There’s a reason why you haven’t heard much from Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn lately. The man who served his country honorably for 33 years has been effectively silenced by special counsel Robert Mueller as he awaits sentencing.

Given the circumstances of his plea deal, Flynn cannot speak publicly about anything related to the charges against him. Doing so could void his plea agreement with Mueller’s team and open him up to further legal proceedings that he is financially unable to defend himself against.

Flynn, who has worked his entire career on a government salary, has spent over one million dollars on his legal defense. The financial burden has forced him to sell his home in Alexandria, Virginia, and move into a family home in Rhode Island.

He has been effectively bankrupted and has had his reputation torn to shreds, all for the supposed crime of misleading the FBI about a perfectly legal conversation he had, as incoming national security adviser, with the former Russian ambassador to the U.S.

Remember that the charges against Flynn stem from his advocacy for a detente with Russia, in addition to his reported lobbying against an anti-Israel United Nations resolution, which the Obama administration infamously endorsed through omission by abstaining from the vote. Neither of those activities are illegal or even immoral. In fact, foreign policy observers can be left to conclude that Gen. Flynn was merely acting in America’s best interests.

In order to come to the conclusion that Flynn apparently misled the FBI, the Obama intelligence community wiretapped Flynn’s conversations with the Russian ambassador. Those conversations were then leaked to the press by elements of the intelligence community, in gross violation of federal law. The FBI review found no evidence of wrongdoing by Gen. Flynn, except for the charge of lying to the FBI, a charge that is now reportedly being disputed by the agents who interviewed him. READ MORE: