How Trump Ally Michael Flynn Nurtured -- And Profited From -- the QAnon Conspiracy Theory

[Nevilledog]

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Jared Holt
@jaredlholt
“As far back as the fall of 2017, Flynn and his surrogates began probing the possibility of deploying a viral online information operation”

A hell of an investigation out today in The Intercept

How Trump Ally Michael Flynn Nurtured — And Profited From — the QAnon Conspiracy Theory
Flynn hitched his financial fortunes to QAnon as early as the summer of 2019, when he was facing a mountain of legal costs.
theintercept.com
8:32 AM · Jun 27, 2021

https://theintercept.com/2021/06/27/qanon-michael-flynn-digital-soldiers/

OF THE MANY mysteries surrounding the final days of Donald Trump’s presidency, few have been more confounding than the connections between former national security adviser Michael Flynn, the QAnon conspiracy theory, and Trump’s #StoptheSteal campaign.

Most media outlets treated Flynn’s videotaped oath last summer, in which he uttered a well-known QAnon slogan, as a sort of coming-out story about a onetime Trump insider who had gone off the rails. The video has since become the subject of a lawsuit by members of Flynn’s family who claim that “left-wing media outlets began to spread false narratives” about the Flynn family’s connections to QAnon. An Intercept investigation has found that Flynn’s ties to the QAnon phenomenon stretch back much further than the July 4 weekend last year when the video first appeared, however, to the days immediately following Trump’s 2016 election victory.

That November, nearly a year before the first cryptic clue from QAnon’s organizers – known as a “Q drop” — appeared on the online message board 4chan, Flynn told a roomful of Trump supporters that the president-elect had been borne into office by an “army of digital soldiers.” The phrase “digital soldiers,” which Flynn later trademarked, has become a central QAnon rallying cry and a key indicator of the movement’s growing turn toward violent extremism and insurrection.

Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general who once oversaw military intelligence in Afghanistan and led a sprawling intelligence agency in Washington, would go on to become a central hero in QAnon’s conspiratorial narrative. But his move to trademark the term “digital soldiers” — ensuring that only he and others who obtain his express permission can profit from the sale of “Digital Soldiers”-branded merchandise — hints at his attempt to capitalize on a marketing and communication strategy that resonates with the Q community.

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I know some people dislike The Intercept, but it's better without Greenwald. Also, Jared Holt is an expert in this area of study, and he's saying this is a "hell of an investigation."