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capitolhunters Profile picture
@capitolhunters
Oct 22, 2023 • 10 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X
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A lot of people are talking today about Michael Flynn's pardon, since @emptywheel asked if Trump's recent disavowal of Sidney Powell was because of a pardon quid pro quo. Just to remind, the quid pro quo is WRITTEN: pardon Flynn for help "base rallying" 1/
emptywheel.net/2023/10/22/don…
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Soon after the election, as Stop the Steal efforts were spinning up, Ed Martin sent a series of text messages to speechwriter Vince Haley, suggesting Flynn would promote election denial if pardoned. Nov 7: "Please push Flynn pardon. We need him for the base rallying". 2/ Image
Ed Martin was actually pitching to Newt Gingrich, Haley's old boss, not to Trump. On Nov 10, as the Nov 14 DC rally was approaching, Martin got urgent: "A POTUS pardon Thursday or Friday. He'd come to D.C. for the rally march. Please float it to Newt. We need that guy loosed". 3/ Image
Flynn got no pardon before November 14, and didn't show up in DC, though his brother Joe came. Flynn started helping only after his Nov 25 pardon. On Dec. 12, pardon in hand, he was ubiquitous, speaking at 3 separate rallies: "base rallying." 4/
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…
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It seems clear that Flynn agreed to help promote election denial in exchange for a pardon. It is a harder question whether his help went beyond speeches. On Dec. 18 he floated a plan that was rejected. On Jan 6 he sat in the audience at the Ellipse even while the attack began. 5/
There is no clear connection between Flynn and the violence at the Capitol. Someone had to organize, but there are other candidates too for that. (Those pros and cons require a longer thread.) But it's very clear that Flynn cut a deal for at minimum delivering speeches. 6/
The hottest take from the Flynn pardon story is that Ed Martin thought the best way to get him one was to ask Newt Gingrich. Newt was seen as the pardon broker!

The Vince Haley texts are at link below, & here's their context in the Big Timeline. 7/
govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GP…
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Flynn's deal on the pardon was widely assumed. Annie Howell, a relatively minor helper with election fraud claims, says that Flynn "was kind of absent..until he received that pardon.. and then he had a heavy influence..after that". Quid pro quo. 8/
govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GP…
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Here's Trump's post that set off all the discussion: "MS. POWELL WAS NOT MY ATTORNEY... she would have been conflicted. Ms. Powell did a valiant job of representing...General Michael Flynn...an innocent man...like many other innocent people who are now being persecuted..." 9/ Image
If anyone wonders who Ed Martin is, who pitched Flynn's pardon: he's head of Phyllis Schlafly Eagles and an "old friend" of Speaker candidate Pete Sessions. The day before the Capitol attack, Martin & Sessions posed together with a Stop the Steal sign. Jan 6 is not over. 10/ Image

