Trump pardoned his former national security advisor before Thanksgiving
Flynn blasted out article by 'We the People Convention' calling for martial law
It called for Trump to 'immediately declare a limited form of Martial Law'
Wants to 'suspend the Constitution and civilian control of these federal elections'
Says only the military can be trusted to carry this out
Comes as AG Bill Barr said there was not evidence of fraud to overturn election
Trump continues to claim without evidence election was 'rigged'
By GEOFF EARLE, DEPUTY U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 2 December 2020
Days after he got a pardon from President Trump, former national security advisor Mike Flynn is calling for the president to declare martial law and have the military conduct a revote of the election he lost to President-elect Joe Biden.
Flynn, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts during the transition, then sought to withdraw his plea, blasted out advertisement that the group We the People Convention printed in the Washington Times.
It urges Trump, who has called the election 'rigged,' to declare a 'limited form of martial law' and have the military – who reports to him directly as commander in chief – conduct the revote.
+6
President Donald Trump's former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who received a pardon last week, blasted out an article calling on Trump to declare martial law
'When the legislators, courts and/or Congress fail to do their duty under the 12th Amendment, you must be ready Mr. President to immediately declare a limited form of Martial Law, and temporarily suspend the Constitution and civilian control of these federal elections, for the sole purpose of having the military oversee a national re-vote,' according to the text, written byTom Zawistowski, who heads the Ohio Tea Party-affiliated group.
It points to President Abraham Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War as an example.
'A vote that assures a fair election in every jurisdiction and reflects the true will of the people. Federal candidates only. Paper ballots. No computers. Hand-counted with both parties watching every vote. Only registered voters. Photo ID to prove residence. Conducted safely with everyone wearing masks and six feet apart, just like we did in Ohio,' he writes.
'Only then can the winning candidate be accepted as legitimate by a true majority of We the People who must give our consent to be justly governed! Unfortunately we are at a point where we can only trust our military to do this because our corrupt political class and courts have proven their inability to act fairly and within the law.'
Trump continues to say the election was 'rigged'
+6
The article by a Tea Party-affiliated group calls on the president to have the military conduct a new election
+6
Flynn tagged his lawyer Sidney Powell as well as White House aide Dan Scavino and media figures who have been sympathetic to Trump
+6
Tom Zawistowki authored the release calling for Trump to declare martial law
Flynn, a retired General who was forced out as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency during the Obama administration, added his own comment: 'Freedom never kneels except for God,' he wrote in a Tweet.
To raise alarm, the article points to 'Democrat/Socialist federal officials plotting to finish gutting the US Constitution after 100 years of trying.'
In making the case to Trump, it echoes the president's own attacks on Big Tech and the media.
'You must also act, like Lincoln did, to silence the destructive media’s one-sided propaganda designed and proven to influence the election outcome, and end the unlawful censorship of Big Tech, to restore the confidence of the American People in our electoral process or we cannot continue as a nation. Failure to do so could result in massive violence and destruction on a level not seen since the Civil War. Limited Martial Law is clearly a better option than Civil War!'
Trump himself has repeatedly refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, although he told reporters in a combative weekend session he would leave the White House if the Electoral College certifies the election for Joe Biden.
'Certainly I will. But you know that,' he said.
Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday the Justice Department has not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
'To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election,' Barr told the AP.
After Trump using his expansive pardon power on Flynn's behalf, the New York Times reported Tuesday he had discussed pardoned for his children as well as for lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
Flynn tagged his lawyer Sidney Powell as well as White House aide Dan Scavino and media figures who have been sympathetic to Trump.
Rachel Vindman, the wife of national security lawyer Col. Alexander Vindman, who was forced out by Trump after impeachment, tweeted in response to Flynn's missive: 'He’s a disgrace to the uniform and, in a broader sense, to all Americans.'
Wrote Trump's niece Mary Trump: 'This traitor needs to be court-martialed.'
Senior military brass have long sought to keep the military away from domestic politics, and some top leaders distanced themself from the decision to accompany Trump across Lafayette Park to visit St. John's Church following protests that were followed by looting.
Trump has conducted a post-election purge of top military officials.
At a White House press briefing Tuesday, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany brought up Flynn when asked whether Trump was considering pardons for his own family members. She referenced Flynn's recent pardon.
She called Flynn 'a three-star general ... who had his life ruined. He was a valiant hero who served his country both on the battlefield and then came to work in government,' she said.
She called Flynn, who commanded an intelligence brigade and went on to run the Defense Intelligence Agency, a 'war hero' who suffered an 'egregious miscarriage of justice.'
'We are finally glad that justice was served for a war hero, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn,' she said. Trump also called Flynn a 'war hero' in an April tweet.
A Defense Intelligence Agency release upon Flynn's retirement from his 33-year military career does not mention any specific battlefield heroism. NSA Director Adm. Mike Rogers 'presented Flynn with the Defense Distinguished Service Medal for his exceptional job at the helm of DIA during a time of skyrocketing requirements, a shifting security landscape and reduced resources,' according to the release.
