Inside the Deep State Coup Attempt: Treason & Justice

Gen. Flynn (ret.) was the first victim of the Deep State coup attempt against Trump. In this exclusive article written with Alex Newman, the former National Security Advisor offers an inside look.

Alex Newman and Michael T. Flynn LTG USA (RET)

Jan 08, 2026

This article was written by General Michael Flynn (ret.), former U.S. National Security Advisor and U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency chief, and journalist Alex Newman. It appeared in The New American magazine late last year. But with calls for accountability for Deep State criminals growing louder, it is more relevant than ever.

Justice for Russiagate

I was forced into an impossible choice: Plead guilty to a grave but false charge — or refuse, and watch my own government target my family for total ruin, all based on their fabricated lie. This is a choice no one should have to make, and that’s why I continue to tell my story and explain how it affects every American — as well as the future of our country.

This story begins in the summer of 2015, as I began to establish a close, personal relationship with now-President Donald J. Trump. Establishment elite politicians and global actors took aim at me, and to this day, refuse to let go. Their goal was to destroy not just my reputation and my life on the global stage, but my entire family as well.

Now, the tables have turned. The hunted have become the hunters.

As Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard put it, what happened to me was a “treasonous conspiracy.” That’s exactly what it was, a diabolical plot that cannot go unanswered, and it won’t.

President Trump has one of the most unusual opportunities in history, not just to Make America Great Again, but to destroy the Deep State that’s been betraying Americans and infiltrating this country for decades. Accountability and justice are essential if we are to move forward as a united constitutional republic.

This isn’t just personal. They didn’t just come after me, my family, and President Trump and his family — they came after every American citizen. They came after our vote, our Constitution, and our Republic. The worst part is that their plot was all based on fraud — a treasonous lie — and everyone involved at the highest levels, including President Barack Obama, knew it from the start.

The American people are finally being exposed to the truth, but exposure alone isn’t enough. There must be justice for those who sought to overthrow the United States of America. To ensure the preservation of our system of government and our precious God-given liberties, there must be accountability.

Russiagate: One of the Greatest Frauds Ever Perpetrated

For years, the American people were fed lies about President Trump and his administration “colluding” with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Now we know the truth. While this article is not meant to be a comprehensive overview of the new revelations, it is critical that Americans understand what happened from the perspective of those targeted, such as myself.

What we really faced in 2016 and 2017 — and what America still faces today — is an out-of-control Deep State using an intelligence-industrial complex weaponized against its own citizens. It is a “color revolution” seeking to replace a government, but aimed directly at the United States instead of some foreign nation in Eastern Europe or Africa. This enemy within remains an existential threat to America and her constitutional system of government.

This color revolution is far from over. The players behind it are still out there, from key insiders in the corrupt legacy media to those inside the government. These anti-American revolutionaries are still at work, rejecting our system and working toward communism, globalism, and all sorts of other “isms” incompatible with the U.S. Constitution.

I never set out to be a political lightning rod. I was a soldier with more than 33 years of service, multiple combat tours, and eventually director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. But in 2016, I committed what the Swamp considered an unpardonable sin: I stood with Donald J. Trump, and spoke truth to power. Even worse for these conspirators, I’d discovered the corruption inside the intelligence community and was in a position to expose it. I knew where the proverbial bodies were buried and how to fix the infiltration. That’s why they turned their guns on me.

Let me be perfectly clear: Russiagate was a fraud — a fabricated, taxpayer-funded political and very illegal operation orchestrated at the highest levels of the U.S. government to sabotage the peaceful transfer of power. As President Trump and others have said, this was treason against our Republic and Constitution.

The Setup

The FBI knew by January 2017 that there was no legitimate reason to investigate Trump or his team, despite the wishes of Obama and his inner circle. Declassified notes and testimony confirm it: Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, James Comey, and others within the Department of Justice (DOJ) had reams of exculpatory evidence that absolved me of any perceived crimes. They buried it to create a completely false narrative.

This was never about Russia. It was about ensuring that Trump could not undo their “progress” in “fundamentally transforming” America. Trump and I were in the way of their revolution. They knew I was coming into the White House as national security advisor, one of the most powerful positions in government, with a clear mission: end the endless wars, expose intelligence abuses, and put America First.

Trump’s team was a massive threat to the existing power structure in Washington, D.C. Call it the “Swamp,” the “Deep State,” the “Establishment,” whatever you like. They knew how dangerous we were to their agenda, and that’s why FBI counterintelligence hack Strzok talked about an “insurance policy” in case Trump won.

