him and members of his family at a Fourth of July barbecue reciting the same oath of office taken by members of Congress, but after finishing the generic oath, Flynn added, “Where we go one, we go all”—a slogan associated with the QAnon movement. His post had the QAnon-linked hashtag #TakeTheOath.
In 2021, CNN ran a report on a QAnon-related conference that used the chyron: “CNN goes inside a gathering of QAnon followers.” It mentioned that Flynn was among those propagating the “Where we go one, we go all” slogan and included a two-second clip (at the 58-second mark) from Flynn’s post of the July 4th barbecue oath-taking.
In early 2022, Flynn’s wife, Lori Flynn, and sister-in-law Valerie Flynn filed a defamation lawsuit in Florida against CNN based on the 2021 report about the meeting of QAnon followers, Semafor reported. They each sought $100 million in damages for being shown in the report and claimed they are not, in fact, QAnon followers.
Flynn’s brother Jack and sister-in-law Leslie have filed a separate defamation lawsuit against CNN seeking $75 million in damages that is now pending before a federal court in New York.
In the lawsuit, Valerie Flynn argued that the CNN report “conveyed the message that Valerie pledged her allegiance to QAnon, and says it links the Flynn family to a ‘violent extremist group,’” Semafor reported.
“In early February 2021, this was a very damaging accusation. It was like calling someone a ‘communist’ in the 1950s or a Nazi sympathizer in the 1940s,” the suit states.
CNN’s filing in response to the lawsuit pointed out that its report on “QAnon followers” never names Lori or Valerie Flynn, and only briefly touches on Michael’s Flynn’s connection to the movement. Semafor wrote:
The filing argues, though, that the family was still connected to QAnon because they “relentlessly fundraised … from the QAnon community” to support Flynn’s legal defense fund from 2018 to 2021.
According to the motion, Flynn’s sister Barbara Flynn Redgate, who was the trustee for the defense fund, testified that she “didn’t mind taking money from people who [used QAnon] hashtags” as long as they were “directing [people] to the legal defense fund.”
After paying Flynn’s lawyers with the legal defense fund money, Barbara testified that she was paid about $265,000, and Michael Flynn was then paid “whatever was [leftover] in the account.” She said that was more than $250,000 but less than $1 million.
CNN declined to comment to Semafor. Jared Roberts, an attorney representing the Flynns, told Semafor on Monday that CNN “has resorted to inappropriate mischaracterization of deposition testimony and the facts.” He said his side will make its response in a brief to the court.
Michael Flynn served briefly as Trump’s national security adviser at the start of his term, but resigned following reports that he had misled White House officials about conversations he had with Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, during the transition period after the 2016 presidential election.
Flynn figured prominently in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election on behalf of Trump. He pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. He later changed his attorney to Sidney Powell. Attorney General William Barr’s Department of Justice moved to dismiss the case in May 2020 before Flynn was sentenced. Trump pardoned Flynn in December 2020.
And what does Flynn really think about QAnon? The Guardian wrote:
Michael Flynn … appears to have called QAnon “total nonsense” and a “disinformation campaign” created by the CIA and the political left – despite his own extensive links to the conspiracy theory and seeming eagerness to serve as its hero.
Flynn’s apparent statement was revealed by Lin Wood, a pro-Trump attorney and QAnon supporter once allied with the disgraced former general.
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