Former national security adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn has given his first interview since he was pardoned by President Donald Trump last Friday.
Speaking with World View Weekend’s Brandon Howse on Saturday, Flynn said that his targeting and the unprecedented level of contempt against Trump during his years in office was due to Democrats’ anger over their loss in 2016.
“When they lost in 2016, I think that there was a decision to say, ‘We’re not going to allow this to happen again,’” Flynn said.
He claimed that Democrats and their media supporters went to work trying to remove Trump from office before he even was inaugurated.
“I mean, I think what we experienced over the last four years—and certainly in the late-2016, early-2017 period—was a very strong effort to unseat a duly elected president,” Flynn said.
Flynn went on to suggest issues with the 2020 election, repeating claims made by Trump and his associates that are currently working through the courts, with limited success.
On Monday, the Justice Department released a copy of Trump’s pardon, which reads:
To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting:
Be it known, that this day, I, Donald J. Trump, president of the united states, pursuant to my powers under article II, section 2, clause 1, of the constitution, have granted unto Michael T. Flynn a full and unconditional pardon for the charge of making false statements to Federal investigators, in violation of Section 1001, Title 18, United States Code, as charged in the Information filed under docket number 1:17-CR-00232-EGS in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia; for any and all possible offenses arising from the facts set forth in the Information and Statement of Offense filed under that docket number or that might arise, or be charged, claimed, or asserted, in connection with the proceedings under that docket number; for any and all possible offenses within the investigatory authority or jurisdiction of the Special Counsel appointed on May 17, 2017, including the initial Appointment Order No. 3915-2017 and subsequent memoranda regarding the Special Counsel’s investigatory authority; and for any and all possible offenses arising out of facts and circumstances known to, identified by, or in any manner related to the investigation of the Special Counsel, including, but not limited to, any grand jury proceedings in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia or the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto signed my name and caused the seal of the Department of Justice to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington in the District of Columbia this twenty-fifth day of November in the year of our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty and of the Independence of the United States the Two Hundred and Forty-fifth.
As The Daily Wire previously reported, Flynn and his family thanked Trump for the pardon.
“This ‘Pardon of Innocence’ is historic, sincerely appreciated & should never happen in our country again. I will issue a personal statement later today. My family issued one yesterday,” Flynn said. “Thank you America. Happy Thanksgiving.”
“Let it be heard across this great country and around the world that tyranny will not topple us. Masks will not silence us. Threats will not stop us. Evil will not triumph. We are Americans. We stand on the shoulders of the greatest forces and heroes of bravery and courage the world has ever known. That is our legacy and our obligation to defend now, and for generations to come,” Flynn’s family said in a statement.