Flynn Warns That ‘Greatest Threat’ to US is ‘Security State Complex’ Following FBI’s Raid Targeting Trump

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn has warned that the United States faces an unprecedented threat from the inside in the wake of the FBI’s raid on former President Donald Trump’s home in Florida earlier this week.

The former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency and national security adviser to Trump said that while the United States faces a range of external threats from the Chinese regime to Iran, “the greatest threat to our country right now is clearly internal.”

“The security state complex and the complexity of the security state—as it has grown in leaps and bounds and bounds in the last 20 years or so—it is now overtaking our system of government and our rule of law,” Flynn said in an Aug. 11 interview with the “Capitol Report” program on NTD Television Network, the sister media outlet of The Epoch Times.

“We can no longer deny that.”

Local law enforcement officers are seen in front of the home of former President Donald Trump at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on Aug. 9, 2022. Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images

‘Un-American’

Flynn was not surprised by the raid on the former president’s Mar-a-Lago property, pointing to his own experiences being targeted by the FBI.

The former national security adviser was the subject of an FBI investigation in 2016 while the agency was probing into alleged connections between the Trump 2016 presidential campaign and Russia. The FBI had little reason to suspect the campaign and Flynn, and documents later released by the Justice Department (DOJ) revealed that agents believed that Flynn’s case should be closed.

Flynn was charged in late 2017 with lying to the FBI during a January 2017 interview about his calls with then-Russian ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak. Flynn pleaded guilty later that year, but then withdrew his plea.

The DOJ moved to drop the charge in May 2020, after finding that the FBI had no legitimate purpose in questioning him about the calls with Kislyak, other than to try and catch him in a lie, which isn’t a proper investigative purpose. The case against Flynn was dismissed in late 2020 after Trump pardoned the retired general.

“The FBI had a had a phony case against me for over four years,” Flynn said.

“It was an absolute persecution by the Department of Justice and the FBI, and, frankly elements of the previous White House, that we now know is completely false,” he added.

“They knew it from the beginning. Just as they know what is going on here with President Donald J. Trump,” Flynn said, referring to the FBI raid.

The raid was reportedly carried out in connection with the DOJ probe into whether Trump took president records with him after he left office. The justification for the search warrant remains sealed, although the DOJ made a motion on Aug. 11 to unseal the warrant.

Attorney General Merrick Garland, in the department’s first comments on the matter on Thursday, said he personally approved the decision to seek the search warrant. Garland, citing federal law and ethical obligations, declined to provide further details on the search, but said the “department does not take such a decision lightly.”

“Where possible, it is standard practice to seek less intrusive means as an alternative to a search, and to narrowly scope any search that is undertaken,” Garland said.

The former national security adviser expressed disappointment in the FBI’s actions.

“For these people to go in there and do something that egregious, that un-American, I am really, beyond upset,” Flynn said.

“I absolutely stand with President Donald J. Trump and his family.”

Then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) and retired Gen. Michael Flynn at Grand Junction Regional Airport on Oct. 18, 2016. George Frey/Getty Images

‘Get Out and Vote’

The only way to counter what’s happening to the country’s democratic institutions, Flynn said, is for the citizenry to get out and vote.

“We can’t have 30 percent turnout. In primaries, we can’t have 60 percent turnout. In general elections, we have to have 100 percent turnout—people have to show up to the game,” he said.

“People must wake up; quit denying the fact that we are on the precipice of losing our entire system of government, our entire democracy.”

Americans shouldn’t be deterred if they can’t directly shape policy in Washington because, in Flynn’s view, actions at a grassroots level have a national impact. People can effect changes in their churches, local communities, counties, and school boards, he said.

“People must now stand up and step up, and get out and participate, and make your voices heard.”