A retired United States Army Lieutenant General, Michael Flynn served as the National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump of the United States. Nonetheless, since the start of the investigation into the Russian collusion with the Trump campaign during the 2016 US presidential election, his name has become more popular in that regard than in every other thing. Beyond his professional life and involvement in the entire Russian saga, here are things to know about him.
Michael Flynn’s Bio
It was as Michael Thomas Flynn that the former National Security Advisor was born in December 1958 in Middletown, Rhode Island. Of Irish descent, he was brought up alongside eight siblings by their parents, Helen Frances and Charles Francis Flynn.
While his father also worked in the army as a sergeant, his mother emphasized more on education than on every other thing while raising her kids in the Catholic family.
Flynn was an athletic child who was involved in a number of sports including basketball, football, and surfing. In 1976, he led his high school to a Division B state football championship. Even though he was not a large kid, he still played football in college as a defensive guard and linebacker in a team that had most people bigger than him. Still, he co-captained the team mostly because he was considered a team leader.
Education And Professional Life
For his education, Michael Flynn attended the Middletown High School and from there, he moved to the University of Rhode Island where he enrolled in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) and graduated in 1981 with a degree in Management Science.
Next, he went to the Golden Gate University where he obtained a Master of Business Administration in Telecommunications. He also attended the United States Army Command and General Staff College as well as the Naval War College, leaving with a Master of Military Art and Science and a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies respectively.
In 1981, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He continued serving until 2014 when he retired as a Lieutenant General in the army with many awards to his name including a Defense Distinguished Service Medal, 4 Defense Superior Service Medal, 2 Legion of Merit, and 4 Bronze Star Medal.
Following his retirement, Flynn founded a consulting firm known as Flynn Intel Group Inc. The firm has worked with many international companies including Inovo BV – a Turkish company.
In February 2016, Flynn was called to serve as an adviser to the Trump campaign and by July, he was already being considered to serve as the running mate of Donald Trump before the selection of then-Indiana governor Mike Pence.
After his victory at the election, Donald Trump appointed Michael Flynn to serve as his National Security Advisor even after he was warned against that by President Obama at a meeting in the White House before Trump’s inauguration. More so, there were reports that had already linked Flynn to Russia at the time.
Michael Flynn was forced to resign as National Security Advisor in February 2017 after it was found that he lied to vice president Mike Pence regarding his contact with the Russians. After his resignation, Donald Trump met with the then-director of the FBI James Comey whom he told he wished he could let Flynn go as “he’s a good guy.”
Wife And Son
In the same way that his professional story is interesting, so also is his love life. He got married to Lori Andrade as far back as 1982. Flynn and his wife first met when they were both students at the Middletown High School in Rhode Island. Having known each other since their sophomore year, it was in their senior year that they began dating.
The marriage has been blessed with two children; Michael Flynn Jr. and Matt Flynn. Just like his father, Michael Flynn Jr. is under investigation and there were speculations that he could be charged in the investigation. There were reports that the older Flynn was warned that his son could be charged and that made him take a plea deal and even cooperate with investigators.
According to the younger Flynn, however, his father only decided to take a plea deal because of the financial burden that the case brought upon the family.
How Is Michael Flynn Connected To Russia?
Even before the victory of Donald in the 2016 election, there was already an investigation on his campaign team regarding its contacts with Russia which after the election was said to have influenced the election. This led to the appointment of Robert Mueller to look into the collision of Russia and the Trump campaign team during the election.
Among those at the center of the contact with the Russians is Flynn who met with the Russian ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak. He would not only lie to the vice president about this but also investigators.
However, he would later ask for a plea bargain and then plead guilty to making false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements to the FBI as regards his contact with Kislyak.
