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[Aquidneck Island Productions
introductory theme]

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[faint cawing of seagulls]

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[Flynn] <i>Water has always
been a big part of our--</i>

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<i>of our lives
in the Flynn family.</i>

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<i>We all grew up surfing,
we all grew up
around the ocean.</i>

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<i>If you don't
respect the ocean,</i>

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if you don't have a respect
for this, this, this thing,

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<i>which is alive,
the ocean is alive.</i>

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[blowing bubbles]

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I went into the service
because I love our country.

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[choral music playing]

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[Devin] <i>He was one
of the most respected generals
in the military.</i>

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[Flynn] <i>And I come home,
and I find out</i>

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that the worst enemy
that I'm going to face
in my life

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<i>is right here in America.</i>

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[somber music playing]

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[reporter] <i>President Obama said,
"But I do have one specific
recommendation.</i>

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<i>Stay away from Michael Flynn.
He's bad news."</i>

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[somber music keeps playing]

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They're calling me a traitor.
They're saying
I committed treason.

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<i>They're saying
I'm a Russian spy.</i>

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<i>That Obama was involved
in the targeting of Flynn.</i>

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[reporter] <i>He was,
by definition,</i>

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<i>the most dangerous
possible person.</i>

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<i>- I had to fire...</i>
- [overlapping chatter]

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[choral music playing]

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There was a moment
where I just felt
like I was drowning.

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<i>And all of a sudden,
a whole series of things
started happening.</i>

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[choral music keeps playing]

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[Flynn] <i>I actually feel blessed
to be alive right now.</i>

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And I can tell my story.

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[emotional music playing]

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If we're going to war,
that means we failed.

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That's the-- that's
the fascinating thing about war.

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It is a absolute
failure of policy.

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It's a failure of diplomacy.
It's a failure of leadership.

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[bombs exploding]

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[insidious sound playing]

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[Flynn] <i>Probably one
of the greatest sacrifices</i>

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<i>is when one lays down
their life for this country</i>

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<i>for reasons that they
don't even understand,</i>

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<i>and they do it</i>

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<i>trying to help people
that don't even care
if they're there.</i>

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<i>And... and they're dead.</i>

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<i>We are A-plus, gold star
for participating in war.</i>

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<i>We are a failure
at winning wars.</i>

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[menacing music playing]

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[Flynn] <i>Peace is the aberration
and war is the norm.</i>

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<i>No matter
how many times I've deployed</i>

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<i>to different places
where there was
some aspect of danger,</i>

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<i>you always feel
a sense of fear.</i>

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<i>Your experiences
help you overcome that,</i>

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<i>but you never are without it.</i>

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- [tank fires]
- [Flynn] <i>You know,
coming off of a truck</i>

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<i>or getting off of a helicopter
or getting off of a plane</i>

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<i>in a place
where you can smell...</i>

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<i>death.</i>

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<i>You can smell fear.</i>

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<i>War is
like this massive racket.</i>

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<i>I mean, we are at war
constantly.</i>

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<i>At the end of the day,
it's about making money.</i>

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[tank fires]

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[music fades]

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[lights clicking]

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[soft music playing]

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[director] Sound's rolling,
all three cameras. We're good.

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[producer] I need speed.

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Okay. We're ready when you are.

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[Flynn] <i>I had just taken
command of a battalion</i>

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<i>of about between
500 and 600 people,</i>

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<i>and my operations NCO
comes in and says,</i>

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<i>"Hey, sir, we just had
a helicopter go down."</i>

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This is where I really learned
about being steady.

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Because when I think about that,
I mean, nine people. Poof.

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So as I'm walking up the road,
I-- I see the smoke,

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and I look,
and I walked right up to it.

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I mean, I was standing
right next to it.

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And... and it was just
one black patch

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that was like the outline
of a helicopter.

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Just a black patch in the--
on the ground,

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all burnt up,
with a bunch of bumps. Okay?

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Bumps that were probably
no more than,

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like, two feet high, okay,
and those were the bodies.

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And, you know, obviously,
the, the smell of the fuel

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that was burning,
the bodies that had burned.

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And so, there they are.

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They're just...
you're standing right there,

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you're standing there going,
"Holy crap."

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<i>On my orders, coalition forces
have begun striking</i>

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<i>selected targets
of military importance</i>

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<i>to undermine Saddam Hussein's
ability to wage war.</i>

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[dramatic music playing]

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[man] <i>When war
broke out in Iraq,</i>

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I was sort of like, well,
I guess we have to do this.

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But hold on a second.

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I didn't see,
I didn't connect the dots

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as to the reason why we didn't--

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we would invade
a sovereign nation like Iraq.

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I always questioned
the necessity of that war.

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I thought it was crazy,

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and I thought
the Bush administration

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managed it very poorly.

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The amount of money
that we spent

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in Afghanistan
for a losing cause
is more money,

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is more than was spent
on the Marshall Plan

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to rebuild Europe,
all of Europe,

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after World War II.

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[dramatic music playing]

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[Flynn] <i>Let me show you...</i>

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I gave you a little bit
of explanation.

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- [laughs] This is wild.
- So Tucker...

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Tucker, I brought--
I'm brought in here
like about, I don't know,

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it was over a year,
a year and a half ago.

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I'm brought into this room,
and I meet these two moms.

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And I-- I was like,
"What caused you,

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what possessed you
to do something like this?"

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And it was basically,
"We believed so much

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in what was happening to you
that-- that it was wrong."

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And they said
on their spare time,
they put this together.

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[Tucker] <i>I personally
grew up in a completely
different world,</i>

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<i>where I didn't question
a lot of the big lies</i>

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<i>because I didn't realize
that they were lies.</i>

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I was complicit in the lying
without knowing it.

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I supported the war in Iraq
and argued on behalf of it
before it started.

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<i>And it wasn't until
I went to Iraq myself
in the winter of 2003</i>

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that I realized
how wrong I had been,

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the degree to which
I had been lied to.

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- [Flynn] That was a big
turning point for you.
- It changed my life completely.

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And I realized I'd been
complicit in this lie.

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[piano music playing]

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[Flynn] <i>I don't care
what party you're in.</i>

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They're in Washington, DC,
that's the party.

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They have
their black-tie affairs,

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their little clubs,
their little cliques,

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and they got their little
business enterprise that--

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that floats around
in these events.

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I would, I would be
sick to my stomach
in some of those things

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because you're
looking around going,

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"You know, these are
the son of a bitches

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that are just, you know."
I mean, we're still at war.

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There's people overseas
being killed.

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And I'm thinking to myself,
this is just not right.

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If you have the same people

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in charge of a series
of counterproductive wars

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from which the United States
derives nothing,

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only, you know, loss of life,
draining of the Treasury,

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evaporation of our prestige
and power abroad.

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The U.S. is much weaker

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because of the last
four wars we fought.

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Beginning in Vietnam in 1964,
from Tonkin Gulf to here.

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Fifty-nine years.

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We have not fought a war
that made the U.S. stronger.

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[Colin Powell]
<i>When we confront a regime</i>

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<i>that harbors ambitions
for regional domination,</i>

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<i>hides weapons
of mass destruction,</i>

156
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<i>and provides haven
and active support
for terrorists,</i>

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<i>we're not confronting the past.</i>

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<i>We are confronting the present.</i>

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<i>And unless we act,
we are confronting</i>

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<i>an even more frightening
future.</i>

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[Flynn] <i>Powell will be
remembered for a lot of things;</i>

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you know, they make him out
to be a saint.

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That's what he'll be
remembered for in history.

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As a junior officer,
I couldn't really articulate it.

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But there was something there
that I felt, you know,

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it seemed as though
it's just a perpetual

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fraud, waste, and abuse...
life cycle.

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Yeah, we're gonna go
after terrorists,

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but you don't need
an entire machine,

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conventional machine,
to be in place constantly

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at all times in Afghanistan
or in Iraq, for that matter,

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<i>and-- or really any other place</i>

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<i>because we have
strategic capability</i>

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<i>to go in and out surgically
to address certain issues,</i>

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<i>literally within a few hours,
maximum one day, globally.</i>

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So, why not use that methodology

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rather than constantly
pumping in

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billions of dollars a month?

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They want the problem
to exist, so that--

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that money flow
and the constant defense budget

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<i>can go ahead and fund
the military-industrial
complex.</i>

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[soft music playing]

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[Jack Flynn] <i>He became very
close to Stanley McChrystal.</i>

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From what I read,
McChrystal told Michael,

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"You need to come in; I need--
we need to clean this up;

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we need to fix this thing."

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For whatever reason
we were there,

188
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we were able to get Iraq
under control

189
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because of the efforts
of Joint Special Operations
Command,

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<i>and specifically,
Michael's acumen</i>

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<i>in what he had been trained for
throughout his career in Intel.</i>

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[Ivan] <i>There are
193 countries on the planet,</i>

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<i>according to the United Nations.</i>

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The most premier unit
within the world

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to fight against terror,

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General Flynn was
the senior-ranking intelligence
officer in that unit.

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<i>You literally have to be
the number one intel officer</i>

198
00:11:46,983 --> 00:11:50,253
<i>for that year's cohort,
impeccable background,</i>

199
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not like a single blemish
in your entire military file,

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to be selected
for that position.

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[Joe] <i>Mike's, you know,
pretty senior in rank
at that point.</i>

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00:12:00,897 --> 00:12:03,499
<i>He's maybe a two-star general,
one-or two-star general.</i>

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<i>And Charlie's there as well.
And what they're seeing is,</i>

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<i>the information
that they're getting</i>

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about who the Taliban were,
how they were fighting,

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where they were getting their,
their ammunition and so forth,

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that they were getting
from the intel community
was a bunch of bullshit.

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00:12:18,348 --> 00:12:20,250
<i>It was-- it was
poorly served up,</i>

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<i>and there was no
interagency coordination.</i>

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<i>I think Mike knew,</i>

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<i>and I think
a lot of those guys knew</i>

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00:12:27,757 --> 00:12:29,325
<i>that if something drastic
wasn't done,</i>

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<i>they were going to be there
for a long time.</i>

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[Devin] <i>I actually met
General Flynn</i>

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<i>for the first time,</i>

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uh, around 2005 or 2006,
in Iraq.

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We would go to areas
where they'd train

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military and military
intelligence.

219
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And General Flynn was,
oftentimes,

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<i>they'll put up on the screen,</i>

221
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<i>as someone who had done
a superior job.</i>

222
00:12:53,649 --> 00:12:57,287
<i>I mean, he was treated
as the greatest</i>

223
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<i>intelligence general
for his generation.</i>

224
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Everybody respected his ability
to really perfect intelligence.

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The objectives, the overall,

226
00:13:09,265 --> 00:13:15,805
our overarching objectives,
we got so far astray.

227
00:13:15,972 --> 00:13:18,341
The Bush administration,
the Obama administration,

228
00:13:18,508 --> 00:13:21,878
I mean, we just lost sight,
and you're like,

229
00:13:22,078 --> 00:13:24,680
you're in this constant war,
you know,

230
00:13:25,348 --> 00:13:27,050
and we would be having
these conversations going,

231
00:13:27,250 --> 00:13:28,818
"Jesus, you know,
when is this going to end?"

232
00:13:28,985 --> 00:13:30,720
When, you know,
I mean, it can end.

233
00:13:30,921 --> 00:13:33,356
It can actually end,
and it can end on our terms.

234
00:13:35,291 --> 00:13:37,460
[producer] The report
you wrote in 2010...

235
00:13:37,627 --> 00:13:39,562
- [Flynn] Right. Mm-hm.
- [producer] "Fixing Intel."

236
00:13:39,762 --> 00:13:41,898
- [Flynn]
In fact, it's right here.
- [producer] Let's see it.

237
00:13:42,098 --> 00:13:45,035
[Flynn] The full title:
"A Blueprint for Making

238
00:13:45,201 --> 00:13:47,637
Intelligence Relevant
in Afghanistan."

239
00:13:47,803 --> 00:13:50,673
I was a senior intel officer
out in Afghanistan.

240
00:13:50,873 --> 00:13:53,743
<i>I mean, I went around
Afghanistan to,</i>

241
00:13:53,944 --> 00:13:56,579
<i>to damn near every
little town and village and--</i>

242
00:13:56,779 --> 00:13:58,814
<i>and I did my own assessment.</i>

243
00:13:59,015 --> 00:14:01,084
<i>And there was a lot of people
that didn't like that</i>

244
00:14:01,284 --> 00:14:02,685
<i>back in Washington, DC,
because--</i>

245
00:14:02,885 --> 00:14:04,387
<i>but I'm on the battlefield.</i>

246
00:14:05,355 --> 00:14:09,492
This is an indictment
of the intelligence community.

247
00:14:10,193 --> 00:14:13,696
And, and to a degree--
and I'm a part of it,

248
00:14:13,863 --> 00:14:17,067
so it wasn't like,
I'm not indicting them.

249
00:14:17,233 --> 00:14:19,402
I'm indicting something
that I'm a part of.

250
00:14:19,569 --> 00:14:24,607
What's in here are solutions,
and in a way, you know,

251
00:14:24,807 --> 00:14:28,044
I'm hoping
that it's not too late.

252
00:14:28,211 --> 00:14:30,113
[soft music playing]

253
00:14:32,382 --> 00:14:34,450
[Lee Smith]
<i>What General Michael Flynn
found out</i> ,

254
00:14:35,918 --> 00:14:40,256
all sorts of intelligence
that was necessary for soldiers

255
00:14:40,423 --> 00:14:43,193
as they were fighting
in Afghanistan,

256
00:14:43,393 --> 00:14:46,196
<i>it was all getting lost</i>

257
00:14:46,396 --> 00:14:48,564
<i>because it was being
collected in Afghanistan</i>

258
00:14:48,764 --> 00:14:50,566
<i>and having to go
through Washington</i>

259
00:14:50,733 --> 00:14:52,368
before it could come back
to Afghanistan.

260
00:14:52,535 --> 00:14:54,237
I mean, there were lives
being lost.

261
00:14:54,837 --> 00:14:58,474
You know, there were missions
that were botched,
and lives lost.

262
00:14:59,209 --> 00:15:02,878
There's an example
in our family of this in Iraq.

263
00:15:03,046 --> 00:15:04,914
Charlie was deployed in Iraq.

264
00:15:05,115 --> 00:15:08,118
<i>And Charlie was taking care
of the highways out of Baghdad</i>

265
00:15:08,284 --> 00:15:11,521
down into the gulf
through Kuwait.

266
00:15:12,288 --> 00:15:13,723
Charlie had a bunch of guys

267
00:15:13,889 --> 00:15:15,591
that were fighting
as an infantryman,

268
00:15:15,758 --> 00:15:17,593
and Mike's running intel
over there.

269
00:15:18,761 --> 00:15:21,464
So they're brothers.
There's a chain of command.

270
00:15:22,198 --> 00:15:23,933
But they're brothers.

271
00:15:24,634 --> 00:15:27,270
<i>So Charlie's able to tell Mike,
"Hey, this is
what I'm seeing down here."</i>

272
00:15:27,437 --> 00:15:29,239
Not having it filtered to Mike.

273
00:15:29,405 --> 00:15:32,508
If Charlie told him what was
going on down the street,

274
00:15:32,708 --> 00:15:35,711
okay, south of him,
and what they were seeing
down there,

275
00:15:35,911 --> 00:15:37,747
<i>that he was going to get
accurate information</i>

276
00:15:37,947 --> 00:15:39,915
<i>and be able to use that
and act on it.</i>

277
00:15:40,916 --> 00:15:42,518
[Flynn] <i>This gets published,</i>

278
00:15:42,718 --> 00:15:45,321
<i>huge outcry in Washington, DC,</i>

279
00:15:45,488 --> 00:15:50,326
the heads of the,
of all this just giant monolith

280
00:15:50,493 --> 00:15:53,263
called
the intelligence community,
all the agency heads were like,

281
00:15:53,429 --> 00:15:55,265
they wanted my head.

282
00:15:55,465 --> 00:15:59,069
Ten years of war.
<i>I stick my name
on that assessment.</i>

283
00:15:59,802 --> 00:16:01,904
<i>And I'm saying
to the intelligence community,</i>

284
00:16:02,105 --> 00:16:03,573
<i>we're still not
able to do our job,</i>

285
00:16:03,773 --> 00:16:05,241
<i>we're not doing our job.</i>

286
00:16:05,441 --> 00:16:07,043
<i>There's so many things
that are--</i>

287
00:16:07,243 --> 00:16:08,878
<i>that are addressed in here</i>

288
00:16:09,079 --> 00:16:12,382
from the perspective
of understanding your enemy,

289
00:16:12,582 --> 00:16:15,318
and understanding
the environment,
and understanding yourself.

290
00:16:15,485 --> 00:16:18,988
It's a very basic statement
about warfare.

291
00:16:22,325 --> 00:16:25,128
<i>For the officers,
the last promotion
is to major general.</i>

292
00:16:25,328 --> 00:16:27,463
<i>Everything after that
is an appointment</i>

293
00:16:27,663 --> 00:16:29,399
<i>by the president
of the United States.</i>

294
00:16:29,599 --> 00:16:32,435
<i>Jim Clapper wanted me,
he went to the president</i>

295
00:16:32,635 --> 00:16:34,070
<i>and the president appointed me.</i>

296
00:16:34,270 --> 00:16:36,406
<i>So in this case,
it's President Obama.</i>

297
00:16:36,606 --> 00:16:37,807
[somber music playing]

298
00:16:39,509 --> 00:16:42,745
So President Obama
appoints me into that job

299
00:16:42,945 --> 00:16:45,548
as the assistant director
of National Intelligence,

300
00:16:45,715 --> 00:16:48,984
and then I have to go through
a full Senate confirmation.

301
00:16:49,152 --> 00:16:51,154
So I'm coming back
to Washington, DC,

302
00:16:51,321 --> 00:16:53,489
we're going to be able to keep
our family there, you know,

303
00:16:54,157 --> 00:16:56,259
this is good,
I'm going to get promoted.

304
00:16:56,459 --> 00:16:57,327
[soft music playing]

305
00:17:04,367 --> 00:17:06,802
[click]

306
00:17:07,002 --> 00:17:10,873
<i>Many recall the famous article
Mike Flynn wrote,</i>

307
00:17:11,073 --> 00:17:14,544
<i>called "A Blueprint for Making
Intelligence Relevant,"</i>

308
00:17:15,411 --> 00:17:18,781
<i>which is one of the reasons
why I brought Mike to ODNI</i> ,

309
00:17:19,482 --> 00:17:21,484
<i>to fix
all the intelligence issues</i>

310
00:17:21,684 --> 00:17:24,187
<i>- that he'd been
complaining about.</i>
- [audience laughing]

311
00:17:24,354 --> 00:17:25,888
There's a phrase
in the military,

312
00:17:26,055 --> 00:17:28,858
and I don't use my Irish
too often, but,

313
00:17:29,024 --> 00:17:31,794
you know, they say, "Fuck up
and move up." Right?

314
00:17:31,994 --> 00:17:34,897
And, you know, and I'm thinking,

315
00:17:35,064 --> 00:17:37,200
"Oh, maybe, maybe
I fucked up so bad

316
00:17:37,367 --> 00:17:40,470
that they're just going
to move me up to shut me up."

317
00:17:40,670 --> 00:17:44,940
It may very well be a case
of bringing your enemies

318
00:17:45,107 --> 00:17:46,876
as close as you can
so you can control them.

319
00:17:49,679 --> 00:17:51,481
[Joe] <i>Big title, and a big job.</i>

320
00:17:51,681 --> 00:17:53,048
Big job, huge job.

321
00:17:53,216 --> 00:17:55,485
I mean, the pinnacle
of someone's career

322
00:17:56,085 --> 00:17:57,520
as an intelligence officer
in the United States Army,

323
00:17:57,720 --> 00:17:59,189
<i>it's like almost
the number one--</i>

324
00:17:59,389 --> 00:18:00,990
<i>it is the number one job,
in fact,</i>

325
00:18:01,191 --> 00:18:03,058
<i>unless you're the National
Security Advisor,</i>

326
00:18:03,259 --> 00:18:04,660
<i>which he ended up
becoming as well.</i>

327
00:18:07,096 --> 00:18:09,799
[Flynn] <i>I've had a lot
of time in combat,
probably more--</i>

328
00:18:09,965 --> 00:18:12,302
more time in combat
than most people, you know,

329
00:18:12,468 --> 00:18:15,271
that were
in my sort of category.

330
00:18:15,471 --> 00:18:17,773
<i>And I've had a lot of time,
you know, in the field, in--</i>

331
00:18:17,973 --> 00:18:20,443
<i>in operational assignments.</i>

332
00:18:20,610 --> 00:18:25,181
And, and I'm also a Democrat.

333
00:18:25,281 --> 00:18:27,283
[Jack]
<i>So we're Kennedy Democrats,</i>

334
00:18:27,983 --> 00:18:29,185
never Republicans.

335
00:18:31,954 --> 00:18:34,690
Your blue-collar
Kennedy Democrats.

336
00:18:35,625 --> 00:18:37,427
[Joe] <i>And the media
loved Mike at that time,</i>

337
00:18:37,627 --> 00:18:39,762
<i>interestingly enough,
because again,</i>

338
00:18:39,962 --> 00:18:42,097
<i>the Obama administration's
saying, "Hey, this is our guy.</i>

339
00:18:42,298 --> 00:18:45,268
<i>He's a Democrat. He comes
from a Democrat family.</i>

340
00:18:45,435 --> 00:18:47,837
This guy has been in combat
for six, seven years,"

341
00:18:48,671 --> 00:18:52,408
all this stuff, but,
you know what,
kid from a small town,

342
00:18:52,608 --> 00:18:55,411
<i>who grew up in a huge
poor family, you know,</i>

343
00:18:55,611 --> 00:18:58,180
<i>something like that,
you know, it's a big deal.</i>

344
00:19:00,450 --> 00:19:02,652
<i>So there was a lot of problems
when he took over DIA.</i>

345
00:19:02,852 --> 00:19:04,587
<i>The establishment,
especially the,</i>

346
00:19:04,787 --> 00:19:08,090
<i>what they call the SES,
the senior executive staff,</i>

347
00:19:08,291 --> 00:19:11,327
<i>in the Department of Defense,
was like, "Oh, this guy.</i>

348
00:19:11,527 --> 00:19:14,797
<i>This is, you know, we've seen
these types before.</i>

349
00:19:14,964 --> 00:19:17,166
We're going
to railroad him out of here."

350
00:19:17,333 --> 00:19:20,035
I've kept every--
I'm like a pack rat
with stuff, you know:

351
00:19:20,202 --> 00:19:24,474
awards, decorations, gifts
that were given to me.

352
00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:26,976
And I've kept binders of them,
you know, different things.

353
00:19:27,176 --> 00:19:29,812
[Adam Lovinger] <i>And so,
what really drew me
to General Flynn,</i>

354
00:19:29,979 --> 00:19:32,882
even though we had not
started working together
formally at that point,

355
00:19:33,048 --> 00:19:35,017
is that in all
the meetings we had,

356
00:19:35,184 --> 00:19:40,490
he, his moral compass
was very clear,

357
00:19:40,690 --> 00:19:46,329
<i>and that was that,
as an American
government official,</i>

358
00:19:46,529 --> 00:19:49,399
<i>one must put the interests
of the United States first.</i>

359
00:19:49,565 --> 00:19:53,269
It's the mission which matters,
not the individual,

360
00:19:53,469 --> 00:19:56,506
not lining your pockets
for your career

361
00:19:56,672 --> 00:19:58,341
after you retire
from government,

362
00:19:58,508 --> 00:20:01,243
not building your empire
to get to the next,

363
00:20:01,411 --> 00:20:03,379
you know, rung
within the federal government.

364
00:20:03,546 --> 00:20:06,282
That this is what matters,
and it was wonderful to see

365
00:20:06,482 --> 00:20:09,218
that someone could rise
to such heights

366
00:20:09,385 --> 00:20:11,120
while keeping so true

367
00:20:11,321 --> 00:20:13,756
to these values
that made America great.

368
00:20:13,923 --> 00:20:15,791
He was one
of the most respected generals

369
00:20:15,991 --> 00:20:18,193
in the military,
plain and simple.

370
00:20:18,361 --> 00:20:21,764
And so, you know,
what more can we ask for

371
00:20:21,931 --> 00:20:24,233
than to have one
of our most successful generals

372
00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:28,237
be at the top
of the intelligence apparatus
for our military?

373
00:20:28,404 --> 00:20:30,540
And that's why
he had strong support.

374
00:20:30,740 --> 00:20:32,542
<i>But in January,
President Obama told</i>

375
00:20:32,742 --> 00:20:35,244
<i>the New Yorker magazine's
David Remnick that ISIS,</i>

376
00:20:35,445 --> 00:20:38,381
<i>which was then still considered
a part of Al-Qaeda</i>

377
00:20:38,581 --> 00:20:41,917
<i>fighting in Syria,
was like a JV basketball team.</i>

378
00:20:42,084 --> 00:20:43,653
These guys are--

379
00:20:43,853 --> 00:20:48,791
they want him to say
that the ISIS is the JV team,

380
00:20:48,958 --> 00:20:53,262
and-- and he's like,
that's not what--
that's not going to happen.

381
00:20:53,429 --> 00:20:54,997
They wanted
that narrative to show

382
00:20:55,197 --> 00:20:59,301
that we were being tough
on the enemy overseas

383
00:20:59,469 --> 00:21:01,604
that we were fighting,
and that we were winning.

384
00:21:01,804 --> 00:21:04,840
<i>We weren't winning.
And in fact,
the enemy is growing.</i>

385
00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:05,975
<i>They're expanding.</i>

386
00:21:08,944 --> 00:21:10,380
<i>Now, the way
I remember it is...</i>

387
00:21:10,580 --> 00:21:12,415
<i>we're getting ready
to go testify</i>

388
00:21:12,615 --> 00:21:14,784
<i>to Congress
in an open hearing,</i>

389
00:21:14,984 --> 00:21:18,554
<i>and I get my statement
that had been vetted</i>

390
00:21:18,754 --> 00:21:21,357
<i>through the National
Intelligence Community,</i>

391
00:21:21,557 --> 00:21:24,360
<i>and through the DNI and also
over to the White House.</i>

392
00:21:24,560 --> 00:21:28,364
It's basically got red lines
to change my testimony there, right?

393
00:21:28,564 --> 00:21:31,434
<i>Everybody wants to hear
all the different perspectives</i>

394
00:21:31,634 --> 00:21:33,235
<i>from these different
organizations.</i>

395
00:21:33,436 --> 00:21:35,070
<i>So mine was changed.</i>

396
00:21:35,270 --> 00:21:38,474
<i>And I told my Congressional
Affairs officer,</i>

397
00:21:38,674 --> 00:21:40,142
<i>I said, "I'm not
going to change it.</i>

398
00:21:40,342 --> 00:21:42,044
<i>That's not...
that's not right."</i>

399
00:21:43,012 --> 00:21:47,149
A lot of people on the inside
that were the underperformers

400
00:21:47,316 --> 00:21:51,654
had a lot of institutional clout
that pushed for that as well.

