A year-old conspiracy theory simmering in both far-right message boards and mainstream conservative publications that predicted former national security advisor Michael Flynn would be exonerated fell apart on Tuesday at his sentencing hearing, leaving believers perplexed.
The rumors, which were pushed heavily by believers in the Qanon conspiracy theory in recent days, predicted that Judge Emmett Sullivan would throw out Flynn’s guilty plea and reprimand Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team for nefarious investigating practices.
In reality, Sullivan excoriated Flynn, saying that “arguably, you sold your country out” by working as an unregistered foreign agent to Turkey while advising President Donald Trump during his candidacy and clarifying with Flynn that he did not wish to challenge the circumstances under which he was interviewed by the FBI. Flynn's defense attorneys suggested last week that he had somehow been entrapped into lying to the FBI.
“I was aware” that lying to the FBI was a crime, Flynn told Sullivan, adding that he accepted responsibility for his false statements.
Though Sullivan delayed sentencing Flynn for three months, noting that Flynn could cooperate further with Mueller’s team, he made it clear that a jail term for Flynn remains a possibility.
As Mueller’s investigation has widened and ensnared more members of Trump’s team, conspiracy theories of Trump loyalists have been forced into a variety of contortions to justify the belief that the special prosecutor’s actions are working in Trump’s favor or an abuse of prosecutorial power.
Many of those contortions relied on Flynn being let off by Sullivan, who on Tuesday made clear that would not be the case.
“The idea that Flynn holds a lot of secrets about the deep state and won't face serious consequences is important to the Qanon community,” said Travis View, a conspiracy theory researcher. “They’ve been banking on Sullivan throwing out the charges.”
In the last week, conservative media had hailed Sullivan as a hero who was about to unmask the purported misdeeds of the Mueller investigation.
The notion that Flynn could end up exonerated found its way to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who guessed on Fox News Sunday this week that Flynn’s case would be thrown out of court.
"I would not be surprised a bit if the conviction of Flynn is overturned, because of the Justice Department and FBI's misconduct,” Issa said.
The theory began back in February, with a series of articles onconservative news websites lauding Sullivan as a “government misconduct expert” who may be looking to get Flynn to change his plea.
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/flynn-hearing-leaves-far-right-s-conspiracy-theorists-wanting-n949626