Former national security adviser and “stop the steal” activist Michael Flynn appeared on “constitutional sheriff” Richard Mack’s BrighteonTV show last week, where he claimed that Maricopa County, Arizona Board of Election Supervisors were guilty of “criminal behavior” and had committed “a million felonies” related to the 2020 election and subsequent “audit” ordered by state Senate Republicans. Maricopa County officials and others have refuted the “irresponsible and dangerous” claims made by Cyber Ninjas, the firm hired to carry out the so-called audit.
Flynn noted that Arizona’s attorney general is looking into claims by Cyber Ninjas, and he warned that if the attorney general did not bring indictments and make arrests, “We’re gonna have problems not just in Arizona but across this country.”
Flynn, who urged former President Donald Trump to declare martial law and have the military oversee a new election rather than leave office after his defeat, insisted that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen.” He said that the reason people who oversaw the elections in Maricopa County aren’t in jail now is that “we have such incredible levels of weakness in our political class.”
Flynn said that the county sheriff “could absolutely step in” to make arrests but that he understands the sheriff is “not helpful,” which Mack called “a nice way to put it.”
Mack founded and leads the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, which teaches sheriffs and county officials that they are the ultimate law enforcement authority in their jurisdictions and have a duty to resist “tyranny” from federal and state governments. Flynn and Mack talked about the role local sheriffs might play in overseeing future elections by deputizing people at the precinct level.
Flynn told Mack that “this is a winnable war,” adding that he sees local activists, sheriffs, and pastors rising up and pushing back. “Our generation is not going to turn this country over to a bunch of communist thugs,” he said.
Flynn also promoted this weekend’s “Liberty Conference” hosted by the Western Conservative Action Network (WeCANAct).
During the interview, Flynn praised “The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates,” a book by anti-abortion extremist Matthew Trewhella that argues that the primary duty of “lesser magistrates”—or lower-level public officials—is “to oppose and resist any laws or edicts form the higher authority that contravene the law or Word of God.” The doctrine of the lesser magistrates, connected to Christian Reconstructionist ideology, is invoked by some far-right activists to justify physical resistance to what they see as unjust authority. Trewhella has previously justified violence against abortion providers and spent time in jail for blocking access to clinics. He told the U.S. Taxpayers Party convention in 1994 that the most loving thing they could do at Christmas would be to buy each of their children a rifle and 500 rounds of ammunition. Trewhella, pastor of a Milwaukee-area church, last year compared a public health mask requirement to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany.
