Michael Flynn’s Family Claims They Weren’t Reciting a Qanon Oath, Just Doing Some Family Bonding

If you’ve ever been to a sleepover, you’ll have witnessed a household performing an eerie ritual, like holding arms earlier than consuming or enjoying charades after dinner. Michael Flynn’s household factor is firing up the grill, standing in a line, and reciting a famed QAnon oath—which was simply a loving familial gesture that has completely nothing to do with QAnon.

In a new filing in a $75 million libel go well with towards CNN, Michael Flynn’s brother Jack and sister-in-law Leslie assert that that on Independence Day 2020, they merely held up their arms and repeated a “July 4 statement” together with the QAnon slogan “where we go one, we go all” as a “statement of support for each other.”

“The Flynn’s [sic] repetition of the phrase ‘where we go one we go all’ at the July 4, 2020 barbecue did not signify any kind of support for QAnon,” the submitting reads. “It was not an oath of allegiance to QAnon, or any kind of oath at all. It was a simple, family, July 4 statement of support for each other.” The initial complaint, filed on March twenty fifth, says that the phrase was inscribed on a bell on certainly one of John F. Kennedy’s sailboats. It the truth is comes from the 1996 film “White Squall” starring Jeff Bridges.

“Plaintiffs may want us to think that they said the QAnon Slogan because they were feeling poetic or having a great fondness for 1990s sailing movies, but the truth is that they said it and then publicized their having done so on Jack Flynn’s Twitter feed,” CNN later remarked in a movement to dismiss. (Here’s Jack’s archived tweet, marked “WWG1WGA,” within the customary QAnon styling of the insurgent cry.)

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The Flynns’ submitting goes on to say that connecting the Flynns with QAnon “is no different than accusing them of being Nazi sympathizers.” Interesting.

Many households swear oaths to one another on the July 4th vacation (probably), however the oath in its entirety bears a putting coincidental resemblance to Q’s oath, which they’d urged followers to repeat weeks earlier. The June twenty fourth drop, captioned “take the oath,” is the usual congressional oath of workplace with “where we go one, we go all” tacked on. It reads, in full:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I’ll help and defend the Constitution of the United States towards all enemies, international and home; that I’ll bear true religion and allegiance to the identical; that I take this obligation freely, with none psychological reservation or function of evasion; and that I’ll effectively and faithfully discharge the duties of the workplace on which I’m about to enter: So assist me God. WWG1WGA [Where we go one, we go all].

The Flynn household oath, which Michael Flynn appears to read off of an iPhone or tiny booklet, goes:

I [name] do solemnly swear that I’ll help and defend the Constitution of the United States towards all enemies, international and home; that I’ll bear true religion and allegiance to the identical; that I take this obligation freely, with none psychological reservation or function of evasion; and that I’ll effectively and faithfully discharge the duties of the workplace of which I’m about to enter: so assist me God. Where we go one, we go all. God bless America.

Michael Flynn posted the video to Twitter, which suspended his account in the midst of a QAnon purge.

The archived tweet reveals that Flynn tagged the publish #TaketheOath, which the submitting claims that CNN “falsely claimed” was a “QAnon hashtag.” (QAnon followers, together with Oregon Senate candidate Jo Rae Perkins, used the hashtag with the oath, which BBC reporter Shayan Sardarizadeh reported trended for days, some tagging Michael Flynn, who additionally added it to his Twitter bio three days after Q posted “Take the oath.”) In March 2021, he delivered what appears like a rousing speech at a non-QAnon conference full of QAnon leaders and believers, who’ve worshipped him as a pacesetter of a Deep State revolt.

That’s the data. You could make the judgment quietly in your thoughts or else face the Flynn authorized group.

The concern, the brand new submitting states, was that CNN conveniently clipped the “God bless America” half in a section titled on YouTube “QAnon followers react to Trump refusing to condemn them.” For what it’s value, CNN additionally clipped the previous verbatim oath of workplace on which Q additionally coincidentally modeled their oath.

“In the clip, CNN intentionally edited out the oath to the United States Constitution and omitted the words ‘God Bless America’, fraudulently making it appear and insinuating that the Flynns pledged an oath of allegiance to QAnon,” the submitting reads.

Gizmodo has requested the Flynns’ legal professional whether or not this can be a household custom or only a phrase that impressed them final 12 months and can replace the publish if we hear again.