Michael Flynn’s Election Disinformation Operation

Michael Flynn has played many roles for Donald Trump. His actions are so multifold that a wall full of sticky notes with yarn connecting them is necessary to start to make sense of them.

He was Donald Trump’s first National Security Advisor. Before and during, he was involved in a cockamamie scheme to build an empire of nuclear reactors in the Middle East, mostly in Saudi Arabia, with Russia selling the reactors. He was dropped as National Security Advisor because of his interactions with Russia. He has pledged allegiance to Qanon and has been involved in similar schemes since then.

Before all that, he was the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the main intelligence agency for the military. It’s an open question whether his current state of mind is a continuation of what it was then.

Reuters has a long article about Flynn’s current efforts to spread disinformation about the 2020 election. His story, naturally, is that the election was stolen and Donald Trump should have won. He seems to be using a number of venues to spread it. He has three former military henchmen – Phil Waldron, Ivan Raiklin, and Seth Keshel. They are working multiple approaches and have had multiple stories.

The veterans’ false claims shifted over time. They have pinned Trump’s loss on actions by the Chinese government and voting technology companies, alleged misconduct by U.S. state and local election officials and said hackers had used the internet to change votes after they were cast. They have blamed old-school ballot stuffing, perhaps involving dead voters or Venezuelan interests.

All are former military and have used the credibility associated with that to advance their claims. This is unethical. It also raises questions about whether the military harbors more whackos like them.

Flynn and Waldron worked with the Trump team immediately after the 2020 election and pushed the idea that Trump could use the military to set up do-over elections in various states.

Not mentioned in the article is that Raiklin has recently announced that he has made a list of 350 people to be prosecuted if Trump wins. He, alone of the four, is being investigated by the military for improper claims about his military background.

There’s a lot more. Flynn is an amazingly active person, all in the service of conspiracy theories and worse.