THE MIKE FLYNN SAGA: HOW TRUMP APPOINTEE BECAME INCENDIARY STORY
Mike Pence was a career Army intelligence officer who served in Afghanistan and Iraq and was still in uniform as a three-star general when he became Barack Obama's head of Defense Intelligence in July 2012.
But he fell out badly with the Obama administration, was forced out in July 2014 and moved into private intelligence consulting.
2015
December 10: Flynn is paid to travel to Moscow and sits beside Vladimir Putin at dinner celebrating propaganda outlet RT (right). His consulting business has Russian clients
2016
February: Flynn signs up to provide national security advice to the Trump campaign; in the next few months he is floated as a possible running mate
July 20 : Flynn leads 'lock her up' chants at the Republican National Convention and claims Obama concealed the actions of Osama bin Laden
July 31: FBI open counter-intelligence investigation Crossfire Hurricane into group of Trump aides, including Flynn, for possible Russian influence. In 2014 an FBI informer had told agents he saw Flynn spending time at a dinner in the UK with a Russian woman with ties to Kremlin intelligence; the information is included in their investigation. Flynn is code-named Crossfire Razor
November 4: Trump wins the election, and meets Obama who advises him not to hire Flynn. Trump ignores the advice and makes him national security adviser designate
November 30: Obama's ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, makes the first of what will be 48 requests by Obama and Obama-eras officials to 'unmask' a redaction from intelligence reports which covers up Flynn's name
December 2016
Flynn meets Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak (right) at Trump Tower and exchanges calls and messages throughout the month.
December 29: Hours after Obama announces sanctions on Russia for election interference, they speak and Flynn says it will be 'reviewed' when Trump takes power. The call is heard by intelligence agents who monitor Kisylak's calls and details are included in intelligence reports. The next day Putin says Russia won't retaliate for the sanctions
2017
January 4: FBI drafts report saying there is 'no derogatory information on RAZOR [Flynn].' But 20 minutes later FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok tells case agent 'don't close RAZOR,' and '7th floor involved' meaning FBI leadership. He also emails lover Lisa Page, a senior FBI lawyer, about the Logan Act - a never-enforced 1799 law banning private people from interfering in foreign relations. 'Razor still open,' he writes and calls news 'serendipitously good'. 'Phew, but yeah, that's amazing that he is still open. Good I guess,' Page replies. Strzok respond: 'Yeah, our utter incompetence actually helps us. 20% of the time I'm guessing :)'
January 5: Obama holds Oval Office briefing on Russian election interference with Joe Biden, CIA director John Brennan, FBI director James Comey, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and deputy attorney general Sally Yates. He asks Comey and Yates to stay behind and says he has 'learned of the information' about Flynn's call to Kislyak. Comey mentions the Logan Act
January 6: Obama's top intel figures - Brennan, Clapper and Comey - give the Trump team including Trump a briefing on Russia at Trump Tower
January 10: Joe Biden is most senior Obama official to request an 'unmasking' of an intelligence report which reveals Flynn's name
January 12: Bombshell Washington Post report reveals Flynn's call to Kislyak on December 29, 'according to a senior U.S. government official' saying: 'What did Flynn say, and did it undercut the U.S. sanctions?' It mentions the Logan Act
January 14: Flynn tells Pence he did not discuss sanctions; in coming days Trump officials repeat this on television - including Mike Pence the following day
January 20: Trump is inaugurated; Flynn becomes national security advisor
January 22: The Wall Street Journal reveals Flynn is subject to a counter-intelligence investigation over links to Russia
January 23: Strzok and Andrew McCabe the FBI Deputy director exchange messages planning to interview Flynn
January 24: Two FBI agents - Peter Strzok and one whose name remains secret - go to the White House and interview Flynn in his West Wing office. Their notes say he denies talking about sanctions with Kislyak and said 'if I did I don't remember'
January 26 and 27: Yates tells White House counsel Don McGahn that Flynn has lied to Mike Pence and other officials, is therefore compromised, could be blackmailed by Russia, and other aspects of his conduct are worrying which she can't tell McGahn because they are classified
January 28: Flynn sits in the Oval Office to take part in Trump's first call with Putin
+6
February 9: Washington Post reveals Flynn did discuss sanctions and publishes interview in which he repeats denial 'categorically.' After the story is published, he tells the newspaper a different version - that he may have discussed sanctions
February 10 and 11: Trump says he will 'look into' Flynn but the aide is at Mar-a-Lago dinner with Shinzo Abe
February 13: Washington Post reveals that McGahn was warned about Flynn by Yates. Flynn resigns admitting he 'inadvertently' misled Pence, prompting Pence to mislead on Face the Nation in January
February 14: Trump meets Comey and says Flynn is 'a good guy' and 'I hope you can see your way to letting this go.'
