Michael Thomas Flynn (born 24 December 1958) is a retired United States Army lieutenant general and convicted felon who was the 24th U.S. national security advisor[2] for the first 22 days of the first Trump administration.

Flynn's military career included a key role in shaping U.S. counterterrorism strategy and dismantling insurgent networks in the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, and he was given numerous combat arms, conventional, and special operations senior intelligence assignments.

[50][53][54] He 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 (ROTC) and ultimately decided not to drop out.

[52][56] 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.

[73] According to what Flynn had said in one final interview as DIA director, he felt like a lone voice in thinking the United States was less safe from the threat of Islamic terrorism in 2014 than it was prior to the 9/11 attacks; he went on to believe he was pressed into retirement for questioning the Obama administration's public narrative that al-Qaeda was close to defeat.

Flynn recounted that his agency was producing intelligence reports indicating that radical Islamists were the main force in the Syrian insurgency and "that Turkey was looking the other way when it came to the growth of the Islamic State inside Syria".

"[74] In an interview with Al Jazeera, Flynn criticized the Obama administration for its delay in supporting the opposition in Syria, thereby allowing for the growth of Al-Nusra and other extremist forces: "when you don't get in and help somebody, they're gonna find other means to achieve their goals" and that "we should have done more earlier on in this effort, you know, than we did.

[95][96] On 10 December 2015, Flynn attended a gala dinner in Moscow in honor of RT (formerly "Russia Today"), a Russian government-owned English-language media outlet, on which he made semi-regular appearances as an analyst after he retired from U.S. government service.

[108] In July 2016, it was reported he was being considered as Trump's running mate; 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.

[124] The Trump transition team during the campaign, chaired by Chris Christie, opposed Flynn serving as National Security Adviser or in any other high-level position because he was viewed as "a loose cannon".

[57]: 46 During the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign of Donald Trump, and subsequently, Flynn and Jared Kushner were engaged in promoting IP3 International's plan to transfer nuclear technology from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia, for use in a proposed joint U.S.-French-Russian-British project, in possible violation of the law.

[139] Ten days before the inauguration of Donald Trump, Flynn told then-National Security Advisor Susan Rice not to proceed with a planned invasion of Raqqa using Kurdish People's Protection Units.

[160][161][162] When he was national security adviser, Flynn urged the U.S. 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.

This plan, aimed at easing the sanctions on Russia, progressed from Putin and his advisors to Ukrainian politician Andrey Artemenko, Felix Sater, Michael Cohen, and Flynn, where he would have then presented it to Trump.

[172] Based on the results of the FBI interview, Acting Attorney General Sally Yates made an "urgent" request to meet with White House counsel Don McGahn,[173] and they met on 26 and 27 January.

[136][175][176] Former United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called the possibility of Flynn being blackmailed "kind of a stretch", while acknowledging that his false statement was "a problem ... that I would tell the president about".

[177] On 9 February 2017, The Washington Post broke the story that Flynn had discussed the U.S. sanctions with Kislyak, contrary to the public denials made by the Trump administration, citing "nine current and former officials".

[183] In June 2024, the New York Times reported that Flynn and family members used his popularity in right-wing circles for paid speeches and consulting and selling branded clothing and other gear online.

A review by Religion News Service characterized the film as hagiographic and said it "poses as a straight-laced documentary but is starkly silent about Flynn's current mission: spreading the gospel of Christian nationalism and preparing his followers to wage spiritual warfare, starting by taking over local politics."

The review continued that "the film's goal seems to be to rewrite history and bolster Flynn's credibility as a spiritual leader" and it "mythologizes its subject as a renegade who perseveres against all odds, standing up to malevolent forces in defense of 'the truth.

[199] On 10 November, The Wall Street Journal reported that Flynn was under investigation by Mueller for allegedly planning a kidnapping and extrajudicial rendition of Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen to Turkey.

[202] NBC reported that a Turkish businessman named Reza Zarrab, who was picked up in 2016 by U.S. authorities in Miami on Iranian sanctions violations and money laundering charges, was offering evidence against Flynn.

"[243][244] On 16 December 2019, after a review of possible case related findings in the Michael Horowitz report, Sullivan rejected the assertions of FBI entrapment and prosecutorial malfeasance, setting his sentencing date for 28 January 2020.

[252] On 10 February 2020, 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.

[269] On 30 July, the full court agreed to hear the case, vacating the 24 June ruling, scheduling oral arguments for 11 August, and advising the parties to "be prepared to address whether there are 'no other adequate means to attain the relief' desired.

In a 18 December Oval Office meeting Flynn attended, Sidney Powell urged Trump to seize voting machines and to appoint her as a special counsel, though it was not immediately clear who wrote the draft order.

[319] Will Sommer of The Daily Beast observed that a prayer Flynn gave in September bore a striking resemblance to one by Elizabeth Clare Prophet, leader of the Church Universal and Triumphant, an anti-communist doomsday cult.

Seth Keshel, a former Army intelligence officer, conducted a statistical analysis that falsely[327] claimed to prove the 2020 election results were fraudulent; he told Reuters he contacted Flynn and they began collaborating.

[331] With his brother Joe, and Patrick Byrne, Flynn co-founded The America Project, which advocates for what it contends is "election integrity" by poll watching and voter challenges, producing manuals for nine states.

[339][340][341] In March 2023, Flynn endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory video claiming that President John F. Kennedy had warned about a "Khazarian mafia" that secretly controls the world, a reference to the Khazar hypothesis of Jewish ancestry.