Michael Flynn calls Biden DOD payment demands 'another effort to keep me silent'

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn on Tuesday said the Biden Pentagon's plans to recoup nearly $40,000 he received as a speaking fee for a 2015 event in Moscow are an effort to keep him "silent."

The Defense Intelligence Agency claimed Flynn did not notify it of the speaking fee he received for a dinner hosted by Russia Today, a Russian state-controlled outlet. Documents reviewed by Just the News show Flynn not only notified the Defense Intelligence Agency about his trip, but he also received approval to spy on Russia's leadership and its military intelligence unit during his visit.

Flynn told "Just the News – Not Noise" that he was "not surprised" by the Pentagon's letter demanding he repay the speaking fee.

He also called on the agency to "[release] the damn classified documents" on his work.

"I'm not surprised at the snarkiness, at the evil that exists inside of our our government right now, particularly the national security state," Flynn noted.

Retired Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer defended Flynn on Tuesday's "Just the News – Not Noise." 

He said that Flynn was "doing his job" and while at the RT event "he got a lot of really good intel, about a lot of the inner workings of what he observed regarding Putin and the way he behaved."

Flynn said the Pentagon's demands are affecting his retirement account.

"They're just going to reach into my into my retirement and they're going to take some money... At the end of the day, this country means a heck of a lot more than what what they will do to me," he said defiantly.

The national security state is "trying to run this country, and they don't like people like me, because they know that they do not want me coming back into government in any capacity," he said.

Because of his work as national security advisor to former President Donald Trump, Flynn said the security state "had to get rid of me very quickly."

He called the investigation into him a "persecution and harassment and embarrassment."

The Justice Department "just went right after me and my family and just tried to destroy me solely because I helped Donald Trump get elected in 2016, and they and they did not want me back in the mix of things in the summer of 2020 when he was running again," he added.