401
00:21:51,821 --> 00:21:54,990
It was literally
a, an organization

402
00:21:55,157 --> 00:21:56,826
that had rot in it,

403
00:21:56,992 --> 00:21:59,629
that wanted to keep
that rot in place.

404
00:21:59,795 --> 00:22:01,831
I know what the CIA's reporting,

405
00:22:01,997 --> 00:22:05,200
I know what the National
Geospatial Agency, you know,

406
00:22:05,367 --> 00:22:07,302
National Security Agency, FBI,

407
00:22:07,470 --> 00:22:08,971
all these different
organizations are reporting.

408
00:22:09,138 --> 00:22:11,140
But I'm responsible
for my agency,

409
00:22:11,306 --> 00:22:12,742
and I'm responsible
to tell the truth

410
00:22:12,942 --> 00:22:15,711
for what my agency,
you know, believes.

411
00:22:15,878 --> 00:22:18,313
This, this organization
called ISIS

412
00:22:18,481 --> 00:22:21,484
was expanding rapidly
and they were in like

413
00:22:21,651 --> 00:22:25,788
20-, you know,
- four or -five nations
around the greater region from,

414
00:22:25,988 --> 00:22:28,090
<i>from literally
from West Africa,
all the way over to,</i>

415
00:22:28,290 --> 00:22:30,993
<i>in some cases, Indonesia
and the Philippines.</i>

416
00:22:32,194 --> 00:22:36,866
I'm called into a,
an office call with Jim Clapper.

417
00:22:37,032 --> 00:22:38,400
So he goes, "We're gonna
ask you to step down,"

418
00:22:38,568 --> 00:22:40,202
and immediately,
immediately, I said,

419
00:22:40,369 --> 00:22:42,004
"Is it because
of my leadership?"

420
00:22:42,171 --> 00:22:43,939
He says, "Oh, no,
it's not your leadership.

421
00:22:44,139 --> 00:22:46,275
If it was, I'd cut you off
at the knees right now

422
00:22:46,476 --> 00:22:48,043
and you wouldn't go back
into the job."

423
00:22:48,243 --> 00:22:49,712
<i>That was my interpretation.</i>

424
00:22:50,980 --> 00:22:52,081
<i>He said, "It's because of--"</i>

425
00:22:52,247 --> 00:22:54,650
and he used the word "attitude."

426
00:22:55,250 --> 00:22:56,686
<i>That's how I remember it.</i>

427
00:22:58,554 --> 00:23:00,022
And I walked out of that room.

428
00:23:00,189 --> 00:23:03,425
And I called my wife,
and I said, you know,

429
00:23:03,593 --> 00:23:05,895
"Honey, things are gonna
change again," you know.

430
00:23:06,061 --> 00:23:08,297
And, and, you know,
in a funny way,

431
00:23:08,498 --> 00:23:10,700
even got a story about it,
you know,

432
00:23:10,866 --> 00:23:13,135
if she even remembers
that, that part,
'cause there was so many.

433
00:23:13,335 --> 00:23:15,370
But she was probably relieved,

434
00:23:15,538 --> 00:23:18,240
I was, you know,
finally gonna retire.

435
00:23:18,407 --> 00:23:21,043
I never changed.
I never changed.

436
00:23:21,210 --> 00:23:24,279
People that know me
from the time I was a kid,

437
00:23:24,446 --> 00:23:27,917
to the people that worked
with me as a young officer

438
00:23:28,083 --> 00:23:31,554
and all throughout my career,
I never changed.

439
00:23:31,721 --> 00:23:34,757
So what changed in Jim Clapper,
who brought me in and hired me?

440
00:23:34,957 --> 00:23:38,494
<i>What changed, Jim?
What changed?</i>

441
00:23:38,694 --> 00:23:44,500
Was it because
I wasn't toeing the line
for the administration?

442
00:23:44,700 --> 00:23:46,969
I wasn't toeing the line
for the,

443
00:23:47,136 --> 00:23:49,972
the "intelligence community's",
you know,

444
00:23:50,139 --> 00:23:53,776
incorrect, false narrative.

445
00:23:53,943 --> 00:23:58,581
And, and, sadly,
you know, tragically,

446
00:24:01,116 --> 00:24:04,920
you know,
when I think about, God,
like, fuck, that was 2014.

447
00:24:06,088 --> 00:24:10,025
When I think
about six more years of fighting

448
00:24:10,225 --> 00:24:13,428
and dying and the bullshit.

449
00:24:15,731 --> 00:24:20,269
You know? I mean, my--
my responsibility as a--

450
00:24:20,435 --> 00:24:22,437
as a senior officer
in the military,

451
00:24:22,605 --> 00:24:24,439
and definitely as a senior
intelligence officer,

452
00:24:24,607 --> 00:24:29,712
is to protect, save,
and, and win.

453
00:24:29,912 --> 00:24:35,184
These assholes are toeing
a political narrative

454
00:24:35,350 --> 00:24:37,152
that was total bullshit.

455
00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:40,556
Something
didn't smell right for me.

456
00:24:40,756 --> 00:24:46,228
<i>And the very next day,
I sent a direct message</i>

457
00:24:46,428 --> 00:24:49,298
and it said, "Sir, I think
I know what happened to you.

458
00:24:50,465 --> 00:24:52,367
Unacceptable.

459
00:24:52,534 --> 00:24:56,471
You have a loyal soldier
for the rest of your life.

460
00:24:56,639 --> 00:25:00,009
Let me know if you ever need to,
like utilize me to help out."

461
00:25:00,175 --> 00:25:02,344
Because I thought
that that was, uh,

462
00:25:02,511 --> 00:25:04,814
him being resigned
was totally unacceptable.

463
00:25:04,980 --> 00:25:05,981
[sad music playing]

464
00:25:14,990 --> 00:25:16,659
I loved DC. I loved Virginia.

465
00:25:16,826 --> 00:25:18,661
We loved being there,
we loved living there,

466
00:25:18,828 --> 00:25:23,098
we had happy times there
until this all happened

467
00:25:23,298 --> 00:25:26,602
when he retired
and then decided to go
and work on his own.

468
00:25:26,802 --> 00:25:30,272
<i>In your career,
I have always found,
whether it's in your service,</i>

469
00:25:30,472 --> 00:25:32,875
<i>or if you spent a lot of time
in a joint community,</i>

470
00:25:33,075 --> 00:25:38,047
<i>you will
run across individuals,
and you will say to yourself,</i>

471
00:25:38,247 --> 00:25:40,683
<i>"That guy is amazing."</i>

472
00:25:40,883 --> 00:25:45,054
<i>And early on, when I met Mike,
I thought to myself,
"That guy is amazing."</i>

473
00:25:45,755 --> 00:25:47,556
<i>Today, as we would say
in the Navy,</i>

474
00:25:47,757 --> 00:25:49,692
<i>we watch pass over the side,</i>

475
00:25:50,525 --> 00:25:53,295
<i>probably the most visible
intelligence professional</i>

476
00:25:53,495 --> 00:25:55,798
<i>that we have generated
within this department</i>

477
00:25:55,998 --> 00:25:57,733
<i>in the last ten or 20 years.</i>

478
00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:00,636
<i>So Mike, we all want to say
thank you for a great job.</i>

479
00:26:00,836 --> 00:26:03,806
<i>We want to thank you for making
a great, great difference.</i>

480
00:26:04,006 --> 00:26:05,841
<i>Lori, we wish you
only the best.</i>

481
00:26:06,575 --> 00:26:08,711
<i>We know there's a lot
of opportunities ahead of you.</i>

482
00:26:08,911 --> 00:26:11,480
<i>I can't wait to see where
the journey is gonna take you.</i>

483
00:26:11,681 --> 00:26:13,949
<i>I don't think we've heard
the last of the Flynns.</i>

484
00:26:14,116 --> 00:26:19,621
That was, without a doubt,
a real test of the relationship

485
00:26:19,789 --> 00:26:25,394
and, um, and she was patient.

486
00:26:25,560 --> 00:26:29,064
And I saw her get mad.
But she knew he was right.

487
00:26:29,231 --> 00:26:30,933
And I knew, we all knew
he was right.

488
00:26:31,100 --> 00:26:34,904
Lori was a stabilizing force
in his life.

489
00:26:35,070 --> 00:26:36,405
She's a special gal.

490
00:26:36,571 --> 00:26:40,876
She's strong,
unwavering commitment.

491
00:26:41,076 --> 00:26:44,546
<i>I think Lori saved his life
actually, as a teenager,
if you ask me.</i>

492
00:26:44,747 --> 00:26:48,751
<i>I think that if Michael
hadn't really, you know,</i>

493
00:26:48,951 --> 00:26:51,921
<i>been kind of swept up
in that relationship
as a teenager--</i>

494
00:26:52,121 --> 00:26:56,025
<i>you're talking 14,
15 years old,
that's a young person--</i>

495
00:26:56,759 --> 00:26:58,093
I think that Michael
could have gone

496
00:26:58,260 --> 00:27:00,095
a completely different
direction.

497
00:27:00,262 --> 00:27:01,997
Probably God at work there,
honestly,

498
00:27:02,164 --> 00:27:03,799
whith that relationship
blooming.

499
00:27:03,966 --> 00:27:06,769
And who would have thought
that at 14 and 15 years old,

500
00:27:06,936 --> 00:27:08,670
you know,
they'd be married today,

501
00:27:08,838 --> 00:27:10,840
40-- after all they've been
through, I don't know,

502
00:27:11,006 --> 00:27:13,508
48 years,
almost going on 50 years.

503
00:27:13,675 --> 00:27:16,611
But that relationship
at that time in Michael's life

504
00:27:17,479 --> 00:27:19,749
<i>gave him a reason
to get focused on something.</i>

505
00:27:19,949 --> 00:27:23,252
<i>He did better in school.
He did better in sports.</i>

506
00:27:23,452 --> 00:27:25,721
<i>He got really into really
playing sports in school.</i>

507
00:27:25,921 --> 00:27:28,190
Of course,
then when he went into,

508
00:27:28,357 --> 00:27:30,559
when he went
to University of Rhode Island,

509
00:27:30,760 --> 00:27:34,296
the army and the ROTC program
was another godsend for him,

510
00:27:34,463 --> 00:27:38,300
you know, for a rambunctious guy
like Mike Flynn. [laughs]

511
00:27:38,467 --> 00:27:40,803
[laughing]

512
00:27:41,003 --> 00:27:44,239
[Lori] <i>I went to kindergarten
through eighth grade
in one Catholic school,</i>

513
00:27:44,439 --> 00:27:46,508
<i>and then didn't go
to a public school</i>

514
00:27:46,675 --> 00:27:48,477
till I was in the ninth grade.

515
00:27:48,643 --> 00:27:52,882
That was a big eye-opener
for me, for sure.

516
00:27:52,982 --> 00:27:54,817
<i>And that's when
I first met Mike, too,</i>

517
00:27:55,017 --> 00:27:57,319
<i>that summer
going into the ninth grade.</i>

518
00:27:57,519 --> 00:28:00,089
<i>You know, we didn't date
in ninth grade or anything.</i>

519
00:28:00,289 --> 00:28:03,192
<i>We just kind of
went steady for two weeks,</i>

520
00:28:03,392 --> 00:28:05,828
<i>and then we went
our separate ways.</i>

521
00:28:06,028 --> 00:28:07,797
<i>I mean, I always saw him
in the halls in high school,</i>

522
00:28:07,997 --> 00:28:09,999
<i>but we kind of had our own life
the next two years,</i>

523
00:28:10,199 --> 00:28:12,835
<i>and then our senior year,
we got back together again.</i>

524
00:28:13,035 --> 00:28:15,104
<i>We both said that night</i>

525
00:28:15,304 --> 00:28:17,206
<i>that if we go out
with each other again,
this is it.</i>

526
00:28:17,372 --> 00:28:19,341
You're not, you know,
no, no straying.

527
00:28:19,541 --> 00:28:21,143
[Flynn] <i>So when Lori and I
were married,</i>

528
00:28:21,343 --> 00:28:23,813
<i>during the wedding ceremony,
the priest,</i>

529
00:28:24,013 --> 00:28:27,116
<i>who was also a cousin of ours,
Philip, Father Philip.</i>

530
00:28:27,316 --> 00:28:29,518
There's a part of the beach
and we call it the Rock.

531
00:28:29,718 --> 00:28:32,121
<i>We would go spend
a lot of time surfing there.</i>

532
00:28:32,321 --> 00:28:35,891
<i>He described Lori
as that rock, unmovable.</i>

533
00:28:36,826 --> 00:28:39,494
He described me as the tide.

534
00:28:40,495 --> 00:28:43,298
I think my husband
is the rock, really.

535
00:28:44,566 --> 00:28:48,270
<i>I think we're a great team
together.</i>

536
00:28:48,437 --> 00:28:53,175
I can't say that I never lost it
during this whole thing.

537
00:28:54,376 --> 00:28:59,581
<i>There were times
that I was pretty rock-bottom.</i>

538
00:28:59,681 --> 00:29:04,419
<i>And he always was the strength
that I needed to go on.</i>

539
00:29:04,586 --> 00:29:07,756
I mean, he always had
the best-case scenarios
that we would, you know,

540
00:29:07,923 --> 00:29:09,825
he would always put it
in a better light than I could.

541
00:29:10,025 --> 00:29:13,662
And there could have been
no better description
in our marriage.

542
00:29:13,863 --> 00:29:16,966
<i>You know, we're getting ready
to go into 42 years
of marriage.</i>

543
00:29:17,900 --> 00:29:20,702
<i>You know,
we've known each other
since we were 13 years old.</i>

544
00:29:21,803 --> 00:29:27,676
<i>A steady rock
in this ebb and flow of life.</i>

545
00:29:28,710 --> 00:29:32,714
<i>And I knew
that I could depend on her
to do a lot of things that--</i>

546
00:29:32,915 --> 00:29:34,716
<i>that I was not
going to be able to do.</i>

547
00:29:34,917 --> 00:29:36,986
<i>And many of the times
'cause I'm deployed.</i>

548
00:29:38,020 --> 00:29:42,357
[Lori] <i>Uh, prayer and God
came back into my life,
into both of our lives,</i>

549
00:29:42,557 --> 00:29:45,127
<i>because we were
at wit's end sometimes.</i>

550
00:29:45,294 --> 00:29:49,932
And that was
one of the only things
that we knew we had.

551
00:29:50,099 --> 00:29:53,702
[Flynn] May the rain
fall soft upon your fields,
and until we meet again--

552
00:29:53,903 --> 00:29:56,705
[all] May God hold
you in the palm of his hand.

553
00:29:56,906 --> 00:29:59,341
- Amen. Amen.
- Sláinte. Sláinte. Sláinte.

554
00:29:59,508 --> 00:30:01,643
The house that we ended up
growing up in,

555
00:30:01,810 --> 00:30:05,280
in Rhode Island,
belonged to my grandfather.

556
00:30:05,447 --> 00:30:07,816
We came back to this house
that had one bedroom,

557
00:30:07,983 --> 00:30:10,385
one little tiny bathroom,
a little tiny kitchen.

558
00:30:10,585 --> 00:30:13,355
All the boys were in, uh,
were in bunk beds,

559
00:30:13,522 --> 00:30:15,390
and my parents slept
in the living room--

560
00:30:15,590 --> 00:30:17,826
there was a pullout couch--
for a while.

561
00:30:17,993 --> 00:30:21,230
There were three oldest,
three middle,
and three youngest.

562
00:30:21,430 --> 00:30:23,332
And I was part
of the three youngest,

563
00:30:23,498 --> 00:30:25,467
so I would be in the bathroom,

564
00:30:25,634 --> 00:30:28,470
and I would never
get like it alone.

565
00:30:28,637 --> 00:30:31,473
I would be scrubbing my teeth
and so the boys would come in,

566
00:30:31,640 --> 00:30:33,875
you know, "I gotta go,"
because it was one bathroom.

567
00:30:34,043 --> 00:30:37,412
But that bathroom door,
it got knocked down a few times.

568
00:30:37,612 --> 00:30:38,747
[laughs]

569
00:30:38,948 --> 00:30:40,382
[soft music playing]

570
00:30:46,355 --> 00:30:51,193
[Clare] <i>Here's, you know,
nine kids, 11 people
in a 1,200-square-foot house.</i>

571
00:30:52,361 --> 00:30:54,329
<i>So our backyard,
our playground,</i>

572
00:30:54,529 --> 00:30:56,531
<i>was the ocean,
was the Atlantic Ocean.</i>

573
00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:02,037
My parents were great.
They just let us go.

574
00:31:04,306 --> 00:31:06,708
[Flynn] <i>The beach was there.</i>

575
00:31:06,908 --> 00:31:09,945
<i>The water was an outlet for us.</i>

576
00:31:10,145 --> 00:31:13,115
[Jack] <i>I mean, I'm paddling out
when I was seven
or eight years old,</i>

577
00:31:13,315 --> 00:31:16,918
<i>in the lineup in big waves
off Ruggles Avenue.</i>

578
00:31:18,153 --> 00:31:21,256
It was literally, you could
run out in our backyard,

579
00:31:21,423 --> 00:31:23,758
pick up a, you know,
a throwin' rock,

580
00:31:23,925 --> 00:31:26,195
and you could throw it
into the ocean.
It was that close.

581
00:31:26,395 --> 00:31:30,665
[Joe] <i>And we started to realize,
"Hey, there's guys
out there surfing."</i>

582
00:31:30,765 --> 00:31:33,202
<i>And we could swim like fish.</i>

583
00:31:35,137 --> 00:31:37,706
[Mary] <i>And the kids would
be swarming all over the beach.</i>

584
00:31:37,906 --> 00:31:41,376
<i>I mean, there'd be like
five or six of them.
That, that was a lot of fun.</i>

585
00:31:41,576 --> 00:31:43,245
<i>It really was a lot of fun.</i>

586
00:31:43,445 --> 00:31:45,414
[Clare] <i>You know,
we would go surf all winter,</i>

587
00:31:45,614 --> 00:31:46,715
<i>surf in hurricanes.</i>

588
00:31:46,915 --> 00:31:49,318
<i>And so, it taught us a lot</i>

589
00:31:49,518 --> 00:31:53,088
<i>about endurance,
being in the ocean for hours.</i>

590
00:31:53,288 --> 00:31:55,657
[Flynn] <i>There's
a lot of people that surf,</i>

591
00:31:55,857 --> 00:31:59,428
<i>but those of us that find it
as a spiritual thing...</i>

592
00:32:01,963 --> 00:32:04,133
In our family,
it's a spiritual thing.

593
00:32:05,700 --> 00:32:07,002
<i>It's very, very powerful.</i>

594
00:32:07,202 --> 00:32:08,637
<i>You have to respect the power.</i>

595
00:32:09,604 --> 00:32:11,873
<i>What is it telling you
at times?</i>

596
00:32:12,741 --> 00:32:14,243
<i>If you're out in big surf,
that, you know,</i>

597
00:32:14,443 --> 00:32:16,445
<i>your life could turn
in a second.</i>

598
00:32:16,645 --> 00:32:20,049
<i>Taking off on a wave,
wiped out...</i>

599
00:32:20,149 --> 00:32:23,685
<i>been dragged down
and felt like,</i>

600
00:32:23,885 --> 00:32:25,354
<i>I'm out here all alone.</i>

601
00:32:27,722 --> 00:32:31,793
<i>That is a respect
that I learned,</i>

602
00:32:31,993 --> 00:32:34,129
<i>and I still have it
to this day.</i>

603
00:32:40,269 --> 00:32:42,771
[Joe] <i>You got to remember,
your entire adult life
is in the military.</i>

604
00:32:42,971 --> 00:32:45,540
<i>All you know is a command
structure like the military.</i>

605
00:32:45,740 --> 00:32:49,311
<i>You don't have a lot
of experience in business.
You're getting things set up.</i>

606
00:32:49,511 --> 00:32:50,812
[Clare] <i>You know,
he wants to work.</i>

607
00:32:51,012 --> 00:32:52,814
<i>He still wants to have,
you know,</i>

608
00:32:53,014 --> 00:32:55,150
<i>service to country again.</i>

609
00:32:55,317 --> 00:32:58,353
Michael Jr. was actually
working for a company
that I was running at the time,

610
00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:00,855
and he came to me and said,
"I'm going to go work
for my dad,

611
00:33:01,022 --> 00:33:02,857
we're going to start
a consulting group."

612
00:33:03,024 --> 00:33:05,860
Companies were hiring him
for advisory work.

613
00:33:06,027 --> 00:33:08,663
I think he was on some boards
of some private equity groups.

614
00:33:08,830 --> 00:33:12,067
Normal stuff that generals do
when they get out of service.

615
00:33:12,267 --> 00:33:14,903
We essentially formed
a business together.

616
00:33:15,104 --> 00:33:16,638
He was just like, "You want
to go into business together?"

617
00:33:16,805 --> 00:33:18,807
I said, "Absolutely."
I mean, this was a guy

618
00:33:18,973 --> 00:33:22,877
that I had grown up
idolizing my entire life,

619
00:33:23,044 --> 00:33:25,013
and this was a chance for me to,

620
00:33:25,180 --> 00:33:28,583
to get to know my father,
you know? And...

621
00:33:32,487 --> 00:33:38,026
No, it was-- it was...
It was, uh...

622
00:33:38,193 --> 00:33:39,694
it was an opportunity
I knew I had to take,

623
00:33:39,861 --> 00:33:41,230
that I wanted to take.

624
00:33:42,464 --> 00:33:45,334
I love the idea
of being able to work with him

625
00:33:45,500 --> 00:33:49,003
because for many, many years
of his life, I wasn't around,

626
00:33:49,171 --> 00:33:52,674
with military and deployments
and moves and, and,

627
00:33:52,841 --> 00:33:55,877
and schools and high schools
and baseball games and--

628
00:33:56,044 --> 00:33:57,546
and birthdays and hell,

629
00:33:57,712 --> 00:33:59,914
I almost didn't make it
to his wedding.

630
00:34:00,081 --> 00:34:02,917
I flew in from Afghanistan
the night before his wedding.

631
00:34:03,685 --> 00:34:06,955
And I was lucky that I made it.

632
00:34:07,856 --> 00:34:10,359
<i>I was so happy that I was going
to be able to do that with him</i>

633
00:34:10,559 --> 00:34:14,229
<i>to be closer to him,
work with him on a daily basis.</i>

634
00:34:15,730 --> 00:34:19,134
People started
to reach out to him
to ask him for his advice

635
00:34:19,334 --> 00:34:21,670
on a lot of the foreign, um,

636
00:34:21,870 --> 00:34:24,173
<i>you know, what was happening
in foreign countries.</i>

637
00:34:24,373 --> 00:34:27,142
<i>And so, he was
advising everybody.</i>

638
00:34:27,342 --> 00:34:29,311
[Flynn] <i>When I looked
at what the country needed,</i>

639
00:34:29,511 --> 00:34:32,614
the country didn't need
another Clinton or another Bush.

640
00:34:33,782 --> 00:34:34,783
That was clear.

641
00:34:38,253 --> 00:34:40,655
[Michael Jr.] <i>I am pretty
sure that he knew then</i>

642
00:34:40,855 --> 00:34:44,459
<i>that Donald Trump
was going to be the nominee.</i>

643
00:34:44,626 --> 00:34:47,061
We did meet
with other candidates.

644
00:34:47,229 --> 00:34:51,400
I mean, I remember sitting down
with Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina,
Ted Cruz.

645
00:34:51,566 --> 00:34:56,805
Probably why I wasn't
asked to help those,
Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton.

646
00:34:56,971 --> 00:34:59,974
But also I never said no,
I was just never asked.

647
00:35:00,141 --> 00:35:03,445
You know, I was--
I was praying that there was
going to be somebody

648
00:35:03,612 --> 00:35:09,451
that rose out of the ashes
who wasn't a typical politician.

649
00:35:09,618 --> 00:35:12,287
And I looked at him
and I go, "Donald Trump?
Are you out of your mind?"

650
00:35:12,454 --> 00:35:14,423
And he goes,
"I'm telling you right now,

651
00:35:14,589 --> 00:35:16,291
Donald Trump
can beat Hillary Clinton."

652
00:35:16,458 --> 00:35:17,959
I said, "Why?"

653
00:35:18,126 --> 00:35:20,028
He goes,
"Because the country is--

654
00:35:20,229 --> 00:35:22,497
the country's ready
for something different."

655
00:35:22,664 --> 00:35:25,066
[triumphant music playing]

656
00:35:25,267 --> 00:35:29,804
[Michael Jr.] <i>He met Trump
for the first time in 2015.</i>

657
00:35:29,971 --> 00:35:33,842
He expected it to only be like
maybe a 20-to 30-minute meeting.

658
00:35:34,008 --> 00:35:36,211
It turned into like
a two-and-a-half-hour-long
meeting.

659
00:35:36,411 --> 00:35:40,148
If we can end these,
these wars that we are in,

660
00:35:40,315 --> 00:35:42,050
we're-- where we're pouring
trillions and trillions
of dollars,

661
00:35:42,251 --> 00:35:43,852
and we're not winning.

662
00:35:44,018 --> 00:35:46,355
And Trump was the one
that had that, that's,

663
00:35:46,521 --> 00:35:49,358
that was the conversation
that I initially had with him.

664
00:35:49,524 --> 00:35:52,861
I was happy
to support Trump as well

665
00:35:53,027 --> 00:35:55,196
because I just wanted to see,
I wanted--

666
00:35:55,364 --> 00:35:57,399
I didn't see all the hope
and change as much as I wanted,

667
00:35:57,599 --> 00:35:59,668
you know, with Obama.

668
00:35:59,834 --> 00:36:01,636
And I wanted to see
what would happen with Trump.

669
00:36:01,803 --> 00:36:03,405
My first bombshell.

670
00:36:04,373 --> 00:36:07,742
My first, [inhales deeply]
"Uh-oh," was,

671
00:36:08,443 --> 00:36:10,078
and I was proud of him.

672
00:36:10,279 --> 00:36:14,349
I was, it's true, but was
at that Republican convention.

673
00:36:14,516 --> 00:36:18,086
But I was concerned
about that with him

674
00:36:18,287 --> 00:36:23,358
because he was now in a--
in another world with politics.

675
00:36:23,558 --> 00:36:26,995
- [audience cheering]
<i>- Elect Donald Trump</i>

676
00:36:27,195 --> 00:36:30,765
<i>as the next president
of the United States
of America.</i>

677
00:36:30,965 --> 00:36:33,668
<i>Thank you very much,
and God bless America.</i>

678
00:36:33,868 --> 00:36:35,937
[Flynn] <i>From that moment on,
I really,</i>

679
00:36:36,137 --> 00:36:39,708
I started to ride with,
with, with Donald Trump,

680
00:36:39,874 --> 00:36:41,343
literally ride with him.