Setting the ambush started well before we entered the White House in 2017. Declassified documents describe multiple meetings in the Oval office. One was August 3, 2016, a second was December 8, 2016, and a third was January 5, 2017. In all, President Obama convened key members of his national security team such as DNI James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey, National Security Advisor Susan Rice, and other now-well-known, notorious figures. In each meeting they conspired to stop Trump from ever becoming president, or to undermine him if he were elected. From the staggering number of now-declassified documents, all American citizens and the world can see for themselves the lengths to which Obama conspired with key members of his team — along with their henchmen in the media — to destroy America.

FBI officials deployed a perjury trap. They sent agents into the White House without informing the president, interviewed me without a lawyer, and concealed the existence of any investigation. During his appearance with MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace on December 9, 2018, James Comey remarked on sending FBI agents to interview me. The FBI’s decision to send agents to the White House in January 2017 was, as Comey bragged, “something I probably wouldn’t have gotten away with in a more organized administration.”

My conversation with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, now declassified, was simple: I urged Moscow not to escalate over Obama’s sanctions. Boilerplate diplomacy, nothing more, nothing less. I did exactly what any incoming national security advisor would do for any incoming president. There was no promise of sanctions relief, and certainly no suggestion of “quid pro quo.”

They doctored evidence. Original agent notes of my interview said I showed no intent to mislead and answered questions to the best of my recollection, but the DOJ’s final memo claimed I “knowingly and willfully” lied. This was a political hit job meant to take out a loyal American who was advising the president on national security and knew exactly how to utilize his position for the American people.

The Dirty Dossier and DOJ Coverup

At the heart of this hoax was the Steele dossier, a pile of obvious, ludicrous lies funded by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee. CIA Director John Brennan knew it was political opposition research, but called it “intelligence.” Later, the House Intelligence Committee under then-Representative Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) uncovered the fact that the FBI used this unverified document to obtain Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants to spy on American citizens — including Carter Page and, by extension, the entire Trump campaign. The U.S. government used known lies to justify spying on a presidential campaign — this is something you’d expect from a banana republic, not America.

The DOJ’s inspector general found 17 significant errors in the Carter Page FISA applications. DNI declassifications show that 39 Obama officials, including Vice President Joe Biden and Obama’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough, manipulated evidence and fed disinformation to media allies to push the “Russia collusion” narrative, all while hiding the fact that they had zero evidence. It was premeditated. They knew it. They did it anyway.

These coup plotters knew that if Trump won in 2020, their scheme would be exposed. They couldn’t afford that. So, using mail-in ballot fraud, Covid lies, and a weaponized justice system, they stole the election, as The New American and others have continuously documented.

Tulsi Gabbard Speaks Out

In 2025, DNI Tulsi Gabbard, in a rare act of courage and patriotism, declassified documents proving high-level Obama administration officials knew the Trump-Russia “collusion” narrative was false from the start. She lashed out: “The American people were deliberately misled by a small group of unelected bureaucrats who weaponized their offices for political gain. This is a dangerous abuse of power that must never happen again.” God bless her for telling the truth, something that so many in Washington refused to do.

Gabbard, a former Democrat like me who no longer recognizes her previous party, said, “The issue I am raising is not a partisan issue. It is one that concerns every American. The information we are releasing today clearly shows there was a treasonous conspiracy in 2016 committed by officials at the highest level of our government. Their goal was to subvert the will of the American people and end what was essentially a years-long coup with the objective of trying to usurp the President from fulfilling the mandate bestowed upon him by the American people.”

The stakes couldn’t be higher. “Their egregious abuse of power and blatant rejection of our Constitution threatens the very foundation and integrity of our democratic republic,” Gabbard continued. “No matter how powerful, every person involved in this conspiracy must be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, to ensure nothing like this ever happens again.”

Now is the time for accountability, and it is essential. “The American people’s faith and trust in our democratic republic and therefore the future of our nation depends on it,” Gabbard said in her announcement. “As such, I am providing all documents to the Department of Justice to deliver the accountability that President Trump, his family, and the American people deserve.”

These declassifications weren’t random. They’re strategic, laying the groundwork for prosecutions. Documents confirm Obama knew in December 2016 that there was no Trump-Russia collusion. He knew Clinton’s campaign was manufacturing the narrative, but let it proceed. Brennan’s handwritten notes show that he briefed Obama on Clinton’s plan before the election. CIA-released memos indicate that Russia viewed Clinton as the more-destabilizing candidate. And finally, internal FBI messages admitted there was “no there, there,” yet they kept the sham investigation going. The truth is catching up with the liars. More revelations are coming.

