Michael Flynn meets with Jan. 6 committee

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn met with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and exercised the Fifth Amendment, his attorney confirmed.

David Warrington, Flynn’s lead attorney, said in a statement that Flynn met with the House panel on Thursday and “exercised his Fifth Amendment right to decline to answer the Committee’s questions.”

Staff from the committee had “insinuated” Flynn was admitting guilt by not answering questions, Warrington claimed in the statement.

A spokesperson for the committee did not respond to a request for comment from The Hill.

In November, the Jan. 6 committee issued a subpoena to Flynn for information regarding a December 2020 Oval Office meeting he allegedly attended where those present discussed several matters pertaining to unsubstantiated claims of election fraud.

“You reportedly attended a December 18, 2020, meeting in the Oval Office during which participants discussed seizing voting machines, declaring a national emergency, invoking certain national security emergency powers, and continuing to spread the message that the November 2020 election had been tainted by widespread fraud,” Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) wrote to Flynn in November.

“The day before, you did an interview on Newsmax TV during which you talked about seizing voting machines, foreign influence in the election, and the purported precedent for deploying military troops and declaring martial law to ‘rerun’ the election,” he continued.

In December, Flynn fought back against the committee’s subpoenas for his personal phone records and testimony, suing the House panel and claiming in his lawsuit that he “faces the harm of being irreparably and illegally coerced to produce information and testimony in violation of the law and his constitutional rights.”

The lawsuit was dismissed by a judge a day later, although the judge said it could be refiled.

“General Flynn’s invocation of his constitutional rights is presently before a federal court in the ongoing case General Flynn filed to protect himself from the Constitutional overreach of this Committee. The Committee’s insistence on proceeding with this deposition while this matter is still being litigated left General Flynn with no other choice,” Warrington said in his statement Thursday.

“The Committee’s decision to depose General Flynn while these issues are before a court was little more than political theater designed to set up a false narrative based on the Committee’s wrong view of the 5th Amendment,” he maintained. “Most of the questions lacked any relation to the legislative purpose contained in House Resolution 503, and many were clearly sourced from fringe news and conspiracy websites and rumors.”

Updated: 8:45 p.m.