681
00:36:41,510 --> 00:36:43,044
And we'd fly
all over the country

682
00:36:43,211 --> 00:36:45,414
and go to these different
campaign rallies.

683
00:36:45,580 --> 00:36:48,550
We'd do three or four cities
in a day.

684
00:36:48,717 --> 00:36:52,153
And every place that we went to
would have no less than

685
00:36:52,354 --> 00:36:55,990
<i>10,000 people,
and in most cases,
they had 20-, 30,000 people.</i>

686
00:36:56,190 --> 00:36:59,794
<i>- Unbelievable.</i>
- [crowd cheering and applauding]

687
00:37:01,896 --> 00:37:03,632
[crowd chanting] <i>USA!</i>

688
00:37:03,832 --> 00:37:05,467
[Trump] <i>We are going
to win back the White House.</i>

689
00:37:05,667 --> 00:37:08,236
[Flynn] <i>It reinforced
for me the sentiment</i>

690
00:37:08,437 --> 00:37:11,573
<i>that I felt about the direction
of the country.</i>

691
00:37:11,740 --> 00:37:14,743
These big institutions,
these complexes, right?

692
00:37:14,909 --> 00:37:16,645
I call it the security
state complex,

693
00:37:16,845 --> 00:37:20,148
the military-industrial complex,
where they were leading us.

694
00:37:21,316 --> 00:37:24,819
And they're leading us
down a path that,

695
00:37:25,019 --> 00:37:26,955
that nobody wants to go down.

696
00:37:27,121 --> 00:37:28,957
You know, it's like
they say, right,

697
00:37:29,123 --> 00:37:30,892
Flynn knows where
the bodies are buried.

698
00:37:31,059 --> 00:37:34,896
That's a metaphor
for understanding how dangerous

699
00:37:35,063 --> 00:37:38,533
our system of government
has, has become.

700
00:37:38,733 --> 00:37:42,837
<i>And now I'm advising a guy
who looks to be, you know, a,</i>

701
00:37:43,037 --> 00:37:45,674
<i>he's the front runner
for one of the major parties.</i>

702
00:37:46,608 --> 00:37:48,343
And he's gonna, you know,
he has a shot at being

703
00:37:48,543 --> 00:37:50,512
president of the United States
of America.

704
00:37:50,712 --> 00:37:53,081
Big deal, right?
It's huge. It's a start.

705
00:37:53,982 --> 00:38:00,355
And so you fast forward into,
into June of 2016.

706
00:38:00,555 --> 00:38:02,824
And now I get a phone call
from Corey Lewandowski saying,

707
00:38:02,991 --> 00:38:06,094
"Hey, we're going to vet you
for vice president
of the United States."

708
00:38:06,728 --> 00:38:10,098
I says, "Wow."
That's-- that was like--

709
00:38:10,264 --> 00:38:11,633
I didn't expect that.

710
00:38:11,800 --> 00:38:15,069
I'm saying it. I don't-- I think

711
00:38:15,269 --> 00:38:17,606
<i>Pence envied
Mike's relationship
with Donald Trump.</i>

712
00:38:19,007 --> 00:38:23,378
<i>Trump respects people
that know how to work.</i>

713
00:38:23,578 --> 00:38:26,314
<i>Pence was
a lifetime politician.</i>

714
00:38:26,515 --> 00:38:29,684
<i>Priebus was
a lifetime politician</i> .

715
00:38:29,851 --> 00:38:32,954
They're GOP party hacks.

716
00:38:33,121 --> 00:38:38,226
Mike was
a dyed-in-the-wool soldier.

717
00:38:39,528 --> 00:38:45,534
Trump traveled
with Michael for months
before he was elected.

718
00:38:46,468 --> 00:38:48,369
Pence was pulled in politically.

719
00:38:48,537 --> 00:38:53,408
Mike became close to Trump
as a friend and trusted...

720
00:38:54,375 --> 00:38:58,413
I don't know, advisor,
ally in the trenches through--

721
00:38:58,613 --> 00:39:01,082
through the election process.

722
00:39:01,282 --> 00:39:06,354
[Flynn] <i>Mike Pence,
Newt Gingrich, Chris Christie,
and Mike Flynn.</i>

723
00:39:06,555 --> 00:39:08,590
<i>You know, and it's humbling.</i>

724
00:39:08,790 --> 00:39:10,959
<i>It's a humbling,
humbling experience,</i>

725
00:39:11,159 --> 00:39:14,629
<i>to even be considered, to be
thought about like that.</i>

726
00:39:14,829 --> 00:39:17,499
<i>The fascinating thing
about that is</i>

727
00:39:18,166 --> 00:39:20,769
that, of those four people,
three of them were,

728
00:39:20,969 --> 00:39:23,371
I would call,
hardcore Republicans.

729
00:39:23,538 --> 00:39:27,208
One, Mike Flynn,
is a registered Democrat.

730
00:39:28,677 --> 00:39:31,613
I went into the White House
as a-- as a Democrat, right,

731
00:39:31,813 --> 00:39:33,381
because I didn't give
a shit about the politics.

732
00:39:33,548 --> 00:39:35,884
What I cared about
was our country.

733
00:39:36,585 --> 00:39:39,053
So I get a phone call, you know,
from Trump, you know,

734
00:39:39,220 --> 00:39:40,689
"How you doing, Donald,
what's going on?"

735
00:39:40,855 --> 00:39:42,791
He goes, "Well, you know,
you've seen everything."

736
00:39:42,991 --> 00:39:45,226
He goes, "I'm not gonna
go with you as,

737
00:39:45,393 --> 00:39:47,629
as the vice president,"
and he, and he kind of,

738
00:39:47,829 --> 00:39:49,898
you know,
flippantly jokes, says,

739
00:39:50,064 --> 00:39:53,267
"In another time, you know,
maybe being a Democrat

740
00:39:53,434 --> 00:39:55,236
would be a good thing, but,"
he goes, "but it's, you know,

741
00:39:55,403 --> 00:39:56,571
it's not going
to work out this time."

742
00:39:56,738 --> 00:39:58,072
And I said, "No problem.

743
00:39:58,239 --> 00:40:00,408
I'm, I'm, you know,
I'm here to help.

744
00:40:00,575 --> 00:40:02,276
However I can,
you know, help out."

745
00:40:02,443 --> 00:40:05,213
And, and he told me
he was going to Indiana

746
00:40:05,379 --> 00:40:07,315
and Mike Pence was
going to be his-- his choice.

747
00:40:07,516 --> 00:40:11,085
<i>The next vice president
of the United States,</i>

748
00:40:11,285 --> 00:40:13,054
<i>Governor Mike Pence.</i>

749
00:40:13,254 --> 00:40:16,224
<i>- Thank you, everybody,
thank you.</i>
- [cheering]

750
00:40:16,424 --> 00:40:17,926
[Flynn] <i>All these
other sycophants</i>

751
00:40:18,126 --> 00:40:20,361
<i>and all these people
that are consultants</i>

752
00:40:20,562 --> 00:40:22,230
<i>and, and part of the campaign,
they're, like, getting paid.</i>

753
00:40:22,396 --> 00:40:23,898
They're on a payroll,
big payroll.

754
00:40:24,065 --> 00:40:25,466
I never took a dime, not a dime.

755
00:40:25,634 --> 00:40:27,969
I didn't get paid a cent.

756
00:40:28,136 --> 00:40:30,772
I did that because that's what
I felt like was my--

757
00:40:30,972 --> 00:40:33,407
<i>my, like, responsibility.</i>

758
00:40:36,377 --> 00:40:37,846
[Trump on TV] <i>They spied
on my campaign.</i>

759
00:40:38,046 --> 00:40:39,514
[Leslie on TV] <i>There's
no evidence of that.</i>

760
00:40:39,748 --> 00:40:41,716
- [Trump] <i>Of course there is.</i>
- [Leslie] <i>No.</i>

761
00:40:41,916 --> 00:40:43,417
<i>- Leslie,
they spied on my campaign--</i>
- [Leslie] <i>Sir...</i>

762
00:40:43,618 --> 00:40:45,019
<i>And then they got caught.</i>

763
00:40:45,219 --> 00:40:47,488
The government,
the federal government,

764
00:40:47,656 --> 00:40:49,323
the United States
intelligence community,

765
00:40:49,490 --> 00:40:51,760
elements within it,

766
00:40:51,926 --> 00:40:54,629
the most senior
law enforcement organization

767
00:40:54,796 --> 00:40:56,765
in the country, the FBI,

768
00:40:56,931 --> 00:40:59,200
was spying
on a presidential campaign.

769
00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:00,869
We didn't know it.

770
00:41:01,069 --> 00:41:02,604
<i>We can't put on things
we can't verify.</i>

771
00:41:02,804 --> 00:41:04,606
<i>Leslie,
they spied on my campaign.</i>

772
00:41:04,806 --> 00:41:06,407
<i>- Well, we can't verify that.
- It's been totally verified.</i>

773
00:41:06,641 --> 00:41:08,109
<i>No.</i>

774
00:41:08,309 --> 00:41:10,078
[reporter] <i>Donald J. Trump
will become</i>

775
00:41:10,278 --> 00:41:13,081
<i>the 45th president
of the United States,</i>

776
00:41:13,281 --> 00:41:15,316
<i>defeating Hillary Clinton
in a campaign</i>

777
00:41:15,516 --> 00:41:19,453
<i>unlike anything we've seen
in our lifetime.</i>

778
00:41:19,621 --> 00:41:20,789
And I'd be lying if I--

779
00:41:20,955 --> 00:41:23,324
if I didn't admit that,
like, you know,

780
00:41:23,524 --> 00:41:26,294
<i>I, I didn't really think
Trump was gonna win either.</i>

781
00:41:26,494 --> 00:41:29,130
<i>But then he got elected.</i>

782
00:41:29,330 --> 00:41:31,132
[Obama] <i>As I said last night,</i>

783
00:41:31,332 --> 00:41:34,603
<i>my number one priority
in the coming two months</i>

784
00:41:34,803 --> 00:41:39,007
<i>is to try to facilitate
a transition</i>

785
00:41:39,207 --> 00:41:42,010
<i>that ensures our president-
elect is successful.</i>

786
00:41:42,210 --> 00:41:45,513
[Flynn] <i>Obama talks
to Trump about two people.</i>

787
00:41:45,680 --> 00:41:50,018
Threats, apparently,
to him, certainly to,

788
00:41:50,184 --> 00:41:52,153
at least one
to the United States,

789
00:41:52,320 --> 00:41:54,589
and one of them was Kim Jong Un,

790
00:41:54,789 --> 00:41:57,692
the dictator
over in North Korea,

791
00:41:57,859 --> 00:42:01,195
and the other was
General Mike Flynn.

792
00:42:01,996 --> 00:42:04,933
You know, the one thing
Obama tells Trump is,

793
00:42:05,133 --> 00:42:07,936
don't hire,
don't hire General Flynn.

794
00:42:08,136 --> 00:42:10,471
I mean, you can't
make this stuff up.

795
00:42:10,672 --> 00:42:13,441
[Flynn] <i>So I go
upstairs to Trump's office,</i>

796
00:42:13,642 --> 00:42:15,576
<i>and he started telling me
about this conversation</i>

797
00:42:15,744 --> 00:42:18,613
that he had had with--
with Barack Obama.

798
00:42:18,813 --> 00:42:20,181
And I said, "Really?"

799
00:42:20,348 --> 00:42:21,582
And he goes,
"What do you think about that?"

800
00:42:21,750 --> 00:42:23,017
And I said, "You know something?

801
00:42:23,184 --> 00:42:25,720
I've never met the guy."
Never met him.

802
00:42:25,887 --> 00:42:27,421
Never met Barack Obama.

803
00:42:27,588 --> 00:42:29,223
Although he picked me twice
for two key jobs.

804
00:42:29,390 --> 00:42:32,060
I said, "I never had
the opportunity to meet the guy,

805
00:42:32,226 --> 00:42:33,594
so why-- why he would say
something like that,

806
00:42:33,762 --> 00:42:35,396
I have no idea."

807
00:42:35,563 --> 00:42:36,865
And he goes,
"Yeah, neither do I."

808
00:42:37,031 --> 00:42:39,300
And he goes,
"I don't trust the guy."

809
00:42:40,769 --> 00:42:42,303
[somber music playing]

810
00:42:45,206 --> 00:42:47,375
[Flynn] <i>I stood up for him,
I stood up with him.</i>

811
00:42:47,575 --> 00:42:49,043
<i>We won.</i>

812
00:42:49,243 --> 00:42:51,079
<i>And he turns around and goes,</i>

813
00:42:51,279 --> 00:42:53,181
<i>"Want you to come in and be
my National Security Adviser."</i>

814
00:42:53,381 --> 00:42:55,750
<i>That's a really difficult
question to say no to.</i>

815
00:42:59,220 --> 00:43:01,055
<i>So I said yes.</i>

816
00:43:01,255 --> 00:43:04,358
<i>We shook hands, we took a--
took some photos,</i>

817
00:43:04,558 --> 00:43:08,429
<i>we put out a press release
about it,</i>

818
00:43:08,629 --> 00:43:11,232
<i>and it just seemed like
all hell broke loose.</i>

819
00:43:11,432 --> 00:43:13,768
<i>I mean, it just really seemed
like all hell broke loose.</i>

820
00:43:13,935 --> 00:43:15,636
There's going to be

821
00:43:15,804 --> 00:43:19,073
a complete cleansing
of the fraud, waste, and abuse,

822
00:43:19,273 --> 00:43:21,009
<i>because there was indications
that he was going to do</i>

823
00:43:21,209 --> 00:43:23,878
<i>a look and audit into
the National Security System</i>

824
00:43:24,078 --> 00:43:25,880
<i>to root out the rot,</i>

825
00:43:26,080 --> 00:43:28,783
<i>but not just
in one little agency.</i>

826
00:43:28,950 --> 00:43:30,752
The National Security Advisor

827
00:43:30,919 --> 00:43:33,922
is essentially above
the Intelligence Community,

828
00:43:34,088 --> 00:43:36,190
the Department of Defense,

829
00:43:36,390 --> 00:43:38,426
and the Foreign Policy
Community,

830
00:43:38,592 --> 00:43:40,661
the State Department.

831
00:43:40,829 --> 00:43:44,465
So they have purview over
all those three kind of areas

832
00:43:44,632 --> 00:43:48,502
within our entire
national security,

833
00:43:48,669 --> 00:43:52,173
foreign policy-making community.

834
00:43:52,340 --> 00:43:54,308
That's big.

835
00:43:54,475 --> 00:43:56,878
I didn't run the Defense
Intelligence Agency.

836
00:43:57,078 --> 00:43:59,848
But if a guy stands up
who did, and says,

837
00:44:00,014 --> 00:44:02,450
"Well, actually, I sort of--
I sort of know a lot about this

838
00:44:02,616 --> 00:44:05,286
because I ran the Defense
Intelligence Agency,"

839
00:44:05,453 --> 00:44:07,789
that's a voice
with weight and authority.

840
00:44:07,956 --> 00:44:10,224
That is a massive threat
to them.

841
00:44:11,425 --> 00:44:13,227
[Flynn] <i>Probably one of
the most powerful positions</i>

842
00:44:13,427 --> 00:44:16,497
<i>in the entirety
of the government.</i>

843
00:44:17,098 --> 00:44:21,169
Because you are a close personal
advisor on a daily basis.

844
00:44:21,335 --> 00:44:23,204
You continue to travel
with the president, you know,

845
00:44:23,371 --> 00:44:26,775
you are there in all of
the critical meetings,

846
00:44:26,975 --> 00:44:29,677
<i>all the critical decisions
for the country.</i>

847
00:44:29,878 --> 00:44:31,880
<i>You know,
I was incredibly honored.</i>

848
00:44:32,046 --> 00:44:35,817
I felt, I felt
very well prepared.

849
00:44:35,984 --> 00:44:41,756
Um, and I was brutally,
brutally attacked.

850
00:44:42,857 --> 00:44:46,327
The bureaucracy
targeted those of us

851
00:44:46,494 --> 00:44:48,196
who supported
the president's mission

852
00:44:48,362 --> 00:44:50,264
of making
the federal bureaucracy

853
00:44:50,464 --> 00:44:51,933
accountable
to the American people.

854
00:44:52,133 --> 00:44:53,501
From the outcome of the election

855
00:44:53,667 --> 00:44:56,570
until the Inauguration Day,
there is a,

856
00:44:56,737 --> 00:44:59,740
there is an entire
operation ongoing

857
00:44:59,908 --> 00:45:02,376
that the government
actually plans for.

858
00:45:02,543 --> 00:45:04,212
But-- but now,
it was a bit different.

859
00:45:04,378 --> 00:45:07,715
The-- the transition
that we had,

860
00:45:07,916 --> 00:45:12,486
<i>it was like we were at war,
and it was being made so hard</i>

861
00:45:12,686 --> 00:45:15,790
<i>by elements
within our own government.</i>

862
00:45:19,894 --> 00:45:22,296
<i>So this is now
the Christmas holidays.</i>

863
00:45:22,496 --> 00:45:24,232
My wife Lori and I said,

864
00:45:24,398 --> 00:45:26,367
before I go back
into the White House,

865
00:45:26,534 --> 00:45:28,803
let's go take one last vacation.

866
00:45:29,003 --> 00:45:31,072
And so we decided we're gonna go
down to the Dominican Republic.

867
00:45:31,239 --> 00:45:33,607
We went down there
for basically a short week,

868
00:45:33,774 --> 00:45:35,877
and I ended up having to
shorten it because of

869
00:45:36,044 --> 00:45:38,880
all of the craziness
that was happening up in DC.

870
00:45:39,080 --> 00:45:40,548
[reporter]
<i>It's an unprecedented strike;</i>

871
00:45:40,748 --> 00:45:42,750
<i>the White House
punishing Russia,</i>

872
00:45:42,951 --> 00:45:45,186
<i>in part for interfering
in the US election.</i>

873
00:45:45,386 --> 00:45:47,021
[reporter] <i>The US is ordering</i>

874
00:45:47,221 --> 00:45:49,223
<i>35 Russian intelligence
operatives</i>

875
00:45:49,423 --> 00:45:52,260
<i>and their families
in California
and Washington D.C.</i>

876
00:45:52,460 --> 00:45:54,062
<i>out of the country.</i>

877
00:45:54,228 --> 00:45:56,998
So a couple of
different phone calls,

878
00:45:57,198 --> 00:46:00,902
but one of whom was with
Ambassador Kislyak, right,

879
00:46:01,069 --> 00:46:03,604
the very famous
Russian ambassador.

880
00:46:03,771 --> 00:46:06,574
I probably made him more,
more famous, right?

881
00:46:06,740 --> 00:46:08,709
Amba-- you know,
Ambassador Kislyak,

882
00:46:08,910 --> 00:46:10,611
<i>he's just like,
he looks like a grandfather</i>

883
00:46:10,811 --> 00:46:14,315
<i>who smokes too many cigars
and probably,</i>

884
00:46:14,482 --> 00:46:16,617
you know, sniffs a little bit
too much whiskey, right?

885
00:46:16,817 --> 00:46:19,787
<i>Tonight, a Kremlin spokesman
is accusing President Obama</i>

886
00:46:19,988 --> 00:46:22,190
<i>of trying to spoil
U.S.-Russian relations.</i>

887
00:46:22,390 --> 00:46:24,926
Look, Russia.

888
00:46:25,093 --> 00:46:28,162
I know you're going to
have to do something.

889
00:46:28,329 --> 00:46:30,631
I don't appreciate
what happened.

890
00:46:30,798 --> 00:46:34,102
So I'm being honest with them.
Because it wasn't our call,

891
00:46:34,268 --> 00:46:36,637
it was the current
administration's call.

892
00:46:36,837 --> 00:46:39,240
<i>I don't appreciate
what happened, but--</i>

893
00:46:39,440 --> 00:46:43,244
<i>and I know that you're going to
have to take some measures,</i>

894
00:46:43,444 --> 00:46:44,478
<i>but let's not have
a tit-for-tat,</i>

895
00:46:44,678 --> 00:46:46,314
<i>because we don't want to--</i>

896
00:46:46,514 --> 00:46:48,116
<i>we don't want to lose our minds
over this and-- and--</i>

897
00:46:48,282 --> 00:46:50,518
and cause some greater--
some greater outcome,

898
00:46:50,684 --> 00:46:52,220
like going to war.

899
00:46:52,420 --> 00:46:55,323
But I get a phone call
a couple of days later,

900
00:46:55,489 --> 00:46:57,725
and he says, "Message received."

901
00:46:57,926 --> 00:47:00,494
They're not going to take
any extreme action.

902
00:47:00,661 --> 00:47:03,731
Talk about, you know,
being able to settle down

903
00:47:03,932 --> 00:47:06,567
something that could have
gotten vastly worse.

904
00:47:06,767 --> 00:47:09,670
Why do we have
a State Department?

905
00:47:09,837 --> 00:47:12,340
Why do we have all these
intelligence agencies?

906
00:47:12,506 --> 00:47:15,543
It's to, you know,
to protect America,

907
00:47:15,709 --> 00:47:17,678
protect American interests,

908
00:47:17,845 --> 00:47:22,683
and to keep dialogue open
between our adversaries,

909
00:47:22,850 --> 00:47:26,154
our allies, anyone in between.

910
00:47:26,320 --> 00:47:29,357
So the whole idea
that General Flynn

911
00:47:29,523 --> 00:47:32,760
was doing something wrong
was ridiculous.

912
00:47:32,961 --> 00:47:36,230
He was doing exactly what
he should have been doing
at the time.

913
00:47:36,397 --> 00:47:38,599
He was the incoming
National Security Advisor.

914
00:47:38,799 --> 00:47:42,103
<i>His job, his role,
was to help to coordinate</i>

915
00:47:42,303 --> 00:47:44,973
<i>that whole strategy
across all of government</i>

916
00:47:45,173 --> 00:47:48,609
<i>to try to do what?
Prevent war.</i>

917
00:47:48,809 --> 00:47:55,549
<i>January 20, 2017,
will be remembered as the day</i>

918
00:47:55,749 --> 00:48:01,222
<i>the people became the rulers
of this nation again.</i>

919
00:48:01,422 --> 00:48:02,723
[Flynn]
<i>We were ready for change</i>

920
00:48:02,923 --> 00:48:04,725
<i>and we needed to
get things moving.</i>

921
00:48:04,925 --> 00:48:07,095
<i>One of the things
I was looking to do was to</i>

922
00:48:07,261 --> 00:48:11,732
dig in and take a hard look
at some of the programs

923
00:48:11,899 --> 00:48:16,404
that the U.S. intelligence
community was involved in

924
00:48:16,570 --> 00:48:22,043
that I felt
were useless, costly,

925
00:48:22,210 --> 00:48:24,412
and, uh, and corrupt.

926
00:48:24,578 --> 00:48:28,416
And in fact, I sat through
a presentation with

927
00:48:28,582 --> 00:48:31,152
the incoming
vice president, Mike Pence,

928
00:48:31,352 --> 00:48:34,455
in the, in the transition
headquarters.

929
00:48:34,622 --> 00:48:37,425
As we're being presented it,
I started asking questions like,

930
00:48:37,591 --> 00:48:41,062
"Well, okay, this program
that's been going on

931
00:48:41,229 --> 00:48:44,332
for a long time,
what has it accomplished?"

932
00:48:44,532 --> 00:48:45,733
"Oh, we're gonna have to..."

933
00:48:45,899 --> 00:48:47,735
I mean, then you get this.

934
00:48:47,901 --> 00:48:51,305
Again, these are senior guys.
These are like the top,

935
00:48:51,472 --> 00:48:53,741
top people in the CIA.

936
00:48:53,907 --> 00:48:55,343
They're like this,
and they're like,

937
00:48:55,543 --> 00:48:57,345
"Well, we're gonna
have to come back

938
00:48:57,545 --> 00:48:59,680
and we're gonna have to give you
a separate briefing on that."

939
00:48:59,880 --> 00:49:03,617
I ended up calling
to have that briefing again.

940
00:49:03,784 --> 00:49:06,187
The next time
I called for it was--

941
00:49:06,387 --> 00:49:09,490
it was in the first week
I was there, and it was me

942
00:49:09,657 --> 00:49:13,261
as the National Security Advisor
now inside the White House.

943
00:49:13,427 --> 00:49:16,030
I got the same briefing,
but this time they sent

944
00:49:16,230 --> 00:49:18,032
a whole bunch more people, right?

945
00:49:18,232 --> 00:49:19,767
Because like, they knew,

946
00:49:19,933 --> 00:49:22,770
because now I'm starting to,
to dig in.

947
00:49:22,936 --> 00:49:24,338
[slow music playing]

948
00:49:28,409 --> 00:49:31,479
[Flynn] <i>Thousands and thousands
of years ago,</i>

949
00:49:31,679 --> 00:49:36,117
<i>guys like Sun Tzu,
famous military theoretician,</i>

950
00:49:36,284 --> 00:49:38,119
studied him.

951
00:49:38,286 --> 00:49:41,555
Everybody that's ever served
in the military at some level,

952
00:49:41,755 --> 00:49:43,391
stayed in long enough,
has-- has...

953
00:49:43,591 --> 00:49:44,725
Hell, even a lot of
people in business

954
00:49:44,925 --> 00:49:48,028
study Sun Tzu's <i>Art of War.</i>

955
00:49:48,196 --> 00:49:51,065
Well, what did Sun Tzu
say about war?

956
00:49:51,265 --> 00:49:53,501
War is deception.

957
00:49:55,336 --> 00:49:58,339
<i>A war can be a war
in the narratives,</i>

958
00:49:59,006 --> 00:50:02,110
<i>in how information is deployed</i>

959
00:50:02,810 --> 00:50:06,847
<i>in order to manipulate
the belief system of people.</i>

960
00:50:08,682 --> 00:50:12,320
And so now, instead of,
[imitates gunshot] you know,

961
00:50:12,486 --> 00:50:14,322
putting a bullet
through somebody's head,

962
00:50:14,488 --> 00:50:18,659
you assassinate them
by narrative.

963
00:50:18,826 --> 00:50:22,029
And for a guy by the--
by the name of Sun Tzu,

964
00:50:22,196 --> 00:50:25,399
who wrote about
all wars are deception

965
00:50:25,566 --> 00:50:27,368
thousands of years ago, right?

966
00:50:28,502 --> 00:50:30,604
Nothing's changed.

967
00:50:30,804 --> 00:50:34,175
The intelligence agencies are

968
00:50:35,143 --> 00:50:38,846
working with the legacy media

969
00:50:39,012 --> 00:50:41,349
to shape public perception
of world events.

970
00:50:41,515 --> 00:50:44,051
That is not speculation.

971
00:50:44,218 --> 00:50:46,053
I'm not some outsider
who's guessing at this

972
00:50:46,220 --> 00:50:47,521
because they read about it
on the internet.

