Flynn asks state Supreme Court to reinstate defamation suit against Rick Wilson

Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has asked the Florida Supreme Court to reinstate his defamation lawsuit against anti-Trump political operative Rick Wilson over comments linking him to Vladimir Putin and the QAnon conspiracy theory.
A Sarasota state trial ruled the comments were protected by the First Amendment, and the Florida Second District Court of Appeal affirmed, citing the “profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks.”
In a 12-page brief filed Tuesday with the state’s highest court, attorneys for Flynn argued the lower courts misapplied Florida’s law against “strategic lawsuits against public participation,” also known as SLAPPs, launched to discourage taking part in protected activities including public debate.
Specifically, they argue the lower courts improperly required Flynn “to demonstrate that the claims are not ‘primarily’ based on First Amendment rights in connection with a public issue and not ‘without merit’” before proceeding with the lawsuit against Wilson.
The trial judge ruled that Flynn hadn’t met that burden, and the Second District Court of Appeal agreed. But those conclusions clash with rulings from the Third, Fourth and Fifth District Courts of Appeal, which didn’t shift the burden of proof in that way, his attorneys argue.
“Accordingly, Gen. Flynn seeks to invoke this court’s discretionary jurisdiction to review a decision of a district court of appeal that expressly and directly conflicts with a decision of a district court of appeal or the Supreme Court on the same point of law,” they wrote.
‘Putin employee’
The alleged defamation arose in part from a Wilson post referring to “Putin employee Mike Flynn.”
Flynn is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general whom Donald Trump made national security adviser during his first term but fired after concluding Flynn had lied to the FBI and Vice President Mike Pence about discussing with the Russian government U.S. sanctions placed by Barack Obama on Russia before the Trump administration took office.
Later, he backed out of a plea deal with the government for allegedly lying about his contacts with the Russian ambassador during the Robert Mueller investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump pardoned Flynn in November 2020.
Earlier, in 2015, the state-sponsored Russia Today television network paid Flynn $45,000 to speak during a dinner in Moscow; a photo shows Flynn seated next to Putin at the event.
Additionally, Wilson retweeted a social media post by podcaster Jim Stewartson reading, “FYI, Mike Flynn is Q.” Flynn argues that QAnon is a terrorist organization and that the reference was defamatory. However, the trial court record notes that Flynn has used the QAnon slogan, “Where we go one, we go all,” and “WWG1WGA,” and authorized sale of merchandize with those slogans.
