Michael Flynn pleaded the 5th Amendment while testifying before the January 6 select committee

• Michael Flynn pleaded the 5th Amendment while testifying before the January 6 committee.
• The former national security advisor is the latest witness to invoke his rights against self-incrimination.

Former national security advisor Michael Flynn repeatedly pleaded the 5th Amendment while testifying before the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot on Thursday.

"General Michael Flynn appeared before the January 6th Committee today in compliance with their subpoena and, on advice of counsel, exercised his 5th amendment right to decline to answer the Committee's questions," Flynn's lawyer, David Warrington, said in a statement. "This privilege protects all Americans, not just General Flynn."

The New York Times and Politico first reported on the news.

Flynn is the latest witness from former President Donald Trump's inner circle to invoke the right against self-incrimination before the January 6 select committee.

His lawyer told The Times that Flynn pleaded the 5th Amendment because he believes the panel is considering making criminal referrals against Trump and his loyalists.

The former national security advisor played a key role in pushing Trump to remain in power after he lost the 2020 general election to Joe Biden.

According to emails obtained by Politico in February that were turned over to the January 6 committee, Flynn and several others in Trump's orbit workshopped a draft executive order that would have directed the Pentagon to seize voting machines. The document contained in the emails was almost identical to the draft order that the National Archives turned over to the select committee in January.

That draft called for the Secretary of Defense to "seize" voting machines and for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate purported widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.

The order, which was never signed, was dated December 16, 2020. The emails that Politico obtained were also dated December 16. At one point in the email thread, Flynn said he had reviewed the draft order attached in the emails and wrote, "Ensure it gets a legal review, but this is ready to go from my standpoint."

Around the same time that he was privately pushing for the seizure of voting machines, the former national security advisor was also publicly urging Trump to invoke martial law, take control of voting equipment, and use the military to hold a new election.

"There is no way in the world we are going to be able to move forward as a nation," Flynn, who was pardoned by Trump after pleading guilty to a felony count of lying to the FBI, told Newsmax on December 17. "He could immediately, on his order, seize every single one of these machines, on his order."

"He could order the, within the swing states, if he wanted to, he could take military capabilities, and he could place those in states and basically rerun an election in each of those states," Flynn told Newsmax. "I mean, it's not unprecedented. These people are out there talking about martial law like it's something that we've never done. Martial law has been instituted 64 times."

But the former national security advisor's remarks were not based in reality.

Despite Republican claims of fraud and election rigging, nonpartisan officials and election experts confirmed that the 2020 election was the safest and most secure in US history. The president does not have the power to unilaterally cancel, delay, postpone, or change the date of an election, even if he declares martial law. As Insider previously reported, that power lies with Congress.

Declaring martial law also does not suspend the Constitution, and the military has no role in administering elections.