973
00:50:47,688 --> 00:50:49,056
I've spent my whole life
working,

974
00:50:49,223 --> 00:50:50,691
my father worked at ABC News

975
00:50:50,858 --> 00:50:52,760
before going to work
for the government;

976
00:50:52,926 --> 00:50:54,428
you know, engaged
in the Cold War.

977
00:50:54,595 --> 00:50:57,565
So I've seen both sides
of this my whole life,

978
00:50:57,731 --> 00:50:59,367
for 53 years.

979
00:50:59,533 --> 00:51:03,271
So I can say
with authority and certainty

980
00:51:03,437 --> 00:51:07,741
that the intel agencies shape
news coverage of world events.

981
00:51:07,908 --> 00:51:09,643
And the more significant
the world event,

982
00:51:09,843 --> 00:51:13,747
the more meaningful it is,
the higher the consequences are,

983
00:51:13,914 --> 00:51:15,483
the more aggressively
they shape it.

984
00:51:15,683 --> 00:51:18,419
Because the CIA's,
they're masters at propaganda,

985
00:51:18,586 --> 00:51:20,954
they're masters at,
at, at what's called

986
00:51:21,121 --> 00:51:24,892
covert influence,
covert operations. Right?

987
00:51:25,058 --> 00:51:28,462
Hollywood, the media.

988
00:51:28,629 --> 00:51:32,132
You're not
a conspiracy theorist.

989
00:51:32,300 --> 00:51:35,669
You're an observer
of verifiable reality

990
00:51:35,869 --> 00:51:39,907
if you state factually,
the news,

991
00:51:40,073 --> 00:51:41,342
organizations of record--

992
00:51:41,542 --> 00:51:43,010
Washington Post
and New York Times--

993
00:51:43,211 --> 00:51:45,446
are working with
the intel agencies

994
00:51:45,613 --> 00:51:47,415
to lie to the public

995
00:51:47,581 --> 00:51:49,850
and to hide relevant information
from the public. That is a fact.

996
00:51:50,050 --> 00:51:51,419
Eisenhower
had his own imperfections,

997
00:51:51,585 --> 00:51:53,287
JFK had his own imperfections,

998
00:51:53,454 --> 00:51:56,490
but they, you know,
but they understood

999
00:51:56,657 --> 00:51:58,626
that there was
something not right.

1000
00:51:58,792 --> 00:52:00,961
And Eisenhower
was really the first

1001
00:52:01,128 --> 00:52:03,231
in a very somber warning.

1002
00:52:03,431 --> 00:52:07,435
<i>In the councils of government,
we must guard against</i>

1003
00:52:07,635 --> 00:52:09,737
<i>the acquisition
of unwarranted influence,</i>

1004
00:52:09,937 --> 00:52:11,272
<i>whether sought or unsought,</i>

1005
00:52:11,472 --> 00:52:14,942
<i>by the military-industrial
complex.</i>

1006
00:52:15,108 --> 00:52:16,610
He used this term

1007
00:52:16,777 --> 00:52:18,446
"the military-industrial
complex."

1008
00:52:18,612 --> 00:52:21,549
And back then,
in Eisenhower's era,

1009
00:52:21,749 --> 00:52:24,385
it was not very well developed.

1010
00:52:24,585 --> 00:52:28,689
Uh, now we have a
services complex as well.

1011
00:52:28,856 --> 00:52:32,726
And it seems that there are
too many of our leaders

1012
00:52:32,926 --> 00:52:36,564
in the federal government,
in the Department of Defense,

1013
00:52:36,764 --> 00:52:41,235
that really put
the interests of themselves,

1014
00:52:41,435 --> 00:52:45,539
their crony contractor friends,
and, and their careers

1015
00:52:45,706 --> 00:52:47,675
over the national interest.

1016
00:52:47,841 --> 00:52:51,011
Why did a guy
like John F. Kennedy
get assassinated?

1017
00:52:51,211 --> 00:52:55,816
<i>He got assassinated because
he called out something</i>

1018
00:52:56,016 --> 00:53:01,522
<i>that he knew to be a corrupt
component of the government</i>

1019
00:53:01,722 --> 00:53:04,425
<i>that was trying to usurp
his authority</i>

1020
00:53:04,625 --> 00:53:06,159
<i>as the duly elected</i>

1021
00:53:06,327 --> 00:53:08,762
president of the United States
of America.

1022
00:53:08,962 --> 00:53:11,865
I-- I think the assassinations

1023
00:53:12,065 --> 00:53:16,837
<i>of the 1960s
are worth reassessing</i>

1024
00:53:17,037 --> 00:53:21,375
<i>because they tell you
what the system is capable of.</i>

1025
00:53:21,542 --> 00:53:23,076
Not just individuals,

1026
00:53:23,243 --> 00:53:26,614
but the system in which
they live, work, and thrive.

1027
00:53:26,814 --> 00:53:30,050
The imperative to preserve
that system is so overwhelming

1028
00:53:30,684 --> 00:53:33,020
that individual players
in the system

1029
00:53:33,186 --> 00:53:36,290
can be sacrificed
in the name of preserving it.

1030
00:53:36,490 --> 00:53:38,526
Like, you just need to
understand the stakes here.

1031
00:53:38,692 --> 00:53:39,927
So, if you're Flynn
and you're standing up

1032
00:53:40,093 --> 00:53:42,029
and saying, "Wait a second."

1033
00:53:42,195 --> 00:53:44,131
You know, in retrospect,
I think it's fair to,

1034
00:53:44,332 --> 00:53:48,068
to expect that they would
effectively try to kill you.

1035
00:53:48,235 --> 00:53:51,739
You know, maybe not shoot you
in Dealey Plaza,

1036
00:53:51,905 --> 00:53:53,774
but put you in prison,
impoverish your family,

1037
00:53:53,941 --> 00:53:58,078
silence you, dismiss you in
the eyes of most as ridiculous.

1038
00:53:58,245 --> 00:54:01,649
I thought it was
an opportunity to, to take

1039
00:54:01,849 --> 00:54:04,251
a look, a hard look
at organizations,

1040
00:54:04,418 --> 00:54:06,286
one of which I ran.

1041
00:54:06,454 --> 00:54:10,057
And I knew a lot about other
aspects of the security state

1042
00:54:10,223 --> 00:54:11,825
because it's not just
the intelligence community.

1043
00:54:12,025 --> 00:54:13,226
It's the Department of Defense

1044
00:54:13,394 --> 00:54:14,795
and includes
the Department of State,

1045
00:54:14,962 --> 00:54:17,297
includes places like
the White House itself,

1046
00:54:17,465 --> 00:54:19,266
and includes
the Department of Justice,

1047
00:54:19,433 --> 00:54:21,301
includes the FBI.

1048
00:54:21,469 --> 00:54:23,103
And that revolving door
in the intelligence community,

1049
00:54:23,270 --> 00:54:25,906
with social media companies,
with big banks,

1050
00:54:26,073 --> 00:54:27,908
with big corporations,

1051
00:54:28,075 --> 00:54:29,810
has been going on
for years and years and years.

1052
00:54:29,977 --> 00:54:32,279
They recruit people
out of those agencies

1053
00:54:32,446 --> 00:54:33,847
to come work for them.

1054
00:54:34,047 --> 00:54:35,916
It's grotesque.

1055
00:54:36,083 --> 00:54:41,154
I mean, that's when you know,
when you turn on CNN or MSNBC,

1056
00:54:41,321 --> 00:54:43,557
and you see an endless parade

1057
00:54:43,757 --> 00:54:45,225
<i>of former
federal law enforcement</i>

1058
00:54:45,426 --> 00:54:47,895
<i>or federal intelligence
officials paid,</i>

1059
00:54:48,095 --> 00:54:50,898
<i>coming on the air
to analyze politics,</i>

1060
00:54:51,098 --> 00:54:52,933
<i>then you know
that this organization</i>

1061
00:54:53,133 --> 00:54:54,868
<i>has been captured
by those agencies.</i>

1062
00:54:55,403 --> 00:54:58,171
I mean, these are not just
former government employees;

1063
00:54:58,338 --> 00:55:00,474
these are people with
active security clearances.

1064
00:55:00,674 --> 00:55:03,243
<i>Still, they retain
their security clearances.</i>

1065
00:55:03,444 --> 00:55:05,646
<i>So they are
in continuous communication</i>

1066
00:55:05,846 --> 00:55:07,815
<i>with their former colleagues
at these agencies,</i>

1067
00:55:08,015 --> 00:55:10,017
<i>because it's legal, because
they have the clearance.</i>

1068
00:55:10,183 --> 00:55:13,554
And so, they are acting
effectively as spokesmen

1069
00:55:13,754 --> 00:55:15,155
for these federal agencies,

1070
00:55:15,322 --> 00:55:17,725
and they're on the air
as news analysts.

1071
00:55:17,925 --> 00:55:22,396
I cannot think of
a more perverse system.

1072
00:55:22,596 --> 00:55:24,164
I think, I think
there were conversations

1073
00:55:24,364 --> 00:55:26,434
<i>and messages between
Peter Strzok and someone</i>

1074
00:55:26,634 --> 00:55:28,101
<i>inside of the office of</i>

1075
00:55:28,301 --> 00:55:29,570
<i>the Vice President
of the United States.</i>

1076
00:55:32,673 --> 00:55:37,545
In retrospect,
it's pretty obvious to me

1077
00:55:37,711 --> 00:55:43,316
that Mike Pence was brought in
and presented to Donald Trump,

1078
00:55:43,517 --> 00:55:44,952
<i>who probably didn't know,
wouldn't know Mike Pence</i>

1079
00:55:45,152 --> 00:55:47,320
<i>if he got in the shower
with him.</i>

1080
00:55:47,521 --> 00:55:49,256
<i>He didn't really know
that Mike Pence
was the governor of Indiana.</i>

1081
00:55:49,457 --> 00:55:54,027
Pence is a career politician,
Trump is a casino promoter;

1082
00:55:54,194 --> 00:55:56,163
like, they haven't had
a lot of overlap in their lives.

1083
00:55:56,329 --> 00:55:58,365
How did he wind up
getting chosen vice president?

1084
00:55:58,566 --> 00:56:01,769
<i>And I think it's
very obviously an effort</i>

1085
00:56:01,969 --> 00:56:05,939
by Republicans in Washington,
permanent Washington,

1086
00:56:06,139 --> 00:56:08,876
to put some kind of moderating
force right next to Trump.

1087
00:56:09,042 --> 00:56:11,378
"You know, you need him
to win the evangelicals."

1088
00:56:11,545 --> 00:56:13,681
That's how they sold him.
"He's an evangelical."

1089
00:56:13,847 --> 00:56:15,949
Trump has no idea
what an evangelical is.

1090
00:56:16,550 --> 00:56:18,085
And so, they tell him,
"You gotta have this guy.

1091
00:56:18,251 --> 00:56:20,020
You can't win without this guy."

1092
00:56:20,187 --> 00:56:22,189
And I'm not saying
Pence is a secret agent,

1093
00:56:22,355 --> 00:56:26,026
but clearly,
and I watched it firsthand,

1094
00:56:26,193 --> 00:56:29,196
Pence believed that his role
was to get Trump,

1095
00:56:29,362 --> 00:56:31,031
to the extent he could,

1096
00:56:31,198 --> 00:56:32,966
to go along with
the conventions of,

1097
00:56:33,166 --> 00:56:35,235
of Washington as it existed
before Trump got there.

1098
00:56:35,402 --> 00:56:37,538
Obviously.

1099
00:56:37,705 --> 00:56:39,306
Again, I'm not calling him
a secret agent.

1100
00:56:39,507 --> 00:56:42,075
But I am saying from day one,

1101
00:56:42,242 --> 00:56:47,748
Pence saw his job
as influencing Trump

1102
00:56:47,915 --> 00:56:49,917
to kind of let things
continue to go

1103
00:56:50,083 --> 00:56:51,652
roughly the way
they were going before.

1104
00:56:51,852 --> 00:56:54,087
That's true.

1105
00:56:54,254 --> 00:56:57,424
I think Pence played an
enormously destructive role.

1106
00:56:57,591 --> 00:57:00,894
I know that the-- I know
that there were people

1107
00:57:01,061 --> 00:57:04,264
in Pence's office
who hated Trump,

1108
00:57:04,431 --> 00:57:05,733
because they told me.

1109
00:57:05,899 --> 00:57:07,835
And if we look at RussiaGate,

1110
00:57:08,035 --> 00:57:10,504
we see different people
operating out of Pence's office

1111
00:57:10,704 --> 00:57:12,005
who are part of RussiaGate.

1112
00:57:12,205 --> 00:57:14,307
But just going by the timeline

1113
00:57:14,474 --> 00:57:17,277
and going by
what we knew happened,

1114
00:57:17,444 --> 00:57:18,512
I'm like, Pence
is making this up.

1115
00:57:18,712 --> 00:57:20,681
[reporter on TV] <i>Good morning.</i>

1116
00:57:20,881 --> 00:57:23,183
<i>Retired General Michael Flynn
was during the campaign</i>

1117
00:57:23,383 --> 00:57:25,452
<i>and is now one of
the president's top advisors,</i>

1118
00:57:25,653 --> 00:57:27,220
<i>and he has acknowledged</i>

1119
00:57:27,420 --> 00:57:30,057
<i>having contacts with
top Russian officials.</i>

1120
00:57:30,257 --> 00:57:33,426
<i>But over the last several
weeks, investigators led
by the FBI</i>

1121
00:57:33,627 --> 00:57:35,228
<i>have been taking a closer look</i>

1122
00:57:35,428 --> 00:57:37,064
<i>at his calls
to the Russian ambassador.</i>

1123
00:57:37,264 --> 00:57:39,266
[Flynn] <i>We had
the Japanese delegation</i>

1124
00:57:39,466 --> 00:57:42,369
<i>down at Mar-a-Lago
for very serious meetings.</i>

1125
00:57:42,570 --> 00:57:45,839
<i>And-- and while, all while
that was going on that weekend,</i>

1126
00:57:46,774 --> 00:57:50,310
<i>Kim Jong Un, over in Korea,
starts firing some missiles.</i>

1127
00:57:50,477 --> 00:57:53,814
This is the first time
that the Trump administration

1128
00:57:53,981 --> 00:57:57,951
is going to be tested on,
on how we respond to that.

1129
00:57:58,852 --> 00:58:01,054
<i>And by the way,</i>

1130
00:58:01,254 --> 00:58:03,490
<i>Rocket Man should have been
handled a long time ago.</i>

1131
00:58:03,657 --> 00:58:05,559
[audience applauding wildly]

1132
00:58:05,759 --> 00:58:06,994
[Flynn] <i>They were doing it
because Abe of Japan</i>

1133
00:58:07,661 --> 00:58:09,797
<i>is visiting President Trump
that weekend.</i>

1134
00:58:13,033 --> 00:58:18,371
I-- I took Abe and Trump
into a, a skiff,

1135
00:58:18,538 --> 00:58:21,474
a secure facility
that we set up at Mar-a-Lago.

1136
00:58:21,642 --> 00:58:23,811
I took those two in there

1137
00:58:23,977 --> 00:58:25,345
and briefed them
on what was happening,

1138
00:58:25,512 --> 00:58:26,880
and I showed them,
I showed them all the,

1139
00:58:27,047 --> 00:58:28,916
all the intelligence
that we had,

1140
00:58:29,116 --> 00:58:30,784
<i>some photographs of
the missiles, all this stuff.</i>

1141
00:58:30,984 --> 00:58:32,653
<i>I went-- took them through
the whole thing like I,</i>

1142
00:58:32,820 --> 00:58:35,322
like I'd briefed millions
of other intelligence briefings

1143
00:58:35,488 --> 00:58:36,556
in the past.
I laid it out in front of them.

1144
00:58:36,724 --> 00:58:39,192
The next day, we st--

1145
00:58:39,359 --> 00:58:42,529
we had more, more talks
with the Japanese

1146
00:58:42,696 --> 00:58:44,564
and we're still,
you know, reeling,

1147
00:58:44,732 --> 00:58:47,534
and the media is going crazy
about all this stuff.

1148
00:58:47,701 --> 00:58:51,071
I took like 30 minutes
to go back over to my room

1149
00:58:51,238 --> 00:58:53,240
because we're going to get back
on Air Force One.

1150
00:58:53,406 --> 00:58:56,409
Packing my bags,
and I get a phone call
and it's Reince Priebus.

1151
00:58:56,576 --> 00:58:58,345
I said, "What can I do?
You know, how can I help?"

1152
00:58:58,511 --> 00:59:03,717
And Reince Priebus tells me that
I'm in the Situation Room

1153
00:59:03,884 --> 00:59:07,187
with Vice President Pence,

1154
00:59:07,387 --> 00:59:08,789
<i>Deputy Director of the FBI
McCabe,</i>

1155
00:59:09,422 --> 00:59:11,458
<i>and Deputy Attorney General</i>

1156
00:59:11,659 --> 00:59:14,194
<i>of the Department of Justice,
Sally Yates.</i>

1157
00:59:14,361 --> 00:59:16,363
And they just briefed us.

1158
00:59:16,529 --> 00:59:20,100
They just showed us a document

1159
00:59:20,267 --> 00:59:24,037
that you clearly talked
about sanctions.

1160
00:59:24,237 --> 00:59:26,073
<i>This is one of
the surreal moments,</i>

1161
00:59:26,273 --> 00:59:27,574
<i>it's like things
you never forget,</i>

1162
00:59:27,741 --> 00:59:30,077
because it was such a seminal

1163
00:59:30,243 --> 00:59:33,213
and significant
emotional event for me.

1164
00:59:33,380 --> 00:59:34,982
I said, "So what are you,
what are you telling me?"

1165
00:59:35,182 --> 00:59:38,085
"Well, you know,
the vice president is upset,

1166
00:59:38,251 --> 00:59:40,821
and we're gonna, you know,
we're, we're gonna have to,

1167
00:59:41,021 --> 00:59:42,422
you know, we're gonna be
talking to you

1168
00:59:42,589 --> 00:59:43,991
when you get back."

1169
00:59:44,191 --> 00:59:45,826
Like I'm a,
I'm a fucking schoolchild.

1170
00:59:46,026 --> 00:59:49,162
<i>I show up to the White House
the next day.</i>

1171
00:59:49,362 --> 00:59:53,100
<i>All kinds of--
now there's all kinds of rumors</i>

1172
00:59:53,300 --> 00:59:56,436
<i>about Flynn's, you know, going
to be fired,</i> resign, you know.

1173
00:59:56,636 --> 00:59:57,671
<i>It's all flying
all over the place.</i>

1174
00:59:57,871 --> 01:00:00,307
<i>So it's all leaked.</i>

1175
01:00:00,473 --> 01:00:03,410
The Situation Room
is a very secure facility.

1176
01:00:03,576 --> 01:00:05,746
We're talking about people
that should know better.

1177
01:00:05,913 --> 01:00:07,580
I mean,
if it just those four people

1178
01:00:07,748 --> 01:00:10,017
that were in that room,
and me on that conversation.

1179
01:00:10,217 --> 01:00:14,855
<i>That day, Reince comes
into my office and says,</i>

1180
01:00:15,055 --> 01:00:17,958
<i>"The president wants you to--
he's gonna want you to resign."</i>

1181
01:00:18,125 --> 01:00:20,093
And I looked at him
and I was like, "Really?"

1182
01:00:20,260 --> 01:00:23,663
I said, "Did he say that?

1183
01:00:23,831 --> 01:00:25,532
Is that coming from you
or is that coming from him?"

1184
01:00:25,733 --> 01:00:27,000
And he said, "Well,
that's coming from him."

1185
01:00:27,167 --> 01:00:28,635
And I said, "Okay."

1186
01:00:28,802 --> 01:00:30,771
I go, "Well, here's what
I want you to do, Reince.

1187
01:00:30,938 --> 01:00:32,773
I want you to go
let the president know

1188
01:00:32,940 --> 01:00:35,275
that I want to
hear it from him."

1189
01:00:35,943 --> 01:00:39,279
And he was like,
he kind of like, and he goes,

1190
01:00:39,446 --> 01:00:41,882
"You probably should put
together a resignation letter."

1191
01:00:42,082 --> 01:00:44,151
When he called to tell me
that he was resigning, you know,

1192
01:00:44,317 --> 01:00:46,153
he told me that
"I'm going to resign tonight."

1193
01:00:46,319 --> 01:00:48,288
And I was like,
"Oh, my God, really?"

1194
01:00:48,455 --> 01:00:51,458
And it was just sort of surreal.

1195
01:00:51,624 --> 01:00:53,326
And he said, "Yeah."

1196
01:00:53,493 --> 01:00:58,465
He goes, "I'm going to go see
the president right now."

1197
01:00:58,631 --> 01:01:00,700
I was like, "Okay. I'll be here
when you get home."

1198
01:01:03,971 --> 01:01:06,907
[Flynn] <i>Who was in
the meeting was Reince Priebus,</i>

1199
01:01:07,107 --> 01:01:10,443
<i>Vice President Pence,
Steve Bannon,</i>

1200
01:01:10,643 --> 01:01:12,679
<i>and Jared Kushner
and the president.</i>

1201
01:01:12,880 --> 01:01:15,015
<i>And president, you know,
reads the letter.</i>

1202
01:01:15,215 --> 01:01:17,150
<i>H-- he's like, I--
I could tell</i>

1203
01:01:17,350 --> 01:01:19,352
<i>that he was--
he was visibly upset,</i>

1204
01:01:19,519 --> 01:01:20,921
like, but not in an angry way.

1205
01:01:21,121 --> 01:01:23,523
He was like, just upset
about the whole thing

1206
01:01:23,690 --> 01:01:26,760
because he knew how hard
that I had worked my ass off

1207
01:01:26,960 --> 01:01:29,562
for him to win the presidency.

1208
01:01:29,729 --> 01:01:31,498
And I had-- you know,
and I just wasn't

1209
01:01:31,664 --> 01:01:34,101
a guy that--
that comes across as, you know,

1210
01:01:34,301 --> 01:01:36,536
a bullshitter, you know,
or a liar. Right?

1211
01:01:36,703 --> 01:01:38,405
He said, "You know..."

1212
01:01:38,571 --> 01:01:39,773
He kind of looked
around the room, goes,

1213
01:01:39,973 --> 01:01:41,508
you know, "We okay with this?"

1214
01:01:41,674 --> 01:01:45,212
And looking back,
it could have been,

1215
01:01:45,378 --> 01:01:47,580
a couple of things
could have happened.

1216
01:01:47,747 --> 01:01:48,882
He could have said,

1217
01:01:49,049 --> 01:01:50,884
"You know what,
this is bullshit.

1218
01:01:51,051 --> 01:01:52,552
You two guys kiss and make up,"

1219
01:01:53,486 --> 01:01:55,022
because I had already apologized
to the vice president

1220
01:01:55,222 --> 01:01:56,957
<i>about whatever it was
that he felt like</i>

1221
01:01:57,157 --> 01:01:58,291
<i>I had misled him on.</i>

1222
01:01:58,491 --> 01:02:00,693
<i>I had already apologized
to him.</i>

1223
01:02:01,194 --> 01:02:02,963
There was no, you know, hey,
let's kiss and make up.

1224
01:02:03,163 --> 01:02:05,432
We got a country to run here.
Nope.

1225
01:02:05,598 --> 01:02:08,101
Vice President Pence
didn't stand there and say,

1226
01:02:08,701 --> 01:02:11,404
you know, you know what,
I-- I can live with this.

1227
01:02:11,571 --> 01:02:13,974
You know, Mike, got it.
I understand that, you know,

1228
01:02:14,174 --> 01:02:15,575
the all the dynamics
of what was happening

1229
01:02:15,742 --> 01:02:17,310
and everybody's busy.

1230
01:02:17,510 --> 01:02:18,979
You know,
we have a country to run.

1231
01:02:19,179 --> 01:02:21,381
Before I left that--
that meeting,

1232
01:02:21,548 --> 01:02:24,017
the president got up, and
I walked up to the side

1233
01:02:24,217 --> 01:02:26,086
<i>because I was kind of
standing at the corner.</i>

1234
01:02:26,286 --> 01:02:27,787
<i>And I walked up,
gave him a hug,</i>

1235
01:02:27,955 --> 01:02:29,789
give him like a,
you know, big man hug.

1236
01:02:29,957 --> 01:02:32,659
And I stepped back
and I said to him,

1237
01:02:32,860 --> 01:02:35,628
"I'm just gonna give you
one warning about one person.

1238
01:02:39,766 --> 01:02:41,001
<i>I'm going to tell you
that the person</i>

1239
01:02:41,201 --> 01:02:42,602
<i>that you need to watch out for</i>

1240
01:02:42,802 --> 01:02:44,237
<i>is the deputy director
of the FBI,</i>

1241
01:02:44,404 --> 01:02:47,074
and his name is Andrew McCabe."

1242
01:02:47,240 --> 01:02:49,276
And I looked the president
dead in the eye.

1243
01:02:49,442 --> 01:02:50,844
And he said, "Okay."

1244
01:02:51,044 --> 01:02:52,980
He didn't really know
who he was.

1245
01:02:53,146 --> 01:02:56,283
Now, obviously,
Reince Priebus knew him,

1246
01:02:56,449 --> 01:02:59,086
and Pence knew him.
They said nothing.

1247
01:02:59,252 --> 01:03:01,121
So whatever they had said
to the president

1248
01:03:01,288 --> 01:03:03,790
prior to me going
in that meeting, you know,

1249
01:03:03,957 --> 01:03:07,027
I could tell
that from my departure,

1250
01:03:07,227 --> 01:03:10,697
you know, my departing,
sort of, you know,

1251
01:03:10,898 --> 01:03:15,602
man-love moment with--
with, uh, with President Trump,

1252
01:03:15,768 --> 01:03:17,504
where I could tell
that he was upset

1253
01:03:17,670 --> 01:03:21,641
that he had to do this
and accept my resignation.

1254
01:03:21,808 --> 01:03:23,977
And maybe he felt like

1255
01:03:24,144 --> 01:03:26,947
if I stepped away
from the White House,

1256
01:03:27,114 --> 01:03:28,982
the whole Russia thing
would go away.

1257
01:03:29,149 --> 01:03:31,784
And that's when it all began.