March 30: Flynn offers to testify to Congress - at the time both House and Senate are Republican-controlled - or the FBI on Trump-Russia in exchange for immunity from prosecution; nobody takes up the deal offer
May 9: Trump fires Comey, and on May 17 Robert Mueller is appointed special counsel
May 10: Senate Intel Committee subpoena Flynn for his contacts with Russia; he cites Fifth Amendment; they later subpoena in more detail, and by early June he turns over documents voluntarily
November 5: Mueller's investigators revealed to be ready to indict Flynn and his son Michael Jr. on multiple charges. They are looking at his foreign lobbying and even whether he plotted to kidnap a Turkish cleric from the U.S. and deliver him to Turkey - but are also wiling to strike a deal to let his son off if he flips
November 16: Mueller team interview Flynn for first time
November 22: Flynn withdraws from 'joint defense deal' with Trump, suggesting a deal is in the works
December 1: Flynn signs a plea deal with Mueller; he will plead guilty to lying to the FBI at the White House interview. In exchange his son gets out of charges, and Flynn himself escapes charges of failing to register his lobbying for foreign entities. He appears in court and admits under oath lying to the FBI and affirms that he understands the deal. 'I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and, through my faith in God, I am working to set things right,' he says. The White House says: 'The false statements involved mirror the false statements to White House officials which resulted in his resignation in February of this year.'
December 2: Trump tweets: 'I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI'
2018
January: Flynn is repeatedly interviewed as he cooperates with Mueller and sentencing is repeatedly deferred
June 7: Obama deputy national security advisor reveals in book that Obama administration first learned of Flynn's December 2016 communications with Kislyak from Trump transition team members and not from 'unmasking' his name in intelligence reports
December 18: Flynn appears in court for sentencing hearing; Mueller's recommendation is little or no jail time. But Judge Emmet Sullivan says 'arguably you sold your country out' and asks why he was not charged with 'treason.' Sentencing is deferred
2019
June 12: Flynn fires Covington & Burling, his white shoe law firm, and hires new lawyer Sidney Powell, who had told him on Fox News to ditch his plea deal
August 30: Flynn files motion accusing prosecutors of conning him into a guilty plea by withholding exculpatory material while other parts of the government trying to 'smear' him as a Russian agent
December 16: Judge rejects Flynn's motion after reviewing Intel Inspector General report into the FBI and DOJ actions before the 2016 election and sets sentencing date for January 28
2020
January 7: Prosecutors say they want up to six months for Flynn; a week later he files to ask to withdraw his guilty plea 'because of the government's bad faith, vindictiveness, and breach of the plea agreement.' A week later he asks for probation if he can't get out of his deal. Sentencing is deferred until February 20
February 14
Attorney General Bill Barr appoints political appointee Jeffrey Jensen, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, to examine Flynn's prosecution
April 29
New notes released by Jensen show Strzok discussing keeping Flynn as a target on January 4 2017. They also show an unnamed FBI official's notes from around the interview with Flynn on January 24 2017, saying: 'What is our goal? Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?' Trump starts a tweet storm which lasts into the next day, saying: 'What happened to General Michael Flynn, a war hero, should never be allowed to happen to a citizen of the United States again!'
May 7
Department of Justice says it is withdrawing support for prosecuting Flynn saying the interview in the West Wing was 'untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn' and that it was 'conducted without any legitimate investigative basis.' But career prosecutors who have led the case quit just before the move is announced
May 12
Judge Emmet Sullivan puts a hold on prosecutors dropping the case and the next day appoints a 'friend of the court,' former Mafia prosecutor and retired federal judge John Gleeson to argue against the DOJ's motion to dismiss, causing uproar among Flynn's supporters
May 13
A series of senior Obama officials are named as having asked for 'unmaskings' of intelligence reports which resulted in Flynn's name being uncovered, in newly-declassified documents. But it later emerges intelligence report of his call to Kislyak used his full name so people with access to it could understand who the Russian was speaking to, which also means leaking his name is not a crime
May 21
Three-judge appeals panel orders Judge Sullivan to explain legal basis for not accepting prosecution request to drop Flynn's conviction
May 22
FBI director Christopher Wray launches 'after-action review' of bureau's investigation
June 24
Federal appeals judges rule 2-1 that Sullivan has to dismiss the case. Trump takes a victory lap, tweeting 'Great!'
July 4
Flynn tweets a video of himself taking 'the oath,' a bizarre ceremony linked to the QAnon conspiracy theory, which ends the Oath of Allegiance by saying 'where we go one, we go all,' a QAnon slogan
July 9
Judge Sullivan asks the entire D.C. appeals circuit to hear the case 'en banc' and overturn the order to dismiss. An unnamed member of the appeals circuit made the same request and the judges voted to hear it 'en banc' August 31, legally ignoring Sullivan's request
August 31
Entire D.C. appeals circuit rules against Flynn, sending the case back to Sullivan and allowing him to hold an inquiry into DOJ handling of the prosecution
September 29
Sullivan holds hearing where Flynn's lawyer reveals she briefed Donald Trump personally on the case and asked him not to pardon her client
November 25
President Trump announces the night before Thanksgiving he has granted Flynn a 'Full Pardon,' calling it a 'Great Honor' and wishing him and his family 'Congratulations'
No comments:
Post a Comment