Judge rejects Michael Flynn lawsuit against 6 January committee a day after he filed it

Mr Flynn has accused the House Select Committee of ‘partisan harassment’

Michael Flynn has lost his bid in court to block the House Select Committee investigating the 6 January riots from obtaining his phone records in the lead up to the insurrection.

The committee informed the former national security adviser that it wanted to question him about a meeting he had with Donald Trump and others at the White House last December.

At the meeting, the group allegedly “discussed seizing voting machines, declaring a national emergency, invoking certain national security emergency powers, and continuing to spread the message that the November 2020 election had been tainted by widespread fraud,” reported CNBC.

Mr Flynn had filed his suit on Tuesday in the district court of Florida alleging that the subpoena issued to him by the committee was too broad in scope.

It said it punished him for what he considered to be constitutionally protected speech.

He also accused the committee of “partisan harassment”.

The case for an emergency intervention could not be made as procedural requirements were not met in the case filed by Mr Flynn, the district court said, according to CNN.

The court said Mr Flynn could refile his request in the future or allow his requests to play out on a longer schedule in court, the news network said.

District judge Mary Scriven also said Mr Flynn had not specified by when he was expected to produce documents to the committee.

“Flynn has not, however, provided any information about the date by which the Select Committee currently expects him to produce documents,” Ms Scriven wrote.

“Thus, on this record, there is no basis to conclude that Flynn will face ‘immediate and irreparable’ harm before Defendants have an opportunity to respond.”

One of Mr Flynn’s lawyers, David Warrington, said in a statement after the court order that his client continued to look forward to obtaining relief from the house committee’s “unconstitutional investigation”.

“The Court acknowledged that should the Select Committee take actions that would cause an immediate harm to General Flynn, such as expediting the response dates for document requests from Flynn or for the phone company subpoenas, a renewed motion for TRO [temporary restraining order] may be appropriate,” said Mr Warrington.

“General Flynn looks forward to obtaining relief from Congress’s unconstitutional and unlawful investigation in the normal course of his pending suit for injunctive relief that was not affected by today’(s) order,” he added.

Mr Flynn’s lawsuit is the latest in a string of litigation aimed at the committee by several individuals whom the panel has asked for evidence and documents relating to the Capitol riot.

Mr Flynn, a retired army general, served briefly as the national security adviser to Mr Trump.

In 2017, he pleaded guilty to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about conversations he had with Russia’s ambassador to the US.

He was pardoned by Mr Trump in 2020.