Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn Loses Libel Lawsuit Against Lincoln Project Cofounder Rick Wilson
From today’s decision in Flynn v. Wilson, by Florida Court of Appeal Judge Susan Rothstein-Youakim, joined by Judges Darryl Casanueva and Morris Silberman:
Retired lieutenant general Michael Flynn sued Rick Wilson for defamation after Wilson referred to Flynn in a tweet as “Putin employee Mike Flynn” and retweeted “FYI, Mike Flynn is Q.” Flynn seeks $50 million in damages and a permanent injunction ordering Wilson to stop defaming him. Wilson moved for summary judgment, `contending that both of his tweets were opinion or rhetorical hyperbole protected by the First Amendment that “by their nature cannot be proven true or false” and that Flynn could not show that Wilson made the statements with “actual malice.” The trial court granted Wilson’s motion and entered judgment in his favor. We affirm.
Flynn is a quintessential public figure. As a lieutenant general in the United States Army, he played a key leadership role in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. He is a former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency and a former National Security Adviser to President Donald Trump. Flynn has continued to maintain a high public profile, including in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election and in the public debate surrounding Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Wilson is a political strategist, author, and cofounding member of the Lincoln Project, which Flynn alleges is an “organization dedicated to opposing Republicans.” Wilson has written two New York Times bestsellers highly critical of President Trump and many of those who served in his administration, including Flynn. In one of those books, titled Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever, Wilson wrote about Flynn:
Capo of l’affaire russe MAGA Crew Mike Flynn, a disgraced former army general was so outrageously in bed with the Russians that even Trump was forced to fire him.
Wilson frequently expresses his opinions on MSNBC and CNN, among other networks, and on social media, including on the networking service formerly known as Twitter through his handle @TheRickWilson….
Wilson’s two tweets in this case did not emerge from a vacuum. Wilson’s “Putin employee” tweet was an immediate and direct response to a letter Flynn published to the world on February 24, 2022—the day Russia invaded Ukraine:
Flynn’s letter was hardly the first time that Flynn and Russia were connected in a news story. Flynn gained national notoriety in early 2017 when he was terminated from his post as Trump’s National Security Adviser after serving only twenty-two days. He admitted to having misled Vice President Michael Pence on whether he had discussed with the Russian ambassador—before Trump took office—the Obama Administration’s recently imposed sanctions against Russia. President Trump tweeted, “I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI.” Shortly after his dismissal, several newspapers then began reporting that Flynn had received $45,000 from RT, formerly known as Russia Today, for a speaking engagement in Moscow in 2015. Photos from that trip show Flynn sitting at Putin’s elbow at an RT dinner. RT ultimately registered as a “foreign agent” with the United States government. No one here disputes that RT is financed by the Kremlin.
{It is undisputed that Fl
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