Former White House official Michael Flynn repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right protecting him from self-incrimination during closed-door testimony with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, his lawyer said.
Over and over, he declined to answer the committee’s questions about his involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, following in the footsteps of other uncooperative witnesses like conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and right-wing attorney John Eastman.
Flynn, a retired Army general, briefly served as national security adviser to President Donald Trump in 2017 until it emerged that he lied about his dealings with a Russian diplomat and resigned less than a month into his tenure. Following criminal charges, Flynn was pardoned by Trump in the final weeks of his presidency, and Flynn has since been a vocal supporter of the former president’s false assertion that the election was “stolen.”
Flynn’s attorney, David Warrington, advised him to plead the Fifth upon meeting with the House committee, which subpoenaed him in November.
“This privilege protects all Americans, not just General Flynn,” Warrington said in a statement.
The Jan. 6 committee said it was interested in discussing an Oval Office meeting Flynn allegedly attended on Dec. 18, 2020, to discuss ways in which to overrule Joe Biden’s victory, including seizing voting machines and declaring a national emergency to redo the election. It subpoenaed his phone records late last year.
Warrington accused the committee and its chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), of implying Flynn’s use of the Fifth Amendment “constituted an admission of guilt.”
Court documents have suggested that the panel is pursuing evidence of a criminal conspiracy among Trump’s inner circle, and its members have repeatedly said they intend to use every tool at their disposal to uncover facts and prosecute any wrongdoing.
Thompson’s panel has subpoenaed a wide array of people in Trump’s orbit, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former adviser Stephen Miller, and subpoenaed the phone records of others, including Eric Trump and Kimberly Guilfoyle. One witness, former adviser Stephen Bannon, refused to comply with a subpoena from the committee and was criminally charged last fall; he faces trial this summer.