1258
01:03:31,985 --> 01:03:34,054
<i>The information
was provided by,</i>

1259
01:03:34,254 --> 01:03:36,389
<i>who I don't know, Sally Yates.</i>

1260
01:03:36,589 --> 01:03:40,660
<i>And I was a little surprised
because I said,</i>

1261
01:03:40,860 --> 01:03:43,663
<i>"Doesn't sound like he did
anything wrong there."</i>

1262
01:03:43,863 --> 01:03:46,066
<i>But he did something wrong</i>

1263
01:03:46,266 --> 01:03:48,501
<i>with respect to
the vice president,</i>

1264
01:03:48,701 --> 01:03:50,904
<i>and I thought
that was not acceptable.</i>

1265
01:03:51,104 --> 01:03:56,243
<i>As far, as far as
the actual making the call,</i>

1266
01:03:56,443 --> 01:03:58,611
<i>he was just doing his job.
That was very normal.</i>

1267
01:03:58,811 --> 01:04:00,347
<i>You know, at first,
everybody got excited</i>

1268
01:04:00,547 --> 01:04:01,814
<i>because they thought
he did something wrong.</i>

1269
01:04:02,015 --> 01:04:03,650
<i>After they thought about it,</i>

1270
01:04:03,850 --> 01:04:06,753
<i>it turned out
he was just doing his job.</i>

1271
01:04:06,954 --> 01:04:09,456
<i>So, and I do-- and by the way,
with all of that being said,</i>

1272
01:04:09,656 --> 01:04:11,724
<i>I do think he's a fine man.</i>

1273
01:04:11,891 --> 01:04:16,329
So, Reince Priebus told me
that they had just read

1274
01:04:16,529 --> 01:04:20,700
<i>a document that Yates
and McCabe showed them</i>

1275
01:04:20,900 --> 01:04:23,971
<i>that said I talked about
sanctions.</i>

1276
01:04:24,171 --> 01:04:26,773
<i>And we now know that I never
talked about sanctions.</i>

1277
01:04:26,974 --> 01:04:29,176
<i>There's a transcript of it.
It's public information.</i>

1278
01:04:33,480 --> 01:04:38,051
Okay, it was a,
it was a false document,

1279
01:04:38,218 --> 01:04:39,953
which is really bad

1280
01:04:40,153 --> 01:04:42,755
for two senior government
officials to create.

1281
01:04:42,922 --> 01:04:45,925
And that document
must exist somewhere. Okay?

1282
01:04:46,093 --> 01:04:50,964
Or, the only other
potential answer

1283
01:04:51,164 --> 01:04:56,303
is that Reince Priebus lied
about reading about sanctions.

1284
01:04:56,503 --> 01:04:58,305
I never talked about sanctions.

1285
01:04:58,505 --> 01:05:00,740
In fact, I, I told
the vice president that,

1286
01:05:00,907 --> 01:05:02,942
earlier on.

1287
01:05:03,110 --> 01:05:04,911
I said I didn't talk
about sanctions.

1288
01:05:05,078 --> 01:05:07,714
I told the FBI agents
that came to my office.

1289
01:05:07,914 --> 01:05:08,848
<i>You look at
this White House now</i>

1290
01:05:09,049 --> 01:05:10,517
<i>and it's hard to imagine</i>

1291
01:05:10,717 --> 01:05:11,884
<i>two FBI agents ending up
in the same room.</i>

1292
01:05:12,085 --> 01:05:13,720
<i>How did that happen?</i>

1293
01:05:13,920 --> 01:05:14,921
<i>I sent them.</i>

1294
01:05:15,088 --> 01:05:17,590
[audience laughing]

1295
01:05:17,790 --> 01:05:19,826
[Flynn]
<i>Comey said in an interview,</i>

1296
01:05:20,027 --> 01:05:21,928
<i>the FBI wanted to send agents
over to the White House</i>

1297
01:05:22,129 --> 01:05:23,330
<i>to speak to me.</i>

1298
01:05:25,698 --> 01:05:28,201
<i>He admitted he did that
outside the proper channels</i>

1299
01:05:28,401 --> 01:05:30,170
<i>without any discussion
or approvals</i>

1300
01:05:30,370 --> 01:05:31,471
<i>from White House council.</i>

1301
01:05:38,311 --> 01:05:41,614
[Adam]
<i>This was clearly a setup.</i>

1302
01:05:41,781 --> 01:05:44,984
The government will
frequently try to railroad

1303
01:05:45,152 --> 01:05:48,188
various individuals
by not having, um,

1304
01:05:48,388 --> 01:05:50,823
by just telling you, "This is
a friendly conversation.

1305
01:05:50,990 --> 01:05:54,461
No need to have your lawyer
in the office with us."

1306
01:05:54,627 --> 01:05:57,030
And so, what happens
in situations like that

1307
01:05:57,230 --> 01:06:02,469
is that the agents
who are corrupt

1308
01:06:02,635 --> 01:06:06,473
and, and have an agenda,
they're not,

1309
01:06:06,639 --> 01:06:09,609
it's not a genuine,
fair investigation.

1310
01:06:09,776 --> 01:06:12,011
They're free to make up
whatever they want

1311
01:06:12,179 --> 01:06:15,115
about what transpired
because there was no recording,

1312
01:06:15,282 --> 01:06:18,585
and there was no representative
of-- of their interviewee who,

1313
01:06:18,785 --> 01:06:20,753
<i>you know, could make,</i>

1314
01:06:20,953 --> 01:06:23,456
<i>you know, a record of what,
what transpired.</i>

1315
01:06:23,656 --> 01:06:25,592
[Tracy] <i>A bunch of
the seventh-floor people,</i>

1316
01:06:25,792 --> 01:06:27,727
<i>they all got together
and had a meeting about this,</i>

1317
01:06:27,927 --> 01:06:29,762
<i>this interview they were going
to have with General Flynn,</i>

1318
01:06:29,962 --> 01:06:33,433
<i>the ambush interview.
And Bill Priestap in,</i>

1319
01:06:33,633 --> 01:06:35,502
<i>in handwritten notes
that looking back,</i>

1320
01:06:35,702 --> 01:06:37,337
<i>you have to wonder if
he wrote this down on purpose</i>

1321
01:06:37,504 --> 01:06:39,306
as kind of like a flag,

1322
01:06:39,472 --> 01:06:40,840
because he knew
what they were doing was--

1323
01:06:41,007 --> 01:06:44,577
was wrong or if it was
just sheer happenstance

1324
01:06:44,777 --> 01:06:46,279
<i>that he wrote down
a series of notes that said,</i>

1325
01:06:46,479 --> 01:06:48,014
<i>"What is the goal?</i>

1326
01:06:48,215 --> 01:06:50,083
<i>Is the goal to get him
to tell the truth,</i>

1327
01:06:50,283 --> 01:06:52,252
<i>or to get them to lie
so we can get him fired</i>

1328
01:06:52,452 --> 01:06:55,888
<i>or, you know, hold him
accountable for lying?"</i>

1329
01:06:56,055 --> 01:06:58,825
So they knew, going in,
what their motive like was.

1330
01:06:58,991 --> 01:07:00,560
Do we want him to
just tell us the truth,

1331
01:07:00,727 --> 01:07:02,662
or do we want to try
and get him to lie to us?

1332
01:07:03,363 --> 01:07:04,731
This is yet another example

1333
01:07:04,897 --> 01:07:09,736
of weaponization
of federal investigations.

1334
01:07:09,902 --> 01:07:12,372
Both Peter Strzok
and Joseph Bianca wrote

1335
01:07:12,539 --> 01:07:13,873
that he wasn't lying,

1336
01:07:14,073 --> 01:07:15,508
<i>he didn't seem like
he was lying,</i>

1337
01:07:15,708 --> 01:07:16,843
<i>he seemed like
he was being truthful.</i>

1338
01:07:17,043 --> 01:07:18,445
<i>I mean, they wrote this down.</i>

1339
01:07:18,645 --> 01:07:20,313
<i>Which is why
when the DOJ came back</i>

1340
01:07:20,513 --> 01:07:21,914
<i>and said there was
no predicate for this...</i>

1341
01:07:24,317 --> 01:07:26,353
they referenced these things
because there-- there--

1342
01:07:26,519 --> 01:07:29,088
they didn't even believe
he was lying.

1343
01:07:29,256 --> 01:07:30,557
When you go in
to an interview like this,

1344
01:07:30,723 --> 01:07:32,125
you're supposed to
document everything;

1345
01:07:32,325 --> 01:07:33,693
it's something called the 302.

1346
01:07:33,860 --> 01:07:35,628
That's the FBI-speak for a form

1347
01:07:35,828 --> 01:07:37,297
that you write down
your thoughts.

1348
01:07:37,497 --> 01:07:39,632
They didn't fill those out
for weeks.

1349
01:07:39,832 --> 01:07:41,468
<i>And then
when Peter Strzok did,</i>

1350
01:07:41,668 --> 01:07:43,536
<i>he had somebody who wasn't
even in the interview,</i>

1351
01:07:43,736 --> 01:07:46,139
<i>wasn't even involved,
Lisa Page,</i>

1352
01:07:46,339 --> 01:07:47,307
editing it for him.

1353
01:07:49,709 --> 01:07:51,744
You know, I just told them
once they fire,

1354
01:07:51,911 --> 01:07:55,148
once you fire Flynn,
all you guys are gonna go.

1355
01:07:55,348 --> 01:07:57,217
And that's exactly
what happened;

1356
01:07:57,417 --> 01:07:59,152
<i>within, I think,
within a year's time,</i>

1357
01:07:59,352 --> 01:08:01,521
<i>they were all gone.</i>

1358
01:08:01,721 --> 01:08:03,656
<i>All the kind of the
top advisors
around the president.</i>

1359
01:08:03,856 --> 01:08:06,893
<i>As soon as they did that,
there'd be blood in the water.</i>

1360
01:08:07,059 --> 01:08:09,128
I'm pretty sure that's what
I told to Priebus and--

1361
01:08:09,296 --> 01:08:10,997
and others.

1362
01:08:11,198 --> 01:08:13,200
[Lori] <i>I really think
that those guys</i>

1363
01:08:13,400 --> 01:08:15,402
<i>that were in that White House</i>

1364
01:08:15,602 --> 01:08:18,171
<i>before Mike walked in
that room told him,</i>

1365
01:08:18,371 --> 01:08:22,509
"If you get rid of Flynn,
the Russia thing will go away."

1366
01:08:22,709 --> 01:08:25,612
I guarantee that they tried to
convince him of that.

1367
01:08:25,778 --> 01:08:29,182
And as we know, it only
exacerbated after that.

1368
01:08:29,382 --> 01:08:30,950
[woman] <i>Michael Flynn,</i>

1369
01:08:31,150 --> 01:08:33,119
<i>President Donald Trump's
National Security Advisor,</i>

1370
01:08:33,320 --> 01:08:37,123
<i>is under investigation by
U.S. counterintelligence agents</i>

1371
01:08:37,324 --> 01:08:40,393
<i>for communications he's had
with Russian officials.</i>

1372
01:08:40,593 --> 01:08:42,962
[Adam] <i>What Stefan Halper did</i>

1373
01:08:43,162 --> 01:08:46,433
<i>with the help of the leadership
of the Office of Net Assessment</i>

1374
01:08:46,599 --> 01:08:48,501
between 2010 and 2016

1375
01:08:48,668 --> 01:08:51,771
was create the institutional
infrastructure

1376
01:08:51,938 --> 01:08:55,642
for what became known as
RussiaGate,

1377
01:08:55,808 --> 01:09:00,280
normalizing a known
Russian intelligence officer.

1378
01:09:00,480 --> 01:09:01,414
<i>Okay, so here you have
Chris Steele</i>

1379
01:09:01,614 --> 01:09:03,416
<i>going around Washington saying,</i>

1380
01:09:03,616 --> 01:09:05,752
<i>"Oh yeah, this is
Russian intelligence</i>

1381
01:09:05,952 --> 01:09:10,189
<i>that says that Donald Trump
did these things."</i>

1382
01:09:10,357 --> 01:09:13,460
That, you know, people wouldn't,
you know, take it seriously.

1383
01:09:13,626 --> 01:09:15,795
But we know it was
taken very seriously.

1384
01:09:15,962 --> 01:09:21,334
The Steele dossier
was used as the predicate

1385
01:09:21,501 --> 01:09:24,036
to launch these FISA
investigations.

1386
01:09:24,203 --> 01:09:26,038
The stories about the peeing.

1387
01:09:26,205 --> 01:09:28,608
The stories about
the drunkenness, the drug use.

1388
01:09:28,808 --> 01:09:30,743
<i>It's all fake news.</i>

1389
01:09:30,943 --> 01:09:33,480
<i>It's phony stuff.
It didn't happen.</i>

1390
01:09:33,646 --> 01:09:40,487
The Steele dossier was
sent by special courier

1391
01:09:40,653 --> 01:09:44,991
from John Brennan at CIA
to the White House

1392
01:09:45,157 --> 01:09:50,062
to President Obama and marked,
you know, eyes only.

1393
01:09:50,229 --> 01:09:52,832
This was Russian disinformation.
This is Russian propaganda.

1394
01:09:53,800 --> 01:09:55,702
They had to make Trump
look weird. Right?

1395
01:09:55,868 --> 01:09:57,870
Oh, he's freakish. He's bizarre.

1396
01:09:58,037 --> 01:09:59,439
He-- he, that's why he deserves

1397
01:09:59,639 --> 01:10:02,041
these extraordinary
punishments, right?

1398
01:10:02,208 --> 01:10:06,579
An indictment, an arraignment,
an FBI investigation.

1399
01:10:06,746 --> 01:10:08,515
Same with General Flynn, right?

1400
01:10:08,681 --> 01:10:14,020
This is all about normalizing
our enemies' propaganda

1401
01:10:14,186 --> 01:10:19,626
to stage political hit jobs on
American candidates for office,

1402
01:10:19,826 --> 01:10:22,228
for the highest office
in the country.

1403
01:10:22,395 --> 01:10:28,468
The Steele dossier, which,
of course by July of 2016,

1404
01:10:28,668 --> 01:10:32,104
Brennan knew was
Russian disinformation

1405
01:10:32,271 --> 01:10:35,207
that was generated by
Hillary Clinton

1406
01:10:35,375 --> 01:10:38,110
to smear Donald Trump

1407
01:10:38,277 --> 01:10:40,547
in order to sort of
hide her own misconduct.

1408
01:10:40,747 --> 01:10:42,415
<i>Hillary Clinton
on the stump this week.</i>

1409
01:10:42,615 --> 01:10:44,283
<i>We're joined now by her
campaign manager, Robby Mook.</i>

1410
01:10:44,484 --> 01:10:46,586
[reporter] <i>Thank you
for joining us this morning.</i>

1411
01:10:46,786 --> 01:10:49,522
<i>The hand of the Kremlin
has been at work
in this campaign for some time,</i>

1412
01:10:49,722 --> 01:10:52,759
<i>it's clear that they are
supporting Donald Trump.</i>

1413
01:10:52,925 --> 01:10:56,396
Brennan and Obama and Comey,

1414
01:10:57,364 --> 01:11:00,166
<i>they inserted
the Steele dossier</i>

1415
01:11:00,367 --> 01:11:06,506
<i>into the 2017 Intelligence
Community Assessment
as a annex.</i>

1416
01:11:07,440 --> 01:11:12,779
So, what they did is they took
Russian disinformation,

1417
01:11:12,945 --> 01:11:16,315
made it into a U.S.
intelligence product

1418
01:11:16,483 --> 01:11:21,521
for the purpose of being able
to cover themselves

1419
01:11:21,721 --> 01:11:24,857
if they were ever questioned
about this nonsense

1420
01:11:25,057 --> 01:11:26,859
in the Steele dossier.

1421
01:11:27,059 --> 01:11:28,461
Sourced the Russian
intelligence,

1422
01:11:28,628 --> 01:11:32,164
clear hit job
against candidate Trump

1423
01:11:32,331 --> 01:11:33,332
and then President Trump.

1424
01:11:33,500 --> 01:11:35,001
They could say, "Oh, look,

1425
01:11:35,167 --> 01:11:38,337
this is a U.S.
government document.

1426
01:11:38,505 --> 01:11:40,172
It's from the intelligence
community.

1427
01:11:40,339 --> 01:11:42,542
It is from
the 17 intelligence agencies

1428
01:11:42,742 --> 01:11:44,176
of the United States government.

1429
01:11:44,343 --> 01:11:47,814
Don't ask me about this.
It's been vetted."

1430
01:11:47,980 --> 01:11:53,119
It's this way of very cynically
covering up a horrendous crime

1431
01:11:53,285 --> 01:11:55,221
and normalizing it
retroactively.

1432
01:11:55,422 --> 01:11:59,358
It was an act of desperation

1433
01:11:59,526 --> 01:12:02,028
because the Obama administration
and the Biden administration

1434
01:12:02,194 --> 01:12:04,196
knew that if Michael Flynn
stayed there

1435
01:12:04,363 --> 01:12:08,701
as Trump's National
Security Advisor,
they were fucked.

1436
01:12:08,868 --> 01:12:10,803
Because he was
going to lash back

1437
01:12:10,970 --> 01:12:15,041
at all of what they did
in the Middle East,

1438
01:12:15,207 --> 01:12:17,209
what they did, or were doing

1439
01:12:17,376 --> 01:12:19,979
to compromise
the United States of America.

1440
01:12:20,146 --> 01:12:25,317
He was squeaky clean.
They couldn't find shit on him.

1441
01:12:25,485 --> 01:12:27,253
And they dug deep.

1442
01:12:27,454 --> 01:12:30,990
There was some story like,
oh, yeah, and then, and then

1443
01:12:31,190 --> 01:12:33,359
<i>General Flynn left this event,</i>

1444
01:12:33,560 --> 01:12:37,430
<i>this dinner, with, um,
with this woman who is</i>

1445
01:12:37,630 --> 01:12:39,666
half Russian, half British.

1446
01:12:39,832 --> 01:12:41,901
Well, of course,
nothing of the sort happened.

1447
01:12:42,068 --> 01:12:43,870
Nothing of the sort
could happen because here--

1448
01:12:44,036 --> 01:12:46,205
here is the director of the DIA,

1449
01:12:46,372 --> 01:12:48,240
a very important role,

1450
01:12:48,407 --> 01:12:52,912
and so he's not going anywhere
off on his own with anyone.

1451
01:12:53,079 --> 01:12:55,915
And she's just
this young woman who's married,

1452
01:12:56,082 --> 01:12:57,684
you know, I think at the time,
if I remember right,

1453
01:12:57,850 --> 01:13:00,252
she was pregnant
or getting ready to have a baby.

1454
01:13:00,419 --> 01:13:02,054
Her life was ruined.

1455
01:13:02,254 --> 01:13:06,025
<i>All because of this guy named--
this-- the--</i>

1456
01:13:06,225 --> 01:13:07,560
<i>this guy they call Halper,
right?</i>

1457
01:13:08,495 --> 01:13:10,196
His name is Halper,
Stefan Halper.

1458
01:13:10,362 --> 01:13:12,398
The Walrus, right?

1459
01:13:12,565 --> 01:13:14,567
Guy's a-- he's a--
he's a walking steam bath

1460
01:13:14,734 --> 01:13:17,303
because he sweats all the time.

1461
01:13:17,504 --> 01:13:22,441
And have to have your family
exposed to that kind of,

1462
01:13:22,609 --> 01:13:25,545
um, that kind of ugliness

1463
01:13:26,178 --> 01:13:28,481
because someone is determined
to destroy you,

1464
01:13:28,681 --> 01:13:30,282
these are very hard things.

1465
01:13:30,449 --> 01:13:32,919
But again, it comes back
to like why, you know,

1466
01:13:33,085 --> 01:13:34,654
why people are mad
about this story.

1467
01:13:34,854 --> 01:13:39,726
Why I'm mad about this story.
Why it hurt...

1468
01:13:39,892 --> 01:13:42,795
Why it was painful for
other families to watch too,

1469
01:13:42,962 --> 01:13:46,566
to imagine what it was like
for his family to, um,

1470
01:13:46,733 --> 01:13:50,469
to be targeted by
these animals like that.

1471
01:13:50,637 --> 01:13:52,071
They disparaged him

1472
01:13:52,238 --> 01:13:54,574
as much as they possibly could
in the media.

1473
01:13:54,741 --> 01:13:57,844
It was all bullshit.
It was all bullshit.

1474
01:13:58,044 --> 01:14:00,012
And we were sitting there
as family going,

1475
01:14:00,212 --> 01:14:01,447
"Michael fucking
has a girlfriend,

1476
01:14:01,614 --> 01:14:02,515
and get to hear he had an affair

1477
01:14:02,715 --> 01:14:04,150
with some Russian girl?"

1478
01:14:04,316 --> 01:14:08,688
I called her up.
I called her up.

1479
01:14:08,888 --> 01:14:11,257
I said, "Hey, tell me
about your relationship

1480
01:14:11,423 --> 01:14:13,092
with my brother Mike.

1481
01:14:13,259 --> 01:14:15,628
You're in trouble here.
You name is all over the place."

1482
01:14:15,795 --> 01:14:17,263
We kind of
endeared ourselves to her.

1483
01:14:17,429 --> 01:14:20,132
I wanted to find out.
Lori needed to know.

1484
01:14:20,299 --> 01:14:23,903
They were saying stuff about
Michael that he had an affair.
She knew it wasn't true.

1485
01:14:24,103 --> 01:14:26,272
<i>But how do you think she felt
when she had to go
see her mother</i>

1486
01:14:26,472 --> 01:14:27,907
<i>and they read it in the paper?</i>

1487
01:14:28,107 --> 01:14:29,542
<i>They didn't give a shit
about how he felt</i>

1488
01:14:29,742 --> 01:14:30,977
<i>or how that affected
his family.</i>

1489
01:14:33,279 --> 01:14:37,784
Obama and Biden
did not want General Flynn

1490
01:14:37,950 --> 01:14:44,190
giving them a proctology exam
without any kind of anesthesia.

1491
01:14:45,191 --> 01:14:47,860
I've said that I'm surprised
that they haven't killed me,

1492
01:14:48,027 --> 01:14:50,797
surprised that they've
let me continue to live.

1493
01:14:51,698 --> 01:14:52,899
Um...

1494
01:14:56,502 --> 01:14:59,305
Maybe they feel like they've
done enough damage to where,

1495
01:14:59,471 --> 01:15:01,007
no matter whenever
I pop my head up,

1496
01:15:01,173 --> 01:15:02,575
wherever I'm at,
they can just kind of go,

1497
01:15:02,775 --> 01:15:04,143
"Oh, that's
the conspiracy theorist.

1498
01:15:04,310 --> 01:15:06,679
He's done this. He's done that."

1499
01:15:06,846 --> 01:15:09,649
And I know that there's
an entire movement of people,

1500
01:15:09,816 --> 01:15:14,020
an organization, that they--
their sole purpose in life

1501
01:15:14,186 --> 01:15:17,690
is to make sure
no matter what I do,

1502
01:15:17,857 --> 01:15:22,094
to find a way to show it
in a dark light.

1503
01:15:22,294 --> 01:15:25,097
You know, we've gone from
the physical assassination

1504
01:15:25,297 --> 01:15:27,566
of a president
of the United States

1505
01:15:27,734 --> 01:15:30,603
to a character assassination
of a National Security Advisor.

1506
01:15:35,374 --> 01:15:37,844
[Tracy] <i>General Flynn
had a private company</i>

1507
01:15:38,044 --> 01:15:41,047
<i>he formed with his son
and a business partner.</i>

1508
01:15:41,213 --> 01:15:44,350
They were engaged by
a private citizen in Turkey

1509
01:15:44,516 --> 01:15:48,955
to do some work on behalf of
this private businessman.

1510
01:15:49,155 --> 01:15:52,124
So there was no need
to report this

1511
01:15:52,324 --> 01:15:54,794
because the private businessman
was not working

1512
01:15:54,994 --> 01:15:57,630
on behalf of
the Turkish government.

1513
01:15:57,830 --> 01:15:59,899
Did not receive any money
from the Turkish government,

1514
01:16:00,066 --> 01:16:01,734
wasn't working with
the Turkish government at all.

1515
01:16:01,901 --> 01:16:03,636
This was a private businessman

1516
01:16:03,836 --> 01:16:08,975
engaging the Flynn Intel Group
to do a job for him.

1517
01:16:18,785 --> 01:16:20,252
[Devin] <i>All the talk was about</i>

1518
01:16:20,419 --> 01:16:23,723
FARA violations,
Logan Act violations.

1519
01:16:23,890 --> 01:16:25,992
I mean, lots of crazy,
far-fetched laws

1520
01:16:26,192 --> 01:16:28,627
that had either
never been enforced,

1521
01:16:28,795 --> 01:16:30,963
or were rarely enforced,
and if enforced, they were like

1522
01:16:31,130 --> 01:16:32,899
a slap on the wrist
type of, type of thing,

1523
01:16:33,065 --> 01:16:36,235
not some multi-year,
multi-pronged investigation.

1524
01:16:36,402 --> 01:16:39,071
This Laufman guy

1525
01:16:39,238 --> 01:16:41,440
who's running this FARA office,

1526
01:16:41,607 --> 01:16:43,409
they send a letter to Mike
saying,

1527
01:16:43,575 --> 01:16:46,178
hey, you need to fill out
this FARA form.

1528
01:16:46,378 --> 01:16:48,647
So, he didn't have to fill out
a FARA form at all

1529
01:16:48,815 --> 01:16:50,649
because he wasn't working
for the Turkish government.

1530
01:16:50,817 --> 01:16:52,484
He was working for
a Turkish businessman.

1531
01:16:52,651 --> 01:16:53,786
He's got a lawyer at the time.

1532
01:16:53,953 --> 01:16:55,654
She says, "Well, the number one

1533
01:16:55,822 --> 01:16:58,991
FARA filing office
in the country

1534
01:16:59,158 --> 01:17:01,493
is this Covington & Burling."

1535
01:17:01,660 --> 01:17:04,196
You know, you figure,
"Ah, I really don't
need to do this,

1536
01:17:04,396 --> 01:17:05,865
but I'm going to
consult these attorneys

1537
01:17:06,065 --> 01:17:08,000
to see if
I really need to file."

1538
01:17:08,167 --> 01:17:09,635
And they say, "You know what,

1539
01:17:09,802 --> 01:17:11,337
just to be on the safe side,
file."

1540
01:17:11,503 --> 01:17:12,772
You're filling out
an application

1541
01:17:12,939 --> 01:17:14,974
and you know, Covington Burling,

1542
01:17:15,141 --> 01:17:19,611
the number one FARA filing
law firm in the country,

1543
01:17:19,779 --> 01:17:21,280
is filling it out.

1544
01:17:21,447 --> 01:17:23,449
Okay, we're in good shape, right?

1545
01:17:23,615 --> 01:17:26,652
So, um, but how did they
blitz him with this

1546
01:17:26,819 --> 01:17:29,722
FARA violation
because they come back

1547
01:17:29,922 --> 01:17:32,058
and they start adding that,
well, it wasn't a violation.

1548
01:17:32,258 --> 01:17:36,162
They just put the wording into
as many documents as they could.

1549
01:17:36,328 --> 01:17:39,165
They would have some fishy line
about FARA.

1550
01:17:39,331 --> 01:17:41,467
What that did was,

1551
01:17:41,633 --> 01:17:45,337
that let the media
take the term FARA,

1552
01:17:45,504 --> 01:17:48,140
which is Foreign Agent
Registration Act,

1553
01:17:48,307 --> 01:17:50,476
and just call him
a foreign agent.