All the Way to the Top

In July, when asked whom the DOJ should target, President Trump didn’t flinch: Obama. “Based on what I read, and I read pretty much what you read, it would be President Obama. He started it,” Trump said. “And Biden was there with him. And Comey was there. And Clapper. The whole group was there. Brennan. They were all there, in a room. Right here. This was the room.”

“It wasn’t lots of people all over the place — it was them too, but the leader of the gang was President Obama, Barack Hussein Obama,” Trump continued. “And except for the fact that he gets shielded by the press for his entire life, that’s the one.... Look, he’s guilty. It’s not a question: You know, I like to say, ‘Let’s give it time. It’s there. He’s guilty.’”

While Obama was key — Trump said it was Obama’s “idea” and “concept” — “crooked Hillary Clinton” was also instrumental. “Clinton and her group, the Democrats, spent $12 million for Christopher Steele to write up a report that was a total fake report,” the president said, blasting it as “fiction” and “a disaster, all lies, all fabrication, all admitted, and admitted fraud.”

Trump also made clear that this was not simply a matter of policy preferences or even a minor crime. In fact, what Obama and his senior officials did was as serious as it gets. “This was treason, this was every word you can think of,” Trump continued. “They tried to steal the election. They tried to obfuscate the election. They did things that nobody’s ever even imagined, even in other countries.”

“If you look at that, those papers [released by DNI Gabbard], they have them stone cold, and it was President Obama,” continued Trump. “We have all of the documents. And from what Tulsi told me, she’s got thousands of additional documents coming.”

What They Did to Me

As the first victim of these coup plotters, I can tell you the viciousness was extraordinary. They accused me of lying about a legal call with the Russian ambassador, then coerced a guilty plea by threatening my son, who had nothing to do with it. Worse than thuggish, it was criminal. My legal bills hit millions, forcing me to sell my home. My name was dragged through the mud as a traitor. I lost my job and my ability to help Trump fix this mess, and my innocent family was dragged through hell. They nearly took my freedom, too.

Thankfully, I never lost my faith — and I never will. My trust in God grew stronger. My family stood by me. The DOJ, under a different administration, admitted I committed no crime and dropped the case. But the damage was incalculable. To put it bluntly, this wasn’t a mistake, unintentional error, or unfortunate miscommunication. It was a coup attempt to kill our country, and I was the first casualty. If these plotters aren’t stopped, exposed, and punished, there will be more attempts at treason in the future. I guarantee it.

The weaponization of government against citizens is very real, happening daily — not just to high-profile figures like Trump, Peter Navarro, Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, and me, but to everyday Americans. It has become commonplace, and it must stop.

Where We Go From Here

This fight isn’t just about Trump, or me, or Carter Page. It is about the soul of our Republic. It is about the peaceful transfer of power. It is about the people’s right to choose their leaders without interference from unelected tyrants. The Deep State is real. I have seen it and continue to fight against it.

Thanks to Tulsi Gabbard’s courage, the resolve of patriots in the Trump administration who stand for the rule of law, and the rise of honest alternative media, America is waking up. We cannot let this moment pass. Trump has assigned clear responsibilities and expectations to ensure accountability. From the FBI’s new investigations to Gabbard’s precise declassifications, every piece of this operation is moving in sync. You don’t declassify sensitive intel unless you are ready to act on it. You don’t flip the DOJ unless you plan to prosecute. Those who broke the law, those who tried to steal our Republic, must be held accountable. After enduring eight years of lawfare, surveillance, slander, and even attempts on his life, Donald J. Trump is back. He is here to finish the mission: dismantle the Deep State and restore fairness, truth, and justice for every American.

The coup plotters and their networks are on notice. Accountability is not a choice. It is coming. Do not be fooled by fake apologies or sudden conversions. These people are ruthless, and they will not stop. But neither will we. Trump has built a strong team at the DOJ, at the FBI, and across government. They are moving. Declassifications are rolling. Investigations are underway. Justice is coming.

This is not the Trump of 2017. This is Trump in 2025: steady, decisive, and clear-headed; battle-tested, experienced, and surrounded by loyal allies. He knows who will stand firm, and he knows where to strike. This is not only about MAGA or Trump, though he has earned our support. This is about defending the Constitution. This is about God-given rights that no government can take away.

The Founders never imagined intelligence agencies turned into weapons against the people, but this is our reality. If we do not peacefully fight back — morally, lawfully, and relentlessly — the attacks will continue.

America will not be destroyed from abroad. Our enemies overseas cannot break us. Only betrayal from within can do that. We have seen that betrayal, but the spirit of liberty lives on.

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Did you know 37% of children will be involved with a Child Protective Services investigation by the time they turn 18? And over 83% of these children were determined not to be victims of child abuse or neglect. Yet even for innocent families, these investigations are traumatic.
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