Michael Flynn (the former National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump) is suing House select committee investigating the Capitol attack on January 6.
Flynn is suing the January 6 commission to block a subpoena of his phone records and to avoid facing consequences for refusing to give a deposition on Trump’s plans to overthrow the 2020 election.
Flynn’s lawsuit contends that the commission’s demands are in violation of his constitutional rights, including Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination.
Several other Trump associatesRecently, they invoked The Fifth Amendment to avoid giving depositions before the commission.
The commission had initially agreed to postpone Flynn’s deposition until December 20, noting that he and his lawyers had been trying to negotiate the terms of his pending testimony. Flynn did not appear at the deposition and filed his lawsuit against them one day after he was supposed.
The commission has said that it wants Flynn to appear before them in spite of his objections, according to Flynn’s attorney, “to invoke his 5th Amendment privilege before the Committee, even if it was effectively the only thing he could do.” After Flynn appeared before them, “the Committee could refer General Flynn for prosecution for contempt of Congress” if members of the commission deemed it appropriate.
The commission wants to discuss a number of issues with Flynn, including a plan he allegedly concocted last year to seize voting machines in order to perpetuate Trump’s false claims of election fraud. According to a commission letter, Flynn was sent a note. outlining the subpoena requestFlynn was present at a meeting in Oval Office on December 18, 2020 with Trump and his circle. At that meeting, “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 had made similar claims the day before at a meeting. Newsmax TV asserting that Trump could “[deploy]Armed forces [declare] martial law to ‘rerun’ the election,” the commission said.
According to Politico’s senior legal affairs reporter Josh Gerstein, Flynn’s lawsuit doesn’t appear to be in response to recent actionsIt is unclear if Flynn was charged with the failure to reach an accord on the terms and conditions of his testimony. Rather, the “suit reads like it’s been on the shelf a while,” Gerstein said on Twitter, pointing out that Flynn’s lawyers refer to over 500 Trump loyalists being charged in relation to the Capitol attack, even though the number is now over 700. The lawsuit also refers to arguments within a lawsuit filed by Trump on November 30, “but not the decision adverse to Flynn’s side on Dec. 9,” Gerstein said.
Main Street Law founder and frequent Trump critic Tristan Snell has contended that Flynn’s lawsuit against the January 6 commission — and similar suits from Trump and his former aides — aren’t legally sound.
“The ‘lawsuits’ from Michael Flynn, Mark Meadows, and Donald Trump not only lack any merit — they are frivolous,” Snell said, “and the attorneys who filed them should be sanctioned and fined.”