1554
01:17:50,642 --> 01:17:53,179
So now he gets blitzed,
and he's a foreign spy.

1555
01:17:53,345 --> 01:17:54,981
He's another spy, you know,
he's a Russian spy,

1556
01:17:55,147 --> 01:17:56,515
he's a Turkish spy.

1557
01:17:56,682 --> 01:17:59,251
He's all, he's all kinds of
spies, you know?

1558
01:17:59,451 --> 01:18:01,187
There are so many people
who are collateral damage

1559
01:18:01,353 --> 01:18:04,556
that's-- whose stories
are so intricate,

1560
01:18:04,723 --> 01:18:07,827
that if you can't get people
to understand this big story

1561
01:18:07,994 --> 01:18:10,830
of General Flynn, how in--
how ever would you be able to

1562
01:18:10,997 --> 01:18:12,731
get them to understand
the intricacies?

1563
01:18:12,899 --> 01:18:15,501
So, again,
at the end of the day,

1564
01:18:15,667 --> 01:18:17,703
the Flynn Intel Group
was retained to do business

1565
01:18:17,870 --> 01:18:19,505
for someone who was not attached

1566
01:18:19,671 --> 01:18:21,941
to the Turkish government
at all.

1567
01:18:22,141 --> 01:18:24,844
And they lied and said he was.

1568
01:18:25,011 --> 01:18:27,113
They are smart again, right?
They're going to take out

1569
01:18:27,313 --> 01:18:30,116
the number-one
military intelligence

1570
01:18:30,316 --> 01:18:32,584
officer of our country,
the National Security Advisor

1571
01:18:32,751 --> 01:18:35,687
who's about to find out
everything.

1572
01:18:35,855 --> 01:18:36,856
What do we do now?

1573
01:18:37,056 --> 01:18:38,891
<i>Let's go after his son.</i>

1574
01:18:41,393 --> 01:18:43,529
[Michael Jr.] Was there anything
more significant

1575
01:18:43,695 --> 01:18:46,732
on this timeline to you, Dad,
than anything else, or...?

1576
01:18:46,899 --> 01:18:48,968
[Flynn] [exhales] You know.

1577
01:18:49,168 --> 01:18:51,971
[Michael Jr.] I mean, for me...

1578
01:18:52,171 --> 01:18:53,940
- it's that.
- [Flynn] Yeah.

1579
01:18:54,106 --> 01:18:55,441
That's the, if there's
one thing that I think about,

1580
01:18:55,607 --> 01:18:57,309
- you know, more than--
- [Flynn] Yeah.

1581
01:18:57,509 --> 01:19:01,313
That, that's the meeting
where they conspired to

1582
01:19:01,513 --> 01:19:04,750
basically undermine
the presidency

1583
01:19:04,917 --> 01:19:07,119
of the United States of America.

1584
01:19:07,286 --> 01:19:09,088
We live in a time right now

1585
01:19:09,255 --> 01:19:11,123
where more than any other time
in American history...

1586
01:19:13,926 --> 01:19:17,063
the government,
investigative agencies,

1587
01:19:17,229 --> 01:19:19,631
especially the FBI
and the Department of Justice,

1588
01:19:19,798 --> 01:19:22,001
have been weaponized
against the American people.

1589
01:19:24,436 --> 01:19:25,804
[producer]
When did it dawn on you

1590
01:19:25,972 --> 01:19:29,108
that Michael would be a target?

1591
01:19:29,308 --> 01:19:32,011
[Flynn] <i>Probably
by the middle of the summer,
I started to feel that,</i>

1592
01:19:32,211 --> 01:19:34,713
<i>because the FBI
is knocking on his door.</i>

1593
01:19:34,914 --> 01:19:38,050
<i>This is when I--
I had a really difficult time
being able to communicate.</i>

1594
01:19:38,250 --> 01:19:40,786
<i>We had to communicate
through a lawyer,
so I can't even talk to my son.</i>

1595
01:19:40,953 --> 01:19:44,523
- [producer]
Whose advice is that?
- My lawyers at the time.

1596
01:19:44,723 --> 01:19:47,793
Looking back, it was,
it was horrific.

1597
01:19:47,994 --> 01:19:50,562
<i>And then, all of a sudden,
there was--</i>

1598
01:19:50,762 --> 01:19:55,101
<i>started to be newspaper
articles coming out</i>

1599
01:19:55,267 --> 01:19:59,805
that the Department of Justice
is starting to look harder at,

1600
01:19:59,972 --> 01:20:02,374
at General Flynn's son, Michael.

1601
01:20:03,309 --> 01:20:04,776
My team of lawyers was, was,

1602
01:20:04,944 --> 01:20:07,379
was represented by
a gigantic law firm, one of,

1603
01:20:07,579 --> 01:20:09,882
they call them the white-shoe
law firms in Washington, DC,

1604
01:20:10,082 --> 01:20:11,517
Covington & Burling,

1605
01:20:11,683 --> 01:20:13,519
and you really do feel like

1606
01:20:13,685 --> 01:20:16,022
they have your best interests
at heart.

1607
01:20:16,188 --> 01:20:21,060
You know, they come across
as, as professionals.

1608
01:20:21,260 --> 01:20:22,228
And man, was I wrong.

1609
01:20:24,796 --> 01:20:26,966
A moment of,
of misjudgment on my part.

1610
01:20:32,304 --> 01:20:36,042
That's all part of that
Washington, DC, establishment.

1611
01:20:36,208 --> 01:20:41,013
You're looking at 25 years and
about a half a dozen felonies.

1612
01:20:41,180 --> 01:20:45,151
Okay. And they're gonna go
after your son.

1613
01:20:47,386 --> 01:20:50,889
And I'm like, "You gotta be
shitting me. For what?"

1614
01:20:51,057 --> 01:20:53,259
And I'm sitting there,
height of the,

1615
01:20:53,459 --> 01:20:57,196
of the Mueller investigation.
It's really just kicking in.

1616
01:20:57,363 --> 01:21:01,333
There's nobody around, okay;
who I had was my family.

1617
01:21:01,500 --> 01:21:03,902
I didn't have big media stars.

1618
01:21:04,070 --> 01:21:05,504
I didn't have
big political stars.

1619
01:21:05,671 --> 01:21:06,538
I didn't have the White House.

1620
01:21:07,506 --> 01:21:09,942
We're already into
our house being sold.

1621
01:21:10,142 --> 01:21:12,211
We're already into an ungodly
amount of money that was--

1622
01:21:12,378 --> 01:21:13,946
that it's costing,
and you're just

1623
01:21:14,146 --> 01:21:15,747
kind of like,
"I got to stop this.

1624
01:21:15,914 --> 01:21:17,049
You know, I got to
stop this bleeding."

1625
01:21:17,984 --> 01:21:20,186
It was mental and emotional
bleeding.

1626
01:21:21,087 --> 01:21:23,122
And it was happening to me,

1627
01:21:23,322 --> 01:21:25,791
my wife, my kids, my family.

1628
01:21:25,992 --> 01:21:30,862
I'll give my life for my family

1629
01:21:31,030 --> 01:21:32,464
because I would have given
my life for this country.

1630
01:21:32,664 --> 01:21:36,735
They're the reason why I fight.

1631
01:21:36,902 --> 01:21:42,941
What they did-- they knew
that nothing was there.

1632
01:21:43,109 --> 01:21:45,544
Michael Flynn Jr.
worked for Flynn Intel Group

1633
01:21:45,711 --> 01:21:48,047
with his dad
and the business partner.

1634
01:21:48,214 --> 01:21:55,054
So, they saw him
as a weapon to wield because

1635
01:21:55,221 --> 01:21:58,690
they were going after
General Flynn's business partner

1636
01:21:58,890 --> 01:22:01,693
<i>and Ekim Alptekin.</i>

1637
01:22:01,893 --> 01:22:03,562
<i>As sort of a pawn,</i>

1638
01:22:03,729 --> 01:22:07,966
they looped in a threat
against Michael Flynn, Jr.

1639
01:22:08,134 --> 01:22:09,801
to get General Flynn
to plead guilty.

1640
01:22:09,968 --> 01:22:12,404
All right,
a lot of people, you know,

1641
01:22:12,571 --> 01:22:14,640
asked us that question:
"Why did you guys even go
with Covington & Burling?"

1642
01:22:14,806 --> 01:22:17,243
You know, they were
the DC FARA experts.

1643
01:22:17,409 --> 01:22:19,145
They never really
fought for anything.

1644
01:22:19,311 --> 01:22:21,113
You know, they-- if you had
something on Trump,

1645
01:22:21,280 --> 01:22:22,981
that, you know,
it would help you.

1646
01:22:23,149 --> 01:22:26,452
They brought my son in,

1647
01:22:26,618 --> 01:22:28,020
knowing where he was
in his life,

1648
01:22:28,220 --> 01:22:32,691
and, and knowing how bad

1649
01:22:32,891 --> 01:22:34,993
the rule of law system
is in Washington, DC.

1650
01:22:35,161 --> 01:22:38,464
That was a major pain point.
Huge.

1651
01:22:38,630 --> 01:22:41,367
All the lawyers
then became involved

1652
01:22:41,567 --> 01:22:45,137
in something that is
absolutely prohibited

1653
01:22:45,304 --> 01:22:47,039
in federal court
in that they had

1654
01:22:47,239 --> 01:22:49,308
an off-the-books
part of the deal.

1655
01:22:49,508 --> 01:22:51,243
<i>They had this deal</i>

1656
01:22:51,443 --> 01:22:53,545
<i>that was communicated
to General Flynn</i>

1657
01:22:53,745 --> 01:22:56,615
<i>where the government
wouldn't put it in writing,</i>

1658
01:22:56,815 --> 01:23:02,121
<i>but they would agree orally
that if he accepted this plea,</i>

1659
01:23:02,321 --> 01:23:04,390
<i>they wouldn't prosecute
his son.</i>

1660
01:23:08,026 --> 01:23:11,029
What parent could ever
say no to that?

1661
01:23:11,197 --> 01:23:14,833
What parent could ever
fight back against that,

1662
01:23:15,000 --> 01:23:19,004
where they're threatening
to put your son in jail

1663
01:23:19,171 --> 01:23:22,308
right before that
son's oldest son is born,

1664
01:23:22,474 --> 01:23:24,243
right before their grandson's
about to be born?

1665
01:23:28,480 --> 01:23:32,084
We have rules in federal court
to stop that,

1666
01:23:32,284 --> 01:23:35,654
to make sure that these
off-the-book deals don't happen.

1667
01:23:38,324 --> 01:23:41,327
And those lawyers on both sides,
the Special Counsel's Office

1668
01:23:41,493 --> 01:23:44,263
and the Covington & Burling
lawyers,

1669
01:23:44,463 --> 01:23:47,666
walked into federal court
and they lied.

1670
01:23:47,833 --> 01:23:50,536
They lied when the judge
asked if there was any

1671
01:23:50,702 --> 01:23:52,871
off-the-books deals.

1672
01:23:53,038 --> 01:23:56,108
They said there wasn't.
There was.

1673
01:23:56,308 --> 01:23:59,678
And it was all
part of this effort

1674
01:23:59,845 --> 01:24:01,247
for Covington & Burling

1675
01:24:01,413 --> 01:24:02,848
to protect their own hide,

1676
01:24:03,014 --> 01:24:05,851
rather than to look out
for their client.

1677
01:24:06,017 --> 01:24:08,120
It was disgusting.

1678
01:24:08,320 --> 01:24:10,922
And then also, don't forget
that if you do plead

1679
01:24:11,089 --> 01:24:13,692
not guilty and go to trial,

1680
01:24:13,859 --> 01:24:16,695
you're going to have a DC jury,
you're going to have a DC judge,

1681
01:24:16,862 --> 01:24:18,897
and then you'll probably
be found guilty,

1682
01:24:19,064 --> 01:24:21,133
and, you know, you're--
you're looking at 20,

1683
01:24:21,333 --> 01:24:23,569
25 years in prison.

1684
01:24:23,735 --> 01:24:26,938
So, this is probably the best
deal for you to do this.

1685
01:24:27,105 --> 01:24:29,107
And then a lot of people say,
"Oh, even if that was my son,

1686
01:24:29,275 --> 01:24:30,742
I would have never done that."
No.

1687
01:24:30,909 --> 01:24:31,943
You don't know
what you would have done

1688
01:24:32,110 --> 01:24:33,745
unless you were in our shoes,

1689
01:24:33,912 --> 01:24:35,647
and having to have
your lawyers tell you

1690
01:24:35,847 --> 01:24:38,484
that people that you thought
were doing the best for you,

1691
01:24:38,684 --> 01:24:40,752
that this was
the best thing for you,

1692
01:24:40,919 --> 01:24:43,155
and this is the only way
you're going to get out of this

1693
01:24:43,355 --> 01:24:46,158
is if you sign this plea deal.
So that's what we did.

1694
01:24:46,358 --> 01:24:48,260
People plead guilty
to crimes they did not commit

1695
01:24:48,427 --> 01:24:51,463
every single day
in this country.

1696
01:24:51,630 --> 01:24:53,332
A lot of the times,
it's minorities

1697
01:24:53,532 --> 01:24:55,667
that are pleading guilty
to crimes they didn't commit,

1698
01:24:55,867 --> 01:24:58,737
<i>because who has the resources</i>

1699
01:24:58,937 --> 01:25:03,942
<i>to fight the juggernaut that is
the American justice system?</i>

1700
01:25:04,109 --> 01:25:07,145
And so, the government starts
leaning on Covington

1701
01:25:07,313 --> 01:25:09,748
and Covington starts leaning
on General Flynn

1702
01:25:09,915 --> 01:25:13,252
to accept a plea deal.

1703
01:25:13,419 --> 01:25:19,991
Single count of a violation
of 18 USC-1001,

1704
01:25:20,158 --> 01:25:22,294
which is providing a false
statement to the government.

1705
01:25:26,498 --> 01:25:28,600
[woman] <i>But of course,
the unbelievable turn of events</i>

1706
01:25:28,800 --> 01:25:30,269
<i>in today's news
happened in federal court</i>

1707
01:25:30,469 --> 01:25:32,137
<i>in Washington, DC,</i>

1708
01:25:32,338 --> 01:25:35,274
<i>in the courtroom
of Judge Emmet Sullivan.</i>

1709
01:25:35,474 --> 01:25:38,244
[Flynn]
<i>And then the prosecution
is the Department of Justice.</i>

1710
01:25:38,444 --> 01:25:40,946
<i>And the Department of Justice
had probably
about 20 lawyers there.</i>

1711
01:25:41,112 --> 01:25:42,614
One of them
was the Solicitor General

1712
01:25:42,781 --> 01:25:44,683
for the United States
of America.

1713
01:25:44,850 --> 01:25:50,556
And the prosecutor, in my case,
his name was Brandon Van Grack.

1714
01:25:50,756 --> 01:25:52,458
<i>So we go into this courtroom,</i>

1715
01:25:52,624 --> 01:25:54,293
one of the most packed
hearings that they ever had

1716
01:25:54,460 --> 01:25:57,396
in the federal courthouse
of Washington, DC.

1717
01:25:57,596 --> 01:25:59,197
Then, all of a sudden,
out of nowhere,

1718
01:25:59,365 --> 01:26:01,733
the judge goes
right off the rails,

1719
01:26:01,933 --> 01:26:03,902
and he started going down
this other path and...

1720
01:26:04,102 --> 01:26:05,471
well, he said, "You turned
your back on your country."

1721
01:26:05,671 --> 01:26:07,573
[Jake]
<i>It sure sounded as though</i>

1722
01:26:07,773 --> 01:26:10,108
<i>Judge Sullivan was going to
send Flynn to the clink</i>

1723
01:26:10,309 --> 01:26:12,944
<i>for at least
some period of time.</i>

1724
01:26:13,144 --> 01:26:17,082
[reporter] <i>It did, Jake.
The judge stressed that prison
time was not off the table.</i>

1725
01:26:17,283 --> 01:26:20,686
[Flynn] <i>And my lawyers tell me,
going into this hearing,</i>

1726
01:26:20,886 --> 01:26:23,121
<i>"Don't worry, you're not
going to have to say much here.</i>

1727
01:26:23,322 --> 01:26:25,724
<i>The prosecution's going to do
most of the talking." Okay?</i>

1728
01:26:25,891 --> 01:26:27,893
And just the opposite happened.

1729
01:26:28,059 --> 01:26:29,728
You know, I get questions
from the judge.

1730
01:26:29,895 --> 01:26:31,430
And I'm answering
all the questions

1731
01:26:31,630 --> 01:26:33,899
and then the judge
starts to accuse me.

1732
01:26:34,065 --> 01:26:36,268
And he does
this very famous turns,

1733
01:26:36,468 --> 01:26:40,672
he turns, and he grabs
the flag behind his,

1734
01:26:40,839 --> 01:26:43,174
where his seat behind his bench,

1735
01:26:43,342 --> 01:26:45,377
and he grabs the flag,
and he turns back and he says,

1736
01:26:45,544 --> 01:26:47,078
you know, basically accuses me

1737
01:26:47,245 --> 01:26:49,247
of committing treason.
"Could he have been--

1738
01:26:49,415 --> 01:26:52,451
could he have been tried
for treason?

1739
01:26:52,651 --> 01:26:53,852
Or could he have been
found guilty of treason?"

1740
01:26:54,019 --> 01:26:55,554
To the prosecutor.

1741
01:26:55,721 --> 01:26:57,789
And Grack is, he was
kind of taken by it too.

1742
01:26:57,989 --> 01:27:00,526
The DOJ lawyer.

1743
01:27:00,692 --> 01:27:03,228
And he essentially says,
you know, "No, Your Honor.

1744
01:27:03,395 --> 01:27:05,030
No, Your Honor."

1745
01:27:05,196 --> 01:27:07,399
But, but the, so the judge
is sitting there

1746
01:27:07,566 --> 01:27:09,200
accusing me of treason
in a court,

1747
01:27:09,368 --> 01:27:11,102
and I'm not even in there for
any of that.

1748
01:27:11,269 --> 01:27:13,739
He's hugging the American flag
and he's saying, you know,

1749
01:27:13,905 --> 01:27:16,308
"You turned your back
on this country."

1750
01:27:16,508 --> 01:27:18,744
We were shocked.
There had been no trial.

1751
01:27:18,910 --> 01:27:20,379
There had been
no exchange of evidence.

1752
01:27:20,546 --> 01:27:22,314
There had been
no cross-examinations.

1753
01:27:22,514 --> 01:27:24,483
I thought his ini-- his outburst

1754
01:27:24,683 --> 01:27:28,253
calling General Michael Flynn
a traitor...

1755
01:27:28,420 --> 01:27:30,121
I mean, it was-- he was the one

1756
01:27:30,288 --> 01:27:32,290
who brought dishonor
upon his courtroom

1757
01:27:32,458 --> 01:27:35,093
and upon himself, right,
to scream out those things.

1758
01:27:35,260 --> 01:27:36,762
I mean, what an ignoramus.

1759
01:27:36,928 --> 01:27:38,263
There's no doubt in my mind

1760
01:27:38,430 --> 01:27:40,265
he did it for the benefit
of the media

1761
01:27:40,432 --> 01:27:42,768
because the media was on
pins and needles that day.

1762
01:27:42,934 --> 01:27:44,503
You know, they call them
the talking heads

1763
01:27:44,703 --> 01:27:46,972
on these shows,
who are these former

1764
01:27:47,138 --> 01:27:50,676
intelligence community
officials, like Brennan,

1765
01:27:50,876 --> 01:27:52,511
<i>like Clapper,</i>

1766
01:27:52,711 --> 01:27:54,079
<i>like Comey,</i>

1767
01:27:54,279 --> 01:27:56,382
<i>like McCabe.</i>

1768
01:27:56,582 --> 01:27:59,418
[Michael Jr.] <i>Peter Strzok,
Lisa Page, Sally Yates;</i>

1769
01:27:59,585 --> 01:28:00,986
you can't control these people.

1770
01:28:01,152 --> 01:28:04,122
And they're accusing me
of spying

1771
01:28:04,289 --> 01:28:06,692
against the United States
of America for Russia.

1772
01:28:06,892 --> 01:28:09,094
Of course, the media takes off,
takes off with,
"Well, even, you know,

1773
01:28:09,260 --> 01:28:11,863
even Judge Sullivan, you know,
in the courtroom

1774
01:28:12,063 --> 01:28:13,899
called General Flynn traitor."

1775
01:28:14,099 --> 01:28:17,302
[Flynn] <i>The judge,
I believe, realized</i>

1776
01:28:17,503 --> 01:28:19,505
<i>that what he just did</i>

1777
01:28:19,671 --> 01:28:22,808
would probably lead to a,
to some type of mistrial

1778
01:28:22,974 --> 01:28:25,611
or probably lead to
something bad for him,

1779
01:28:25,777 --> 01:28:29,515
because he just accused me
of something publicly
that I wasn't even in there for.

1780
01:28:29,681 --> 01:28:32,718
You could feel
inside of that courtroom

1781
01:28:32,918 --> 01:28:35,554
the level of tension
was unbelievable.

1782
01:28:35,754 --> 01:28:37,456
And I'm looking at
the lineup of prosecutors

1783
01:28:37,623 --> 01:28:39,224
from the Department of Justice,

1784
01:28:39,425 --> 01:28:40,959
and they were all
like white-faced,

1785
01:28:41,126 --> 01:28:44,195
like "Holy crap,
what did this judge just do?"

1786
01:28:44,362 --> 01:28:45,964
And the judge says,
"You know, do we need to talk?

1787
01:28:46,131 --> 01:28:47,633
Do we need time
to take a break?"

1788
01:28:47,799 --> 01:28:49,535
And I do this--

1789
01:28:49,701 --> 01:28:50,569
I don't know if you caught that,

1790
01:28:50,769 --> 01:28:53,004
but I did this.

1791
01:28:53,171 --> 01:28:55,641
And my lawyer said,
"Yes, Your Honor."

1792
01:28:55,807 --> 01:28:57,375
Prosecution,
"Yes, Your Honor. We're okay."

1793
01:28:57,543 --> 01:28:58,510
So, we take a break.

1794
01:28:59,445 --> 01:29:02,180
<i>The judge today
really rebukes Michael Flynn</i>

1795
01:29:02,380 --> 01:29:04,149
<i>and uses words like treason,</i>

1796
01:29:04,349 --> 01:29:05,817
<i>that you allegedly
sold out your country.</i>

1797
01:29:05,984 --> 01:29:07,853
After the treason comment

1798
01:29:08,019 --> 01:29:09,688
and after the--
thank God they took that break,

1799
01:29:09,855 --> 01:29:13,191
Lori, I think, said,
"We gotta take a break here."

1800
01:29:13,358 --> 01:29:15,193
She looked at me and said,

1801
01:29:15,393 --> 01:29:18,263
<i>"This is going off the rails.
This is a disaster.</i>

1802
01:29:18,464 --> 01:29:21,032
<i>He's gonna put him
in jail today."</i>

1803
01:29:21,199 --> 01:29:23,535
I get back into the courtroom

1804
01:29:23,702 --> 01:29:28,540
and the judge knew
that he, he was wrong.

1805
01:29:28,707 --> 01:29:30,709
And he came back out
and he essentially,

1806
01:29:30,876 --> 01:29:33,378
in a shitty way, he apologized.

1807
01:29:33,545 --> 01:29:36,615
He gave a shitty apology.
But the damage was done.

1808
01:29:36,815 --> 01:29:39,518
<i>Threatening jail time for
lying to the FBI.</i>

1809
01:29:39,718 --> 01:29:41,853
<i>But I-- but I want to read you
some more of this judge.</i>

1810
01:29:42,053 --> 01:29:44,956
<i>This judge has become
a fascinating new figure
in this drama.</i>

1811
01:29:45,156 --> 01:29:48,627
And he says, "Okay,
we'll come back in like
90 days" or something.

1812
01:29:48,827 --> 01:29:51,196
"We will-- we'll revisit
in 90 days."

1813
01:29:53,031 --> 01:29:58,403
And, you know,
pounds his gavel and,

1814
01:29:58,570 --> 01:30:01,106
and we all get up, he walks out.

1815
01:30:01,272 --> 01:30:06,311
And I mean, it was,
it was like total chaos.

1816
01:30:06,512 --> 01:30:09,915
By the grace of God,
Sullivan let him walk out

1817
01:30:10,081 --> 01:30:12,484
of that courtroom
without going to prison.

1818
01:30:12,684 --> 01:30:17,255
I think he probably regrets;
I think Sullivan regrets
that decision to this day.

1819
01:30:17,422 --> 01:30:21,059
We ended up going back over
to my son Michael's house
to just find some relief.

1820
01:30:21,226 --> 01:30:22,794
The baby's running around.

1821
01:30:22,961 --> 01:30:25,597
The baby, he's like,
crawling around.

1822
01:30:29,601 --> 01:30:32,103
We don't know that
they had threatened Mike.

1823
01:30:32,270 --> 01:30:36,675
I must have walked
around DC after that,

1824
01:30:36,875 --> 01:30:39,778
after that hearing,
for a good six, seven hours,

1825
01:30:39,945 --> 01:30:41,279
just walking around,
just looking at the sky,

1826
01:30:41,446 --> 01:30:43,448
like crying my eyes out.

1827
01:30:43,615 --> 01:30:46,685
There's-- there's no resolution,
you're two years into this now.

1828
01:30:46,885 --> 01:30:51,523
Okay. And you have no idea
how much longer this--
this is going to take.

1829
01:30:51,723 --> 01:30:57,495
I'm battling with terrible PTSD,
terrible PTSD from--
from this experience.

1830
01:30:57,663 --> 01:31:00,799
You know, I just, I describe it
as this constant drumbeat of,

1831
01:31:00,966 --> 01:31:04,102
of dot, you know, of subpoenas,
search warrants, you know,

1832
01:31:04,269 --> 01:31:08,006
emails, email requests
for information,

1833
01:31:08,173 --> 01:31:11,509
eventual media, you know,
parked outside of my house.

1834
01:31:15,614 --> 01:31:19,217
<i>And I want to talk about
that "being alone" feeling.</i>

1835
01:31:19,417 --> 01:31:21,352
There are very few things that
are worse than feeling alone

1836
01:31:21,519 --> 01:31:25,123
when you're going through
like incredible,
incredible trauma.

1837
01:31:27,158 --> 01:31:27,959
Um...

1838
01:31:29,961 --> 01:31:31,296
There was just so much
that was happening,

1839
01:31:31,462 --> 01:31:34,065
so much that was happening
that I...

1840
01:31:34,265 --> 01:31:36,802
I didn't understand
at the time, you know?

1841
01:31:36,968 --> 01:31:38,536
I didn't understand, I mean,
I didn't really understand

1842
01:31:38,704 --> 01:31:40,839
the concept of the deep state,
you know?

1843
01:31:41,006 --> 01:31:43,008
I didn't understand, you know,
that the Department of Justice

1844
01:31:43,174 --> 01:31:45,310
can indict
a ham sandwich concept.

