How Trump Ally Michael Flynn Nurtured - and Profited From - the QAnon Conspiracy Theory - 2021-06-27

How Trump Ally Michael Flynn Nurtured - and Profited From - the QAnon Conspiracy Theory June 27, 2021, Candace Rondeaux, The Intercept

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Of the many mysteries surrounding the final days of Donald Trump's presidency, few have been more confounding than the connections between former national security adviser Michael Flynn, the QAnon conspiracy theory, and Trump's #StoptheSteal campaign.

Most media outlets treated Flynn's videotaped oath last summer, in which he uttered a well-known QAnon slogan, as a sort of coming-out story about a onetime Trump insider who had gone off the rails. The video has since become the subject of a lawsuit by members of Flynn's family who claim that "left-wing media outlets began to spread false narratives" about the Flynn family's connections to QAnon. An Intercept investigation has found that Flynn's ties to the QAnon phenomenon stretch back much further than the July 4 weekend last year when the video first appeared, however, to the days immediately following Trump's 2016 election victory.

That November, nearly a year before the first cryptic clue from QAnon's organizers – known as a "Q drop" — appeared on the online message board 4chan, Flynn told a roomful of Trump supporters that the president-elect had been borne into office by an "army of digital soldiers." The phrase "digital soldiers," which Flynn later trademarked, has become a central QAnon rallying cry and a key indicator of the movement's growing turn toward violent extremism and insurrection.

Wikipedia cite:

{{cite news | first = Candace | last = Rondeaux | title = How Trump Ally Michael Flynn Nurtured - and Profited From - the QAnon Conspiracy Theory | url = https://theintercept.com/2021/06/27/qanon-michael-flynn-digital-soldiers/ | work = The Intercept | date = June 27, 2021 | accessdate = July 6, 2021 }}