A roller-coaster life and career
How Michael Flynn’s hard-charging persona finally caught up to him
Michael Flynn’s hardcharging ways have won him praise, but have also brought him trouble over the years.
WASHINGTON — In his 2016 book on terrorism, “The Field of Fight,” retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn described growing up “hellbent on breaking rules for the adrenaline rush and hardwired just enough to not care about the consequences.”
On Friday, it became clear that Flynn broke one rule too many. He pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of “willfully and knowingly” making “false, fictitious and fraudulent statements” to the FBI about his communications with Russia’s ambassador last December, after Donald Trump named Flynn his national security advisor.
As part of a plea agreement, Flynn also said he was cooperating with the investigation led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into whether anyone in Trump’s orbit helped Moscow meddle in last year’s presidential campaign, suggesting higher-ups in the White House face legal jeopardy.
The plea was the latest dip in Flynn’s roller-coaster career — a battlefield intelligence officer in Iraq and Afghanistan, promoted to a three-star Army general, named to head the Defense Intelligence Agency and then fired in 2014 for what the Obama White House said was mismanagement.
His tenure as President Trump’s national security advisor set a dubious record: He was ousted after 24 days for misleading Vice President Mike Pence and others about his discussions with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about easing sanctions on Russia.
“It’s a sad thing,” retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey said Friday. “We owe Flynn a lot, and he went over the line.”
Flynn’s hard-charging nature was core to his persona. In Afghanistan, his commanding officer once praised him as someone who “just busts down walls” to get the job done. But that determination sometimes clouded his ability to make considered decisions.
“If you’re not someone blessed with the gift of good judgment, you end up in the situation he’s in,” said Derek Chollet, a senior Pentagon official in the Obama administration.
Flynn was always pushing the limits as a kid in a working-class family in Middletown, R.I., surfing during hurricanes, jumping off bridges or playing sports.
“He was a lineman on our football team,” said Thomas Heaney, a childhood friend. “He was probably 155 pounds, and he would play guys 80 to 100 pounds heavier than him.”
Flynn wrote in his book that he was something of a hard case, and participated in “some serious and unlawful activity” that led to his arrest and a night in a state reformatory for boys. His record was expunged after a year of probation, he wrote.
He straightened out, dated a high school classmate he eventually would marry and scored an Army ROTC scholarship at the University of Rhode Island.
Over the years, Flynn rose to prominence as an Army intelligence officer. A former commander called him “tireless, focused, serious.” In Iraq, he teamed up with Gen. Stanley McChrystal and went to Afghanistan with him as a senior aide.
Flynn’s contrary nature was clear in the Pentagon. He contributed to a disparaging 2010 report saying the “vast intelligence apparatus is unable to answer fundamental questions about the environment in which U.S. and allied forces operate and the people they seek to persuade.”
Flynn flamed out after President Obama named him head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in July 2012. Critics in the defense and intelligence communities and Congress said he was out of his depth running the 17,000-person agency. Some said he advanced unreliable theories.
“His penchant for inventing his own facts and asking people to chase down evidence to support them — the so-called ‘Flynn facts’ — is deeply disturbing,” said Rep. Adam B. Schiff of Burbank, top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
Flynn was ousted in August 2014 after clashing with Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper and others. He blamed the White House, saying Obama had failed to reckon with the growing strength of Islamist terrorists.
When Trump announced his presidential campaign in 2015, one of his aides, Sam Nunberg, believed the newly declared candidate would take a shine to Flynn and helped arrange a meeting. “He had made the talk-radio rounds. He had criticized the Obama administration,” Nunberg recalled.
The bond gelled at the Republican National Convention, when Flynn delivered a speech denouncing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and led the chants of “Lock her up.”
At the time, Trump was under attack from national security veterans who worried about his lack of military or government experience and his unconventional policies. Flynn’s 33 years in the military helped deflect criticism.
A former Trump campaign policy advisor said Flynn was so close to Trump last fall that he rarely interacted with the national security team. “Both shared a similar worldview, and I believe were driven at least in part by sheer condescension from people like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush,” the ex-advisor said.
Like Trump, Flynn warned about the dangers of “political correctness” in America and stoked fears of “radical Islam.” But Flynn built more than a right-wing profile last year. He also expanded his business, the Flynn Intel Group, and didn’t always disclose his financial interests properly.
A financial disclosure form in January detailed more than $1.3 million in income last year. Some payments came from groups like ACT for America, which has been accused of Islamophobia.
A second report in March revealed payments from a Russian air cargo and cybersecurity firms for speeches he gave in Washington.
In a third report in August, at least $1.8 million in income was revealed and Flynn mentioned his work as a consultant for ACU Strategic Partners, which sought to develop nuclear power plants in the Mideast. A trip to the region wasn’t disclosed on his application for a security clearance, according to Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.
There was another problem with Flynn’s private sector work. Before the election, he signed a contract with a Turkish-owned company to help undermine Fethullah Gulen, an enemy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who lives in Pennsylvania. Flynn didn’t register as a foreign agent until March, when he detailed $530,000 in payments. Former CIA Director R. James Woolsey, who attended one of Flynn’s meetings with Turkish officials, said they discussed forcibly removing Gulen from the U.S., which Woolsey feared would be illegal.
Flynn’s work with Trump could have ended with the election. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who ran Trump’s transition team, was “not a fan” of Flynn, according to sources with knowledge of the relationship, and didn’t include him on a list of potential national security advisors. But Christie was deposed and his ideas discarded. Trump named Flynn his national security advisor, a position of immense influence.
Flynn was almost immediately engulfed in controversy. U.S. intelligence monitoring the Russian ambassador picked up his conversations with Flynn. Sally Yates, former acting attorney general, later testified to Congress that she had warned White House lawyers in January that Flynn “was compromised” and “could be blackmailed” by Russians.
After he was pushed out, Flynn returned to his Rhode Island hometown. He registered a new consulting firm, Resilient Patriot, in Virginia, but it’s unclear what work it did.
His siblings have opened a legal defense fund on Flynn’s behalf, saying he needs help despite the $1.8 million in income he reported in August.