Photo Illustration by Lyne Lucien/The Daily Beast/Getty
Michael Flynn’s family members appear to be at war with each other over the QAnon conspiracy theory and whether Flynn himself is playing a role in it.
Flynn, who served briefly as Donald Trump’s national security adviser, became a martyr figure for QAnon believers after taking a plea deal from Special Counsel Robert Mueller for lying about his Russia contacts. Many QAnon fans, who have seized on a series of internet clues posted by the anonymous Q to imagine a world in which Trump is engaged in a secret war against high-ranking Democratic pedophiles, think Flynn is, in fact, secretly working with Mueller to help Trump defeat the deep state. The most ardent of those fans add three “star” emojis to their Twitter handles, a reference to Flynn’s status as a retired three-star general. Some even claim that Flynn himself is “Q.”