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More from @capitolhunters

capitolhunters Profile picture
Apr 16
The Trump-appointed chairman of the panel approving his fascist arch turns out to be an architect who restores palaces in Russia, lectures in Russia, and publishes in Russia: Rodney Mims Cook Jr., son of a famous GA politician, a cartoonishly pretentious monument builder. 1/ Image
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The current version of Rodney Mims Cook Jr.'s floridly self-aggrandizing website lists five lectures or presentations in Russia (including at the Kremlin) and one at the Russian embassy in DC. He's proud of his ties (h/t @nycsouthpaw) 2/ Image
Another bio for Rodney Mims Cook Jr. (oddly, he's on the board of a Caribbean medical school) omits a talk at 'Spaso House, Russia' and a 2017 presentation at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, but does include writings in Izvestia and Pravda. 3/ Image
Read 8 tweets
capitolhunters Profile picture
Apr 14
The only bright side of the DOJ's disgusting effort to vacate the convictions of the Proud Boys who led the Jan 6 Capitol attack (they weren't pardoned, just commuted): now they can all be subpoenae'd to testify and can't plead the 5th anymore. They'd have to talk. 1/
The next DOJ dirty trick to watch for is an attempt to throw the pipe bomber case, to let Brian Cole wiggle out scot-free by casting doubt on the case. He's already filed a motion fingering an innocent cop. Expect Todd Blanche to do everything in his power to help him. 2/
The Jan 6 pipe bombs were deeply connected to many people including sitting Congressmen. No way do Trump and Blanche want any of that to come up in court. They will want that case to go away and if they will work the corrupt DOJ to make it go away quietly. 3/
Read 4 tweets
capitolhunters Profile picture
Apr 12
It's great that autocrat Viktor Orban, the model for MAGA, was crushed in Hungary's election today. But prep for backlash: Trump's backers will rush to grab what they can before he falls too. Trump is already paying off the techbros by seizing SF's Presidio for them. 1/ Image
The techbros have dreamed of taking San Francisco's beautiful Presidio for decades; they want it for a dreamed-of libertarian "Freedom City" they'd rule. The plot is sophomoric and nutty but dangerously real. Trump's been helping them since 2023. 2/
bsky.app/profile/capito…Image
The broligarchs plotting to take the Presidio are among the richest men in America but @PoojaSalhotra's NYT article makes not one mention of them, saying only vaguely that Trump wants to "reshape the bureaucracy." 3/
archive.is/dNlhJ
nytimes.com/2026/04/12/us/…
Read 6 tweets
capitolhunters Profile picture
Apr 10
For those still behind: Melania's Epstein presser yesterday ("I was not a participant") was almost certainly driven by Amanda Ungaro, an Epstein victim who had a child with Paolo Zampolli, who brought Melania to the US. Zampolli just got Ungaro deported; she's vowing revenge. 1/
Back in the 1990s Paolo Zampolli, a friend of Trump and Epstein, created "ID Models" and brought the young Slovenian Melania Knaus to the US. She hooked up with Epstein, then Zampolli introduced her to Trump. She's now your First Lady and seems worried about this past. 2/ Image
Zampolli started a relationship with a young Epstein victim, Amanda Ungaro, and had a child with her. In 2025, he decided to solve his custody dispute by getting ICE to deport Ungaro, then taking the child. She's now vowing to tell all in revenge. 3/
oglobo.globo.com/mundo/noticia/…
Read 6 tweets
capitolhunters Profile picture
Mar 6
Let’s talk about Graham Platner’s Big Lie. In 2009, at the height of the Gulf War, the Marines barred him from active duty. Platner claims it was his forearm tattoos. But his one forbidden tattoo was the Nazi symbol on his chest. He left the Marines rather than give it up. 1/ Image
This thread is not about whether Platner is a Nazi. It’s about how he lies like a toddler when he’s cornered. And that’s enough. He’s not electable, and Susan Collins knows it. You can too, if you can read this thread, or this 18-page document. 2/
docs.google.com/document/d/1fN…
Back to 2009: Platner had finished 4 years active duty and enrolled in college, but quickly dropped out and wanted to go back to war. The Gulf War was raging; the Marines were so shorthanded they were recalling servicemen to duty. But they didn’t want Platner. 3/ Image
Read 11 tweets
capitolhunters Profile picture
Feb 27
Newsflash: the men whose 2020 plan to steal the election was rejected as too crazy, are now tasked with stealing the 2026 election.

On Dec. 18, 2020, Trump vetoed Mike Flynn and Patrick Byrne's plan of seizing voting machines. He green-lit Jan 6 instead. But now they're back. 1/
Dec. 18, 2020 was the decision point that set the Capitol attack in motion. Around midnight, Flynn and Byrne were kicked out of the White House. At 1:42 AM Trump sent the first message about Jan 6 instead. But Jan 6 failed, and now Trump is desperate. 2/
Flynn and Byrne, the two key men Trump has asked to help him steal the 2026 election, were both compromised by Russian agents. Flynn dined in Moscow with Putin. Byrne was seduced by Russian agent Maria Butina. And now they want to steal your vote. 3/
Read 5 tweets

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