Former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn called into a QAnon conspiracy theory podcast on Friday, but said that he could only speak for a few minutes. He had a surprising reason to cut the call short, he explained. He was avoiding assassins and had to stay on the move.
“I gotta make sure I’m a moving target, because these sons-of-a-guns, they’re after me, in a literal and a figurative sense,” Flynn said.
Normally, a former top administration official claiming he believes he’s being tailed by “deep state” hitmen would set off alarms. But it fits perfectly with Flynn’s post-pardon media tour, which has seen the retired lieutenant general positioning himself to reap the rewards of his position as the chief martyr of Trumpworld.
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Donald Trump pardoned Flynn on Nov. 27, freeing him up from any legal liability he may have faced from his guilty plea during the Robert Mueller probe.
In the wake of his pardon, Flynn has gone on a variety of more conservative programs, among them Fox News host Jeanine Pirro’s show and former White House adviser Sebastian Gorka’s radio show. But Flynn has also dabbled in far fringier media outlets too.
His first choice for a post-pardon interview was with “WVW-TV,” a little-known far-right internet video show. In it, Flynn positioned himself as a supporter of Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results, predicting that the president had secretly won in a “massive landslide.”
Such choices in outlets aren’t all too unusual for Flynn. Even before his pardon, he had nodded to the party’s edges. His legal fund received proceeds from the sale of some pro-QAnon books by the conspiracy theory’s promoters—perhaps appropriately, as many QAnon believers think Flynn is secretly the mysterious “Q” dispensing the clues that make up the conspiracy theory. In July, Flynn repaid the favor and recorded himself taking a “QAnon oath” with members of his family.
QAnon podcasts have been a key part of Flynn’s outreach after evading his federal charge. On Dec. 2, Flynn appeared on the QAnon-affiliated “Bards of War” podcast, which is run by a man who would issue cryptic QAnon-style about the deep state. Flynn declared that the United States was on the brink of a socialist takeover.
Since then, he’s continued to toss red meat at the QAnon base, which is premised on the idea of a military purge of the Democratic Party and other Trump foes, endorsing a call on Twitter for Trump to institute martial law and prevent President-elect Joe Biden from taking office.
Flynn’s attorney Sidney Powell, who has herself become a hero in the right-wing media for her hapless efforts to “unleash the kraken” and save Trump’s re-election bid, didn’t respond to a request for comment about Flynn’s future plans.
Since getting his pardon, Flynn’s most frequent signalling to QAnon believers has come in the form of his references to “digital soldiers.” QAnon fans have adopted the term, which Flynn originally used in a speech about U.S. cyberwar capabilities, and claimed that Flynn was actually referring to their own obsessive online sleuthing. Flynn has frequently mentioned “digital soldiers” in his post-pardon appearances, which QAnon believers have seen as more references to the conspiracy theory.
In his Friday appearance on “The MG Show,” the QAnon podcast where he discussed evading hitmen, Flynn suggested the “digital soldiers” played a role in helping him in his legal travails.
“I probably have the largest law firm in the world, and it’s called digital soldiers,” Flynn said.
