The family of former national security adviser and alleged QAnon adherent Michael Flynn say that a video showing them taking what people say is a "QAnon oath" actually shows them participating in a family tradition, VICE News reports.
Flynn's brother and sister-in-law, Jack Flynn and Leslie Flynn, made the claim in a new court filing related to the couple's $75 million defamation lawsuit against CNN in response to the network's Feb. 4 report, which aired a two-second clip of a video posted to Twitter by Michael Flynn on July 4, 2020 showing him and his family all reciting an oath of allegiance that includes the phrase "where we go one, we go all."
As VICE News points out, the oath the Flynns take in the video has the exact wording of an oath posted by QAnon's anonymous leader several weeks earlier.
"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," lawyers for the Flynns said in the document filed on Tuesday.
Undermining that claim is the fact that Flynn shared the video on Twitter alongside the QAnon-linked hashtag #TakeTheOath.
Lawyers for the Flynns said that being accused of believing in the QAnon conspiracy was similar to being accused of being a Nazi sympathizer.
"Accusing the Flynns of being 'QANON FOLLOWERS', even for a few seconds, is no different than accusing them of being Nazi sympathizers. It is common knowledge that Nazis, white supremacists, and adherents of QAnon are violent extremists. That is the connection that CNN intended and did make in the minds of viewers. To imply that a person is a Nazi sympathizer or a 'QANON FOLLOWER' is the same thing. It is an egregious thing to say about a businessman, like Jack Flynn, especially in light of the January 6, 2021 storming of the United States Capitol," the lawyers wrote.