1845
01:31:45,476 --> 01:31:47,579
You know, like I just,
all of a sudden, I'm--

1846
01:31:47,779 --> 01:31:50,081
I'm hearing that my father
could potentially

1847
01:31:50,281 --> 01:31:52,651
go away to prison for 15 years.

1848
01:31:52,818 --> 01:31:55,754
I remember the conversations
that I had with my mom about...

1849
01:31:58,056 --> 01:31:59,190
[exhales]

1850
01:32:01,226 --> 01:32:02,828
just about like,

1851
01:32:02,994 --> 01:32:05,697
"Which prison are we
gonna go visit him at?"

1852
01:32:05,864 --> 01:32:08,366
I can't even imagine like,
what my mom,

1853
01:32:08,533 --> 01:32:10,401
what my mom was thinking about.

1854
01:32:10,568 --> 01:32:13,338
It's been really hard
on him, I think,

1855
01:32:13,504 --> 01:32:15,774
harder on him, I think,
than on me, truthfully.

1856
01:32:15,974 --> 01:32:19,778
Because imagine
having a son feel like

1857
01:32:19,978 --> 01:32:21,847
he is the reason
your father had to plead guilty

1858
01:32:22,013 --> 01:32:24,582
to a crime he didn't commit.

1859
01:32:24,750 --> 01:32:28,386
I can't imagine the burden
that he had, I mean, the guilt.

1860
01:32:28,553 --> 01:32:30,188
And it's almost like
survivor's guilt, really.

1861
01:32:30,355 --> 01:32:32,624
He just felt like, you know,

1862
01:32:32,824 --> 01:32:35,293
his dad was willing
to go to prison for him.

1863
01:32:35,493 --> 01:32:38,063
You know, I mean,
I didn't believe it.
I just didn't believe it.

1864
01:32:38,229 --> 01:32:39,898
It took me years
to understand, like,

1865
01:32:40,065 --> 01:32:43,902
oh, he was doing this to,
to basically save, to save me.

1866
01:32:44,069 --> 01:32:46,872
You know, if I wasn't,
if I wasn't there,
he wouldn't have done it.

1867
01:32:47,038 --> 01:32:50,608
He would have kept--
he would have kept fighting,
but it's like, I understand.

1868
01:32:50,776 --> 01:32:52,243
I understand, like...

1869
01:32:55,747 --> 01:32:58,416
I understand as a father,
you know, like,

1870
01:32:58,583 --> 01:33:00,986
what you would do.

1871
01:33:01,186 --> 01:33:03,154
You know, you'd fall,
you'd fall on a sword

1872
01:33:03,354 --> 01:33:07,726
to protect your child, you know,
and I understand that.

1873
01:33:07,893 --> 01:33:11,730
I understand that more now
than ever.

1874
01:33:11,897 --> 01:33:14,165
Anytime I wanted to talk
to my father about this stuff,

1875
01:33:14,365 --> 01:33:16,134
it-- it just it--

1876
01:33:16,301 --> 01:33:19,004
the conversation always turned
into "Talk to your lawyer.

1877
01:33:19,204 --> 01:33:21,773
Talk to your lawyer.
Talk to your lawyer."

1878
01:33:21,940 --> 01:33:24,910
We subsequently,
subsequently had to talk

1879
01:33:25,110 --> 01:33:27,512
<i>to each other
through our lawyers.</i>

1880
01:33:27,713 --> 01:33:29,247
<i>It was after that,
I mean, I went into,</i>

1881
01:33:29,447 --> 01:33:32,517
<i>I mean, I went into
a very deep depression,</i>

1882
01:33:33,118 --> 01:33:35,854
very deep depression going
into 2018.

1883
01:33:36,054 --> 01:33:38,790
I mean, like
suicidal depression.

1884
01:33:38,957 --> 01:33:40,692
Okay, and I don't
say that lightly

1885
01:33:40,892 --> 01:33:44,029
because that is just not a topic
that is, is easy to discuss.

1886
01:33:45,964 --> 01:33:48,767
But, you know, the only thing,

1887
01:33:48,934 --> 01:33:50,601
the only thing
that kept me from...

1888
01:33:53,071 --> 01:33:55,774
[sniffles]

1889
01:33:55,941 --> 01:34:00,278
the only thing
that kept me alive was my--
was my son. [sniffles]

1890
01:34:00,445 --> 01:34:04,716
And thank God, thank God
I have him in my life.

1891
01:34:04,916 --> 01:34:06,517
Thank God I had him
in my life then. [sniffles]

1892
01:34:06,684 --> 01:34:12,023
...to my Flag and the Republic
for which it stands,

1893
01:34:12,190 --> 01:34:18,496
one nation under God,
indivisible,

1894
01:34:18,663 --> 01:34:21,699
with liberty and justice
for all.

1895
01:34:27,272 --> 01:34:29,741
Travis was a super important
part of my life.

1896
01:34:29,941 --> 01:34:33,411
I mean, and... yeah.

1897
01:34:38,016 --> 01:34:40,151
Little peanut just turned six.

1898
01:34:42,553 --> 01:34:45,090
But anyway.
When he, you know, it's like...

1899
01:34:48,126 --> 01:34:50,762
I mean, during this time
he's born, right,

1900
01:34:50,962 --> 01:34:54,699
I mean, he's a big baby.
And he like, poof, he like,

1901
01:34:54,866 --> 01:34:56,501
I would hold him,

1902
01:34:56,667 --> 01:35:00,939
and his innocence
reminded me about

1903
01:35:01,139 --> 01:35:03,408
just everything
that was good in life.

1904
01:35:03,574 --> 01:35:06,878
Everything. I mean,
the innocence of a child,

1905
01:35:07,045 --> 01:35:09,514
the innocence of my grandchild

1906
01:35:10,148 --> 01:35:17,122
just reminded me of how...
how important, you know,

1907
01:35:17,722 --> 01:35:20,625
what it is that we do
on a daily basis is.

1908
01:35:20,826 --> 01:35:23,061
<i>And one of the ways
that you live your faith,</i>

1909
01:35:23,261 --> 01:35:24,963
<i>and I like to believe
that that's the way</i>

1910
01:35:25,163 --> 01:35:26,998
<i>I live my faith,
is through my family...</i>

1911
01:35:27,198 --> 01:35:29,634
<i>because I love my family.</i>

1912
01:35:29,835 --> 01:35:33,004
<i>And, and I'd do
anything for 'em.</i>

1913
01:35:33,204 --> 01:35:37,575
<i>And I want my family
to know that...</i>

1914
01:35:37,742 --> 01:35:39,544
to know that. I want
my family to know that,

1915
01:35:39,710 --> 01:35:41,112
that I would do
anything for 'em.

1916
01:35:41,279 --> 01:35:43,581
And definitely my own kids.

1917
01:35:43,748 --> 01:35:47,385
And I think with, with Michael,
he feels the same way.

1918
01:35:47,552 --> 01:35:50,889
The, you know, Michael
looking at Travis...

1919
01:35:54,592 --> 01:35:57,595
and, and thinking about
what he was thinking about,

1920
01:35:57,762 --> 01:36:03,801
going through that emotion of,
of, of the, of the idea

1921
01:36:03,969 --> 01:36:07,973
that, you know, he's
contemplating killing himself.

1922
01:36:08,139 --> 01:36:10,175
He's contemplating suicide.

1923
01:36:11,109 --> 01:36:14,079
I always said, "Michael,
just know that
no matter what happens,

1924
01:36:14,245 --> 01:36:16,481
you know,
your dad and I are here.

1925
01:36:16,647 --> 01:36:21,953
Nothing should get
as low for you as that."

1926
01:36:22,120 --> 01:36:25,123
So, and he promised me,

1927
01:36:25,323 --> 01:36:27,525
<i>"Mom, I would never
because I have Travis."</i>

1928
01:36:27,725 --> 01:36:30,628
<i>And I said "That's right.
You have Travis,
and Travis needs you.</i>

1929
01:36:30,828 --> 01:36:35,033
<i>He needs you
to be there for him.
Like your dad was for you."</i>

1930
01:36:35,233 --> 01:36:41,306
Wow. I mean, you know.

1931
01:36:41,472 --> 01:36:45,977
So, for people...
and maybe this is how I,

1932
01:36:46,144 --> 01:36:47,678
you know, how I adjust myself,

1933
01:36:47,845 --> 01:36:49,680
for people, people
need to understand that,

1934
01:36:49,847 --> 01:36:56,287
that, that life is so fleeting,
so fleeting.

1935
01:36:56,454 --> 01:37:00,058
You know, what the, what you--
what you're looking for,

1936
01:37:00,258 --> 01:37:03,061
is you're looking for love.

1937
01:37:03,261 --> 01:37:07,398
You're looking for like,
is, is there love there?

1938
01:37:07,598 --> 01:37:14,539
And I know for me, and I--
and I know for Michael,

1939
01:37:15,506 --> 01:37:18,676
that we found it. We found it.

1940
01:37:18,843 --> 01:37:20,979
We found it in each other.

1941
01:37:21,146 --> 01:37:23,681
We found it in our families
and--

1942
01:37:23,848 --> 01:37:26,651
and I found it in my son,

1943
01:37:26,851 --> 01:37:29,854
<i>and he found it in his son,
my grandson.</i>

1944
01:37:30,788 --> 01:37:33,158
And I thank God that he did.

1945
01:37:33,324 --> 01:37:37,528
Because I don't know
where I'd be today if,

1946
01:37:37,695 --> 01:37:42,067
uh, if that--
if that had ever happened.

1947
01:37:42,667 --> 01:37:45,270
And I don't know what--
what I would have done.

1948
01:37:47,172 --> 01:37:50,175
That's--
that's just something that's,

1949
01:37:50,341 --> 01:37:53,111
I can't even contemplate it.

1950
01:37:53,311 --> 01:37:55,113
Can't-- that's just
unimaginable to me.

1951
01:38:09,995 --> 01:38:12,463
[man] <i>That's why
one of the most important
things</i>

1952
01:38:12,663 --> 01:38:16,334
<i>that General Flynn did is
fired Covington & Burling
and hired Sidney Powell,</i>

1953
01:38:16,534 --> 01:38:18,569
<i>somebody who had the courage
to go toe to toe with them.</i>

1954
01:38:18,769 --> 01:38:20,771
[Flynn] <i>Lori and I
were going through</i>

1955
01:38:20,938 --> 01:38:23,274
our own sort of
mental gymnastics
to figure out a way to dump them

1956
01:38:23,441 --> 01:38:27,945
and find, find somebody
who was going to
stand up courageously

1957
01:38:28,113 --> 01:38:30,315
and fight for us.

1958
01:38:30,515 --> 01:38:33,985
Mike gave his consent
as a client

1959
01:38:34,185 --> 01:38:38,223
to allow Sidney to read through
all of the documents.

1960
01:38:38,389 --> 01:38:41,759
And so, she started
uncovering the fact

1961
01:38:41,926 --> 01:38:46,797
that Covington Burling had
a conflict of interest

1962
01:38:46,964 --> 01:38:50,568
representing Mike
on this 1001 charge.

1963
01:38:50,735 --> 01:38:53,304
They were not in a position
where they should be involved

1964
01:38:54,272 --> 01:38:55,406
in the matter
before Judge Sullivan.

1965
01:38:55,573 --> 01:38:58,976
My first task was to

1966
01:38:59,144 --> 01:39:02,013
help with the transition
of the case

1967
01:39:02,213 --> 01:39:06,584
from Covington & Burling to
Sidney Powell as lead counsel.

1968
01:39:06,784 --> 01:39:10,188
<i>There was a striking difference
at that point</i>

1969
01:39:10,388 --> 01:39:12,557
<i>about the way that we were
defending our client,</i>

1970
01:39:12,757 --> 01:39:15,360
<i>and his predecessors
were defending him.</i>

1971
01:39:15,560 --> 01:39:18,463
We're not going to let
the government bully us

1972
01:39:18,629 --> 01:39:23,000
into having our client
provide false testimony.

1973
01:39:23,168 --> 01:39:26,003
And that was my first
real involvement in the case,

1974
01:39:26,171 --> 01:39:31,442
is to-- is to go forward
and dig our heels in and say,

1975
01:39:31,609 --> 01:39:34,612
"We're here to defend the truth,

1976
01:39:34,779 --> 01:39:37,115
not the government's
false narrative."

1977
01:39:37,282 --> 01:39:39,617
The decision then was
not to get this judge

1978
01:39:39,784 --> 01:39:41,886
to lessen my sentence;
the fight now was going to be

1979
01:39:42,087 --> 01:39:45,990
we're going to pull
my guilty plea.

1980
01:39:46,157 --> 01:39:48,326
Particularly in this case,

1981
01:39:48,493 --> 01:39:52,730
the amount of exculpatory
information that was coming in.

1982
01:39:52,930 --> 01:39:54,399
[Alicia] Yeah.

1983
01:39:54,599 --> 01:39:59,904
I mean, I saw all of it.
I was stunned with it all.

1984
01:40:00,105 --> 01:40:02,440
<i>I mean,
it went on and on and on.</i>

1985
01:40:02,640 --> 01:40:05,843
<i>And you could see through</i>

1986
01:40:06,010 --> 01:40:09,580
the time period of
Michael's case

1987
01:40:09,780 --> 01:40:12,750
and his dealings
with the attorneys,

1988
01:40:12,950 --> 01:40:16,387
you could see the case
literally unfold

1989
01:40:16,554 --> 01:40:19,090
as new information came out.

1990
01:40:19,290 --> 01:40:22,827
Brady material,
exculpatory evidence.

1991
01:40:22,993 --> 01:40:26,097
In the U.S. justice process,
it's designed to be

1992
01:40:26,297 --> 01:40:29,700
a full airing of the facts.

1993
01:40:29,867 --> 01:40:32,437
So not only
the incriminating evidence,

1994
01:40:32,637 --> 01:40:34,172
but the exculpatory evidence.

1995
01:40:34,339 --> 01:40:36,741
All of this
is supposed to come forth

1996
01:40:36,907 --> 01:40:39,410
into the judicial process,

1997
01:40:39,577 --> 01:40:45,049
so that there is a free and fair
airing of the facts.

1998
01:40:45,216 --> 01:40:47,918
Sidney Powell, you know,
she was aware

1999
01:40:48,085 --> 01:40:50,588
that the Department of Justice

2000
01:40:50,755 --> 01:40:53,458
was not bringing forth
the Brady material,

2001
01:40:53,658 --> 01:40:56,394
the exculpatory evidence
that they were required to do.

2002
01:40:56,561 --> 01:41:00,365
And it begs the question,
what have they not done?

2003
01:41:00,531 --> 01:41:03,067
You know, it's like,
could it be any more abusive?

2004
01:41:03,734 --> 01:41:06,771
The Department of Justice
Inspector General's report

2005
01:41:06,937 --> 01:41:09,774
on FISA abuse came out
like a couple of days

2006
01:41:09,940 --> 01:41:12,443
after
that 18th December hearing.

2007
01:41:12,610 --> 01:41:18,316
My briefing and debriefing
of DIA from my Russia trip
came out after that.

2008
01:41:18,516 --> 01:41:21,152
I knew about the briefing
and debriefing.

2009
01:41:21,352 --> 01:41:24,722
It was all classified.
So, I'm not, you know, I'm not--

2010
01:41:24,889 --> 01:41:27,292
you know, I'm like, protected.
I let my lawyers know, because

2011
01:41:27,458 --> 01:41:29,727
it's a lawyer-client privilege,
but it's classified,
the fact of what I was doing.

2012
01:41:29,894 --> 01:41:31,762
But now it's public.

2013
01:41:31,962 --> 01:41:33,564
[Michael Jr.] <i>There were
more and more, you know,</i>

2014
01:41:33,764 --> 01:41:35,433
<i>answers to questions
that I had that--</i>

2015
01:41:35,633 --> 01:41:37,935
<i>that started to get
kind of produced</i>

2016
01:41:38,135 --> 01:41:41,739
<i>as Sidney started
digging into--
into my father's case.</i>

2017
01:41:41,939 --> 01:41:44,242
<i>You know, like, for example,</i>

2018
01:41:44,442 --> 01:41:46,377
<i>like the reaction
of the lawyers
from Covington & Burling,</i>

2019
01:41:46,577 --> 01:41:49,514
<i>after my father pled guilty.</i>

2020
01:41:49,714 --> 01:41:51,782
<i>I mean, they were like,
celebrating.</i>

2021
01:41:51,982 --> 01:41:55,286
<i>There's texts of them
talking about--
and emails talking about</i>

2022
01:41:55,453 --> 01:41:57,422
how, like how great of a job
they all did,

2023
01:41:57,588 --> 01:41:59,624
that they were able
to get him to plea.

2024
01:41:59,790 --> 01:42:01,992
You know, it's like
you get one more shot

2025
01:42:02,159 --> 01:42:05,630
at staying above water.

2026
01:42:05,796 --> 01:42:07,765
Sidney convinced him, not only
can we stay above water,

2027
01:42:07,932 --> 01:42:10,501
we can start floating, and maybe
we can get out of this.

2028
01:42:10,668 --> 01:42:12,537
This is a lawless process.

2029
01:42:28,419 --> 01:42:31,155
[Joe] <i>The bills
were mounting, okay,
because it was--</i>

2030
01:42:31,356 --> 01:42:32,823
<i>and a Special Counsel
had been appointed,</i>

2031
01:42:33,023 --> 01:42:35,226
<i>and so Mike's
now getting called in.</i>

2032
01:42:35,426 --> 01:42:37,995
So, every time you get called in
for a proffer session

2033
01:42:38,162 --> 01:42:39,864
or whatever sessions you have to
have with the Special Counsel,

2034
01:42:40,030 --> 01:42:41,866
you're gonna have
at least one attorney,

2035
01:42:42,032 --> 01:42:44,969
if not several attorneys
available to you.

2036
01:42:45,135 --> 01:42:46,971
So, you're talking about
Washington, DC, attorneys--

2037
01:42:47,137 --> 01:42:50,275
700 dollars.
All of a sudden, you know,

2038
01:42:50,475 --> 01:42:52,643
<i>you go from having
a 20,000-dollar bill</i>

2039
01:42:52,843 --> 01:42:56,080
<i>to a, you know,
350,000-dollar bill</i>

2040
01:42:56,281 --> 01:42:59,850
and, and I think Mike and Lori
knew that, you know,

2041
01:43:00,017 --> 01:43:01,886
if this continues,
they're gonna be bankrupt.

2042
01:43:02,052 --> 01:43:03,888
They're gonna just
destroy them financially.

2043
01:43:04,054 --> 01:43:07,325
[waves crashing]

2044
01:43:07,525 --> 01:43:09,294
[Barbara] <i>They weren't
gonna get much money</i>

2045
01:43:09,494 --> 01:43:11,195
<i>because Mike had already--
selling his house</i>

2046
01:43:11,396 --> 01:43:13,764
<i>to pay the legal fees and,
you know, for that,</i>

2047
01:43:13,964 --> 01:43:16,701
<i>first, you know,
probably five or six months,</i>

2048
01:43:16,901 --> 01:43:19,169
<i>we're talking
300,000 dollars a month.</i>

2049
01:43:19,337 --> 01:43:20,571
And they don't care.

2050
01:43:20,738 --> 01:43:22,440
They just keep
sending you a bill.

2051
01:43:22,640 --> 01:43:24,409
They don't even care
if they send you an invoice.

2052
01:43:25,075 --> 01:43:26,176
[Flynn] <i>So, there was
a moment that</i>

2053
01:43:26,377 --> 01:43:28,178
<i>where I just felt like</i>

2054
01:43:28,379 --> 01:43:31,115
<i>I was literally
deep down underwater,</i>

2055
01:43:31,316 --> 01:43:32,182
and I felt like I was drowning.

2056
01:43:34,552 --> 01:43:37,288
[Jack] <i>It was an
insurmountable, monumental task</i>

2057
01:43:37,488 --> 01:43:42,393
to raise that money in the face
of having had Mike plead guilty.

2058
01:43:44,762 --> 01:43:47,532
And the rest of the country
going,

2059
01:43:47,698 --> 01:43:50,200
"What the fuck?
How did he plead? Why?"

2060
01:43:50,368 --> 01:43:52,470
His son.

2061
01:43:52,670 --> 01:43:56,874
Young Mike. All right?
So, everybody gets it.

2062
01:43:57,041 --> 01:43:59,276
But the media doesn't
want to carry that message.

2063
01:43:59,444 --> 01:44:01,646
Instead, it's "disgraced
General Michael Flynn."

2064
01:44:01,846 --> 01:44:03,881
<i>And the more
they pushed back on Trump,</i>

2065
01:44:04,048 --> 01:44:05,650
the more people
started to realize

2066
01:44:05,850 --> 01:44:08,052
General Flynn took a hit.

2067
01:44:08,619 --> 01:44:12,790
We ended up having to, um,
start a legal defense fund.

2068
01:44:12,957 --> 01:44:15,960
And, um...

2069
01:44:16,126 --> 01:44:18,829
that in itself was hard
because, you know,

2070
01:44:19,029 --> 01:44:20,064
you're asking people
to give you money

2071
01:44:20,230 --> 01:44:22,099
to defend yourself.

2072
01:44:22,266 --> 01:44:27,338
And we, we were asking
the American people to help us.

2073
01:44:27,538 --> 01:44:30,375
And they came out in droves.

2074
01:44:30,575 --> 01:44:32,543
[Flynn] <i>The American people
started to come into,</i>

2075
01:44:32,743 --> 01:44:34,545
<i>into my life.</i>

2076
01:44:34,745 --> 01:44:37,748
<i>And, and there was a moment
where I just felt like</i>

2077
01:44:37,948 --> 01:44:42,420
<i>air was being breathed
into my lungs.</i>

2078
01:44:42,587 --> 01:44:45,690
Over time,
instead of being pounded down

2079
01:44:45,890 --> 01:44:49,059
below the surface of the ocean,
I started to come up.

2080
01:44:49,259 --> 01:44:51,896
<i>I started to come up.</i>

2081
01:44:52,096 --> 01:44:55,566
<i>In a way, it was like,
I'm now above the surface,</i>

2082
01:44:55,766 --> 01:44:58,068
<i>and I'm starting to
swim to shore.</i>

2083
01:44:58,268 --> 01:45:01,171
<i>I'm really just-- now I'm like,
"Okay, I got this.</i>

2084
01:45:01,338 --> 01:45:02,940
Shore's still
a long distance off,

2085
01:45:03,107 --> 01:45:05,843
but I can see,
I can see the shoreline.

2086
01:45:06,010 --> 01:45:08,779
It's out there."

2087
01:45:08,946 --> 01:45:09,780
And I started to swim for it.

2088
01:45:15,019 --> 01:45:16,987
[Jack]
<i>And these supportive people,</i>

2089
01:45:17,154 --> 01:45:20,525
God knows where they came from,
these American people.

2090
01:45:20,691 --> 01:45:24,462
He calls it buddy breathing.
I've heard him say that.

2091
01:45:24,629 --> 01:45:30,134
Being able to come through
financially,

2092
01:45:30,300 --> 01:45:31,902
with this giant burden
of the federal government

2093
01:45:32,102 --> 01:45:33,170
on his shoulders,

2094
01:45:33,337 --> 01:45:35,573
and be able to support,

2095
01:45:35,773 --> 01:45:39,877
you know, the legal action
that was

2096
01:45:40,044 --> 01:45:43,914
incredibly financially
burdensome to any other person.

2097
01:45:44,114 --> 01:45:47,652
I don't know what you would do,
except end up in jail.

2098
01:45:47,818 --> 01:45:51,221
We had to outsmart
the FBI, the CIA, the DOJ.

2099
01:45:51,388 --> 01:45:52,823
We had to become our own--

2100
01:45:52,990 --> 01:45:55,760
the Flynn family
became investigators.

2101
01:45:55,960 --> 01:45:59,229
We had to read every document,
and we had to look deeper,

2102
01:45:59,396 --> 01:46:02,199
and we had so many great people
started helping us.

2103
01:46:02,366 --> 01:46:04,201
Once they saw that
we weren't going to stop,

2104
01:46:04,368 --> 01:46:05,536
that we were going to fight,

2105
01:46:05,736 --> 01:46:07,037
<i>we were getting letters,</i>

2106
01:46:07,237 --> 01:46:10,441
<i>like hundreds of letters
every week.</i>

2107
01:46:10,641 --> 01:46:12,543
Just when we were
getting like to a low,

2108
01:46:12,710 --> 01:46:14,945
Barbara would,
there would be a FedEx box

2109
01:46:15,145 --> 01:46:18,382
coming to the door with like,
hundreds of letters,

2110
01:46:18,549 --> 01:46:22,052
hundreds of cards,
rosary beads; you know,

2111
01:46:22,219 --> 01:46:23,353
little things
to just make our life

2112
01:46:24,254 --> 01:46:26,390
<i>a little bit more pleasant.</i>

2113
01:46:26,591 --> 01:46:28,693
<i>We would take them out
and read them,</i>

2114
01:46:28,893 --> 01:46:30,060
<i>and we would say,
"This is what it's all about.</i>

2115
01:46:30,260 --> 01:46:31,996
<i>This is what real America is."</i>

2116
01:46:32,196 --> 01:46:35,199
<i>These people are, you know,</i>

2117
01:46:35,365 --> 01:46:37,735
talking about things
that happened to them
with their families, you know,

2118
01:46:37,902 --> 01:46:39,269
my husband, or my son
or my brother, my--

2119
01:46:39,436 --> 01:46:41,405
this happened to them
when they did this.

2120
01:46:41,572 --> 01:46:43,407
And it was really cathartic
to read all those letters.

2121
01:46:43,574 --> 01:46:45,242
It was a great thing
to look forward to.

2122
01:46:45,409 --> 01:46:47,845
Like every other week,
we would get a big box.

2123
01:46:48,045 --> 01:46:50,548
<i>And we amassed probably</i>

2124
01:46:50,748 --> 01:46:53,417
<i>seven or eight big
Rubbermaid bins of them,</i>

2125
01:46:53,618 --> 01:46:57,988
<i>and Mike would sit down
after every box we got
and wrote a thank-you note</i>

2126
01:46:58,188 --> 01:46:59,323
<i>to every single one
of those people.</i>

2127
01:46:59,524 --> 01:47:01,992
And some of them
became pen pals.

2128
01:47:02,192 --> 01:47:04,294
They would write him back,
and he would have to
write them back.

2129
01:47:04,461 --> 01:47:10,134
And it was kind of
a neat thing, really,
but it was sort of his, I think,

2130
01:47:10,300 --> 01:47:12,102
way to get through it too,
you know?

