Michael Flynn sues conspiracy theorist over lurid QAnon claims

Right-wing conspiracy theorist Michael Flynn is suing another conspiracist who accused him of cooking up the QAnon cult, according to a report.

The disgraced former national security adviser has spread conspiracies about Donald Trump's election loss and the COVID-19 pandemic, but he filed a lawsuit against alternate reality game developer Jim Stewartson for accusing him of taking part in a Kremlin-funded psychological warfare operation intended to destroy U.S. democracy, reported Vice News.

“Mike Flynn, the worst traitor in history who stole 2016, created Q, planned the insurrection,” Stewartson tweeted on Wednesday, more than a week after burning a cease-and-desist letter from Flynn's attorney related to his allegations.

The Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism "has found no evidence to support" Stewartson's claims about Flynn's role in the QAnon conspiracy theory, and a defamation lawsuit filed last week in Sarasota County, Florida, details a long list of accusations he has made in social media posts, Substack articles and podcasts.

“Stewartson sought fame through the trend of defaming prominent conservative figures," the suit alleges.

“[Those] pernicious lies ... [include] accusing him of committing treason and domestic terrorism, working for Vladimir Putin, being a Russian asset, stealing the 2016 election, working to overthrow the United States government, planning and executing a violent insurrection, being a leader of QAnon, being a Nazi, waging psychological warfare on the American people, wanting a second Holocaust, using ISIS radicalization techniques on the American people, torturing prisoners, and literally trying to murder former Vice President Mike Pence," the complaint adds.

Despite Flynn's denials of involvement in the QAnon conspiracy, many of its adherents consider him a hero and attend the conferences and speeches he gives around the country repeating Trump's election lies, and the former president has suggested he would have another role for the national security adviser he pardoned if elected to another term.

In 2020, Trump pardoned him after he had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during its investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. It involved interactions he had with Russia’s ambassador to the United States.

“You stay in good health Michael, get ready, okay, it’s not long, only a year and a half, just stay healthy,” Trump said in a speech last month.

Stewartson has 20 days to file a written response to the lawsuit, but he has shown no signs of letting go of his allegations despite his inability to establish hard evidence that Flynn has received training in psychological warfare or was working with the Kremlin to destabilize democracy.

“I think that @GenFlynn is a psychological warfare expert who knows how to protect himself with his ‘army of digital soldiers’ including you," he tweeted in response to a request for comment from Vice.