2131
01:47:12,269 --> 01:47:14,004
He would read something,
and he'd say,

2132
01:47:14,204 --> 01:47:15,906
"You got to read this letter,"
and--

2133
01:47:16,106 --> 01:47:17,575
<i>or I'd read it and,
"You got to read this letter."</i>

2134
01:47:17,775 --> 01:47:19,376
<i>And they were just
great, great letters.</i>

2135
01:47:19,577 --> 01:47:22,446
<i>Tearjerkers, a lot of them.
But it was--</i>

2136
01:47:22,647 --> 01:47:25,583
<i>it really did open
our eyes to what America</i>

2137
01:47:25,750 --> 01:47:27,685
really knows about what's
going on with his case,

2138
01:47:27,885 --> 01:47:30,087
because they came
from everywhere.

2139
01:47:30,254 --> 01:47:34,158
Some of them overseas,
you know, so it was, um,

2140
01:47:34,324 --> 01:47:36,694
it got us through a lot of
the tough, tough times.

2141
01:47:36,894 --> 01:47:38,763
It really did.

2142
01:47:38,929 --> 01:47:40,665
[producer] Is it true he went to
the 99 cents store he loves?

2143
01:47:40,831 --> 01:47:41,832
[laughs]

2144
01:47:41,999 --> 01:47:43,768
[producer] Tell me about that.

2145
01:47:43,934 --> 01:47:45,102
Well, it's not
99 cents store anymore.

2146
01:47:45,269 --> 01:47:47,772
Now it's $1.25.

2147
01:47:47,938 --> 01:47:49,640
But yes, we would go in there,

2148
01:47:49,807 --> 01:47:51,776
he would get this
like cards for a dollar,

2149
01:47:51,942 --> 01:47:53,644
and you could get
like a pack of eight

2150
01:47:53,811 --> 01:47:55,846
or a pack of 12 for a buck.
So why not?

2151
01:47:56,013 --> 01:47:58,115
We just put about
as many as we could in the cart.

2152
01:47:58,282 --> 01:48:00,885
You know, we always got the ones
that had the American flag
on them.

2153
01:48:01,085 --> 01:48:02,787
But he'd go through them
so fast.

2154
01:48:02,953 --> 01:48:04,521
I ended up having to order them
from somewhere else

2155
01:48:04,689 --> 01:48:06,390
so we can get like a pack of 50.

2156
01:48:06,591 --> 01:48:08,793
I think it says a lot
about what the American people

2157
01:48:08,959 --> 01:48:11,395
were wanting out of this.

2158
01:48:11,596 --> 01:48:14,632
They were looking at this as,
as this is their fight.

2159
01:48:14,832 --> 01:48:17,301
<i>What Flynn's going through,
what the Flynn family's
going through</i>

2160
01:48:17,501 --> 01:48:19,770
<i>is the fight of
the common American people</i>

2161
01:48:19,970 --> 01:48:23,173
<i>against a broken,
corrupt justice system.</i>

2162
01:48:23,373 --> 01:48:26,176
<i>Many families have
dealt with broken, corrupt</i>

2163
01:48:26,376 --> 01:48:28,713
<i>justice system situations.</i>

2164
01:48:28,879 --> 01:48:31,816
And many people empathized
with that and saw--

2165
01:48:31,982 --> 01:48:33,584
they realized that we weren't
some wealthy family,

2166
01:48:33,784 --> 01:48:35,219
West Point grads.

2167
01:48:35,385 --> 01:48:37,221
We were a bunch
of street kids, okay,

2168
01:48:37,387 --> 01:48:39,590
and just happened to be
in this situation

2169
01:48:39,790 --> 01:48:42,226
and having to band together
to fight against this,

2170
01:48:42,392 --> 01:48:43,761
to fight against
this absolute evil.

2171
01:48:48,733 --> 01:48:50,300
[Jesse] <i>First of all,
you got to understand</i>

2172
01:48:50,500 --> 01:48:51,702
<i>a little bit
about who Jeff Jensen is.</i>

2173
01:48:51,902 --> 01:48:53,370
<i>He's a former FBI agent,</i>

2174
01:48:53,570 --> 01:48:56,340
<i>who then became
a line prosecutor,</i>

2175
01:48:56,540 --> 01:49:01,011
<i>who then became
a United States attorney.</i>

2176
01:49:01,211 --> 01:49:04,715
<i>So, he's somebody
who fully understood</i>

2177
01:49:04,882 --> 01:49:07,852
the workings of the FBI

2178
01:49:08,018 --> 01:49:12,222
and the workings of
the Department of Justice.

2179
01:49:12,389 --> 01:49:16,727
So, he's not someone
that the bureaucrats

2180
01:49:16,927 --> 01:49:20,364
<i>could hide stuff from using
their bureaucratic tricks.</i>

2181
01:49:22,900 --> 01:49:23,968
<i>And the most important...</i>

2182
01:49:26,236 --> 01:49:32,109
document that was written
as a result of his investigation

2183
01:49:32,743 --> 01:49:36,847
<i>was on May 7, 2020,</i>

2184
01:49:37,047 --> 01:49:40,217
<i>when the government moved
to dismiss the Flynn case.</i>

2185
01:49:46,190 --> 01:49:48,993
[Lee] <i>Nah, nah, nah.
Not so quick.</i>

2186
01:49:49,193 --> 01:49:51,696
<i>Time for Emmet Sullivan
to go after Flynn.</i>

2187
01:49:51,896 --> 01:49:55,733
<i>Even if the prosecutors have
stopped prosecuting Flynn,</i>

2188
01:49:55,900 --> 01:50:00,671
it's time for now the judge to
prosecute General Michael Flynn.

2189
01:50:00,871 --> 01:50:03,440
That's really weird.
That's really twisted.

2190
01:50:03,607 --> 01:50:05,175
There was no reason
for them to do what they did

2191
01:50:05,375 --> 01:50:08,979
in the first place.
It was political.

2192
01:50:09,146 --> 01:50:14,051
It was a hit job by the former
Obama administration

2193
01:50:14,251 --> 01:50:18,923
<i>on the incoming administration,
and he targeted Flynn</i>

2194
01:50:19,123 --> 01:50:20,858
<i>because they felt that
that was going to be a spot,</i>

2195
01:50:21,058 --> 01:50:23,427
<i>especially with Russia,
because he had,</i>

2196
01:50:23,627 --> 01:50:24,962
<i>he sat at that table
with Putin one time,</i>

2197
01:50:25,162 --> 01:50:27,932
<i>which is in our family a joke.</i>

2198
01:50:28,098 --> 01:50:30,000
Michael, if he was told
to shoot Putin

2199
01:50:30,167 --> 01:50:33,270
in the head that day,
would have done it.

2200
01:50:33,437 --> 01:50:37,775
Because he's a soldier,
always first.

2201
01:50:37,942 --> 01:50:40,477
If his job was to get there
and shoot Putin in the head,

2202
01:50:40,644 --> 01:50:41,812
he'd've done it.

2203
01:50:44,448 --> 01:50:47,151
There's something else
that's part of the story

2204
01:50:47,317 --> 01:50:53,290
that I don't know has been told
that I think needs to be told.

2205
01:50:53,457 --> 01:51:00,030
And that is, President Trump
offered a pardon

2206
01:51:00,197 --> 01:51:04,201
in the spring of 2020,
before the government's
motion to dismiss,

2207
01:51:04,368 --> 01:51:10,975
and actually before most of the
exculpatory information
had come out.

2208
01:51:11,141 --> 01:51:13,744
General Flynn
had an opportunity then

2209
01:51:13,944 --> 01:51:17,681
to put all this behind him.
But he didn't want the pardon.

2210
01:51:17,848 --> 01:51:20,184
He wanted to be fully vindicated

2211
01:51:20,350 --> 01:51:22,119
through the government's
motion to dismiss.

2212
01:51:22,319 --> 01:51:29,326
<i>And Sidney had the guts
to tell the president,</i>

2213
01:51:30,660 --> 01:51:32,296
<i>"Thank you very much,
but this time,</i>

2214
01:51:32,496 --> 01:51:37,401
<i>we're gonna keep fighting."
As a result of, of that,</i>

2215
01:51:37,567 --> 01:51:44,574
the full exposure of
the government's misconduct

2216
01:51:45,142 --> 01:51:47,344
against General Flynn
came to light.

2217
01:51:47,511 --> 01:51:53,383
But everything that came out
probably wouldn't have unless

2218
01:51:53,550 --> 01:51:58,122
General Flynn
had the courage to say,

2219
01:51:58,322 --> 01:52:01,191
"I don't want a pardon yet,
I want to fight."

2220
01:52:01,358 --> 01:52:02,893
I'm really proud
to be on a legal team

2221
01:52:03,060 --> 01:52:05,095
that supported him in that.

2222
01:52:05,262 --> 01:52:06,596
[producer]
Had anybody heard that?

2223
01:52:06,763 --> 01:52:07,564
I don't think so.

2224
01:52:10,835 --> 01:52:13,871
I had to get permission
from the client to tell it.

2225
01:52:14,038 --> 01:52:17,307
We were praying to God that
we didn't have to use a pardon.

2226
01:52:17,507 --> 01:52:22,312
But I knew
that Sullivan was waiting

2227
01:52:22,512 --> 01:52:24,548
for the election to come,
and if Biden had won,

2228
01:52:24,714 --> 01:52:26,383
which he did,

2229
01:52:26,550 --> 01:52:28,618
and my husband hadn't gotten
pardoned from Trump,

2230
01:52:28,785 --> 01:52:31,055
they would have somehow
figured out a way

2231
01:52:31,221 --> 01:52:34,791
to rescind any kind of dismissal

2232
01:52:34,959 --> 01:52:37,561
and take him back into court
and retry him or whatever.

2233
01:52:37,727 --> 01:52:40,430
I knew that was
what his plan was.

2234
01:52:40,597 --> 01:52:43,267
That's how vindictive
that judge was.

2235
01:52:43,433 --> 01:52:46,837
And I was grateful,
but I was also sad

2236
01:52:47,037 --> 01:52:49,106
because it should have
never came to that.

2237
01:52:49,273 --> 01:52:52,609
My husband didn't need a pardon.
He didn't do anything wrong.

2238
01:52:52,776 --> 01:52:54,144
And so, the pardon
is kind of one of those things

2239
01:52:54,311 --> 01:52:55,512
where it's a little bit
bittersweet.

2240
01:53:06,623 --> 01:53:09,459
Okay,
inside this little box is a--

2241
01:53:09,626 --> 01:53:12,196
the original pardon of innocence
given to General Michael Flynn

2242
01:53:12,396 --> 01:53:16,867
by Donald Trump
in November of 2020.

2243
01:53:17,067 --> 01:53:20,204
<i>Again, an unprecedented
event in American history</i>

2244
01:53:20,404 --> 01:53:23,073
<i>where someone has given--
been given a presidential
pardon</i>

2245
01:53:23,273 --> 01:53:25,575
<i>who is innocent of the charges</i>

2246
01:53:25,775 --> 01:53:29,146
<i>because the charges were
dropped by the Department of
Justice.</i>

2247
01:53:29,313 --> 01:53:31,548
So, there was no reason
for the pardon anyway.

2248
01:53:31,748 --> 01:53:33,683
And that's why he called it
a pardon of innocence

2249
01:53:33,850 --> 01:53:37,454
because he had to
pardon an innocent man

2250
01:53:37,621 --> 01:53:41,625
because the system
would not let go.

2251
01:53:41,791 --> 01:53:44,061
It's extraordinary...
and unprecedented.

2252
01:53:48,098 --> 01:53:51,135
[producer] And your brother
has never opened that?

2253
01:53:51,301 --> 01:53:52,236
Apparently not.

2254
01:53:56,640 --> 01:53:59,109
[Flynn] <i>He says, "You know,
the only person in--</i>

2255
01:53:59,309 --> 01:54:02,812
<i>in Washington, DC,
who's been screwed worse</i>

2256
01:54:02,980 --> 01:54:05,549
than you is probably me."

2257
01:54:05,715 --> 01:54:07,484
And I said,
"No, Mister President, I-- "

2258
01:54:07,651 --> 01:54:09,419
you know, I said, "I'm not
so sure that's the case,

2259
01:54:09,619 --> 01:54:10,988
because I've--
you know, sitting here today,

2260
01:54:11,155 --> 01:54:12,722
I feel pretty screwed,"
you know.

2261
01:54:12,889 --> 01:54:16,426
And we were joking for a minute,
banter back and forth,

2262
01:54:16,626 --> 01:54:18,895
and, you know, just about that.

2263
01:54:19,063 --> 01:54:20,730
And he goes, "Well, I'm gonna,
I'm gonna issue a pardon.

2264
01:54:20,897 --> 01:54:22,232
I just want you to know
that, you know,

2265
01:54:22,399 --> 01:54:24,268
this should end anything."

2266
01:54:24,468 --> 01:54:28,372
He goes, he goes, "Now you're
the cleanest man in America."

2267
01:54:28,538 --> 01:54:30,740
He goes, "There's nobody
cleaner than you after this,

2268
01:54:30,907 --> 01:54:33,944
after this pardon," you know.

2269
01:54:34,144 --> 01:54:41,085
That was November 2020,
so, you know, three years plus.

2270
01:54:42,686 --> 01:54:44,955
[producer] Did you harbor
some resentment towards Trump?

2271
01:54:45,155 --> 01:54:46,890
Uh, I did. I did it.

2272
01:54:47,057 --> 01:54:50,694
Initially, I did,
because he was not kind to me.

2273
01:54:50,860 --> 01:54:52,796
I mean, he said some
nasty things about me

2274
01:54:52,997 --> 01:54:55,765
after I left, you know,
called me a liar.

2275
01:54:56,733 --> 01:54:59,303
In fairness, because
it was something

2276
01:54:59,503 --> 01:55:01,938
that I did see in him,
was that he really didn't know,

2277
01:55:02,106 --> 01:55:04,741
he didn't know the ways
of Washington, DC.

2278
01:55:04,908 --> 01:55:05,775
He really didn't.

2279
01:55:09,179 --> 01:55:12,182
[Tracy] <i>To this day,
nobody has ever gone on record</i>

2280
01:55:12,382 --> 01:55:14,418
<i>and said what the DOJ
was going to go</i>

2281
01:55:14,618 --> 01:55:17,887
<i>after Michael Flynn Jr. for.</i>

2282
01:55:18,088 --> 01:55:20,524
<i>I would assume likely
the same thing they went</i>

2283
01:55:20,724 --> 01:55:24,361
<i>after the business
partners for, FARA violations.</i>

2284
01:55:24,561 --> 01:55:27,931
<i>Just recently, the government
has dropped the case</i>

2285
01:55:28,132 --> 01:55:29,599
<i>against General Flynn's
business partner</i>

2286
01:55:29,799 --> 01:55:31,568
<i>at the Flynn Intel Group.</i>

2287
01:55:31,768 --> 01:55:35,205
<i>Once the jury in DC came back
with a guilty verdict,</i>

2288
01:55:35,405 --> 01:55:37,607
<i>Judge Trenga overturned
that verdict</i>

2289
01:55:37,807 --> 01:55:40,110
<i>due to lack of evidence
in the case</i>

2290
01:55:40,310 --> 01:55:43,180
<i>because there is none.</i>

2291
01:55:43,380 --> 01:55:46,816
<i>There is no evidence
that proves any of the things
that the DOJ was advancing.</i>

2292
01:55:48,318 --> 01:55:51,788
[Flynn] Barack Obama, right?

2293
01:55:51,955 --> 01:55:53,190
[Michael Jr.] July 14th,

2294
01:55:53,390 --> 01:55:55,325
They extend-- so that's 2014.

2295
01:55:55,492 --> 01:55:57,827
A year and a half later,
these bastards
got me under investigation.

2296
01:55:57,994 --> 01:56:00,830
You know, "I extend
my sincere thanks,"

2297
01:56:00,997 --> 01:56:03,067
- you know?
- [chuckles]

2298
01:56:03,267 --> 01:56:05,602
[Tracy] <i>I want more people,
even if they don't say,</i>

2299
01:56:05,802 --> 01:56:08,472
<i>"I like that guy.
I'm on his team now,"</i>

2300
01:56:08,638 --> 01:56:11,208
I want them to, to understand
what happened,

2301
01:56:11,408 --> 01:56:13,110
to understand
what happened to him,

2302
01:56:13,277 --> 01:56:14,544
and to be able to
at least give him

2303
01:56:14,744 --> 01:56:17,347
the respect he deserves,

2304
01:56:17,514 --> 01:56:19,983
even if they don't
agree with him.

2305
01:56:20,150 --> 01:56:24,988
That is,
is the bare minimum, um,

2306
01:56:25,155 --> 01:56:30,227
and learning from him
and his story will go a long way

2307
01:56:30,427 --> 01:56:32,396
to getting through
all the other issues

2308
01:56:32,596 --> 01:56:35,632
that we have right now, because
it is the light switch.

2309
01:56:35,799 --> 01:56:38,502
If you understand
what happened to him,

2310
01:56:38,668 --> 01:56:41,838
you start to peel back
the curtain on everything.

2311
01:56:42,005 --> 01:56:45,008
I think the General Flynn story

2312
01:56:45,175 --> 01:56:48,345
is actually
the foundational story

2313
01:56:48,512 --> 01:56:52,682
that America needs to
understand the truth of

2314
01:56:52,849 --> 01:56:57,254
to be able to understand
what has occurred
within our government,

2315
01:56:57,454 --> 01:57:00,257
<i>and the mounting corruption
since then.</i>

2316
01:57:00,457 --> 01:57:03,093
[Jack] <i>If they can learn
something</i>

2317
01:57:03,293 --> 01:57:07,897
from what Michael went through,
to believe in this country

2318
01:57:08,064 --> 01:57:12,269
under, under extreme and
extraordinary circumstances

2319
01:57:12,469 --> 01:57:14,938
and still come through
the other side,

2320
01:57:15,139 --> 01:57:18,908
and not give up on America,
that's what they need to learn

2321
01:57:19,075 --> 01:57:24,248
from what this documentary
can portray him.

2322
01:57:24,414 --> 01:57:27,417
It is, in fact, the truth.

2323
01:57:27,584 --> 01:57:31,921
He will not stop fighting
for this republic.

2324
01:57:32,889 --> 01:57:35,225
For this, what he calls, experiment.

2325
01:57:35,425 --> 01:57:37,161
[Barbara] <i>My mother
and father would be so proud</i>

2326
01:57:37,361 --> 01:57:39,863
<i>because he's the only person
that could've withstood.</i>

2327
01:57:40,063 --> 01:57:44,234
<i>They knew... they knew
that he was the only one.</i>

2328
01:57:44,434 --> 01:57:47,337
<i>He was-- he was
meant for this time.</i>

2329
01:57:47,537 --> 01:57:50,674
<i>He's the only person
that could've withstood</i>

2330
01:57:50,874 --> 01:57:54,511
<i>this type of,
you know, this evil,</i>

2331
01:57:54,711 --> 01:57:57,046
<i>this unfathomable
domestic evil</i>

2332
01:57:57,247 --> 01:57:59,583
<i>that we're facing--
and beat it too.</i>

2333
01:57:59,749 --> 01:58:01,718
It-- it's very hard
not to get jaded

2334
01:58:01,885 --> 01:58:03,553
and turned off and just say,
"I'm just gonna go away."

2335
01:58:03,720 --> 01:58:05,255
Mike Flynn is not
going to do that.

2336
01:58:05,422 --> 01:58:07,257
Mike Flynn is, I think
people need to understand,

2337
01:58:07,424 --> 01:58:09,326
he's going to be there
fighting for them.

2338
01:58:09,526 --> 01:58:11,161
<i>Maybe not as
an elected official,</i>

2339
01:58:11,361 --> 01:58:13,397
<i>but certainly
as a public person,</i>

2340
01:58:13,563 --> 01:58:17,934
as a, as a, as a veteran,
as a father, as a grandfather.

2341
01:58:18,101 --> 01:58:20,337
He's going to be out there
swinging at the fences

2342
01:58:20,537 --> 01:58:23,740
to try to bring sanity
back to this country.

2343
01:58:23,907 --> 01:58:26,743
Because... we are
going off the rails.

2344
01:58:26,910 --> 01:58:28,278
This country is going
off the rails

2345
01:58:28,445 --> 01:58:31,348
in many, in many
different directions.

2346
01:58:31,548 --> 01:58:34,150
Economically, militarily,
and socially,

2347
01:58:34,318 --> 01:58:37,120
we are in a bad place right now,
and I think people--

2348
01:58:37,287 --> 01:58:39,589
people want hope,
people need hope,

2349
01:58:39,789 --> 01:58:41,925
<i>and more importantly,
people need warriors,</i>

2350
01:58:42,125 --> 01:58:44,994
<i>and I think you're gonna
get that from General Flynn.</i>

2351
01:58:45,161 --> 01:58:48,164
Again, the most important
stories about this

2352
01:58:48,332 --> 01:58:50,700
are not the stories
about the bad things

2353
01:58:50,900 --> 01:58:52,969
that people have done, right,

2354
01:58:53,136 --> 01:58:55,972
about the evil
that these people have done,

2355
01:58:56,139 --> 01:58:59,175
the way these people have
tried to destroy family--

2356
01:58:59,343 --> 01:59:02,979
families, and the way that
they've corrupted the country.

2357
01:59:03,146 --> 01:59:06,149
No, the most important thing
is to go to the other side
and look at what happened.

2358
01:59:06,316 --> 01:59:08,285
I mean, look at
all these things.

2359
01:59:08,485 --> 01:59:11,087
<i>I mean, look at how,
how it's made them,</i>

2360
01:59:11,288 --> 01:59:14,791
<i>how it's made them brighter,
and stronger, right.</i>

2361
01:59:14,991 --> 01:59:18,795
<i>People, I mean,
people look to their family,</i>

2362
01:59:18,962 --> 01:59:20,997
look to that family,
as an example.

2363
01:59:21,164 --> 01:59:22,566
It's like, "Well, if the Flynns
went through this,

2364
01:59:22,766 --> 01:59:24,634
then we can certainly
get through it."

2365
01:59:24,834 --> 01:59:27,237
<i>You know, "If, wow,
they did that to General Flynn,</i>

2366
01:59:29,706 --> 01:59:32,609
<i>I guess I can get
through this."
You know, and he's okay.</i>

2367
01:59:32,809 --> 01:59:34,143
<i>He got through it
with faith and his family.</i>

2368
01:59:34,344 --> 01:59:36,212
<i>He got through it.</i>

2369
01:59:36,380 --> 01:59:38,415
The Flynns pulled together,

2370
01:59:38,615 --> 01:59:40,850
the American people
can pull together.

2371
01:59:41,017 --> 01:59:47,257
Because if we pull together,
and we drive this darkness out,

2372
01:59:47,457 --> 01:59:49,493
then we can touch
the whole world.

2373
01:59:49,659 --> 01:59:51,428
We can touch the whole world.

2374
01:59:51,628 --> 01:59:53,997
I think
that General Flynn's story

2375
01:59:54,163 --> 01:59:57,567
is an inspiring story
because he wasn't broken.

2376
01:59:57,734 --> 01:59:59,836
And as he will say readily,
he wasn't broken

2377
02:00:00,003 --> 02:00:02,372
because of the love
of his family

2378
02:00:02,539 --> 02:00:03,573
and because of his faith.

2379
02:00:05,642 --> 02:00:08,278
General Flynn found himself
in a circumstance

2380
02:00:08,478 --> 02:00:10,046
he did not anticipate at all.

2381
02:00:10,213 --> 02:00:12,416
This is not the life
he prepared for at all.

2382
02:00:12,582 --> 02:00:14,284
He's not a political figure,
he's not even a Republican.

2383
02:00:14,484 --> 02:00:15,752
Not politically active.

2384
02:00:18,187 --> 02:00:21,525
I don't think he ever
expected to find himself

2385
02:00:21,691 --> 02:00:24,060
in the fulcrum of history.

2386
02:00:24,227 --> 02:00:25,862
And I know
he never expected himself

2387
02:00:26,029 --> 02:00:27,797
to be persecuted
by his own government

2388
02:00:27,997 --> 02:00:30,767
that he had served for
the course of his entire life.

2389
02:00:30,934 --> 02:00:33,069
But all of that happened,
and these things do happen.

2390
02:00:33,236 --> 02:00:37,140
We can't know our future.
None of it is known.

2391
02:00:37,341 --> 02:00:39,075
I have some sense of what
I'm having for dinner tonight.

2392
02:00:39,242 --> 02:00:42,312
Beyond that, it's opaque.
And that's true for all of us.

2393
02:00:42,512 --> 02:00:43,947
And we all could wind up
in a situation like that,

2394
02:00:44,113 --> 02:00:45,615
and the only thing
that we can hope for

2395
02:00:45,782 --> 02:00:47,384
is the strength to continue
to tell the truth

2396
02:00:47,551 --> 02:00:49,085
in the face of adversity,

2397
02:00:49,252 --> 02:00:51,888
and to be surrounded by people
we love who support us,

2398
02:00:52,055 --> 02:00:54,458
and to come out
on the other end whole.

2399
02:00:54,624 --> 02:00:56,092
And he's achieved all of that.

2400
02:00:56,259 --> 02:00:58,328
And so, I see his story
as a great victory,

2401
02:00:58,528 --> 02:00:59,829
actually as a triumph.

2402
02:01:00,029 --> 02:01:01,665
He's still whole.

2403
02:01:01,865 --> 02:01:03,467
He's wounded
by what happened to him,

2404
02:01:03,633 --> 02:01:05,435
his family's wounded
by what happened to him,

2405
02:01:05,602 --> 02:01:08,405
but he's not broken.
He still has dignity.

2406
02:01:08,572 --> 02:01:11,608
And he still has an unwavering
commitment to tell the truth.

2407
02:01:11,775 --> 02:01:13,276
You may not agree with him,
but he's not lying to you.

2408
02:01:13,443 --> 02:01:15,111
He's saying what
he really thinks.

2409
02:01:15,278 --> 02:01:16,913
And if you come out
of a situation like the one

2410
02:01:17,080 --> 02:01:20,450
he lived through
with that intact, you've won.

2411
02:01:22,085 --> 02:01:23,987
Is there any regrets
that you have in life?

2412
02:01:24,153 --> 02:01:26,423
Right? [chuckles]

2413
02:01:26,590 --> 02:01:28,124
And-- and for what
I've experienced,

2414
02:01:28,291 --> 02:01:30,293
I-- I should sit here and say,

2415
02:01:30,460 --> 02:01:33,329
"I got a lot of f--
I got a lot of regrets."

2416
02:01:33,497 --> 02:01:37,634
Um, but when I look back
on my life,

2417
02:01:37,801 --> 02:01:40,604
and I understand the lives
that were lost...

2418
02:01:44,107 --> 02:01:46,876
I mean, I'm sitting here
with you, and I'm like--

2419
02:01:47,076 --> 02:01:48,945
[exhales] Phew!

2420
02:01:49,112 --> 02:01:52,982
I'm like, you know, I'm here,
and I can tell my story.

2421
02:01:56,953 --> 02:01:59,723
[uplifting music playing]

2422
02:06:11,574 --> 02:06:14,443
[music fades out]