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.

President Trump’s initial pick for national security adviser had long been skeptical of the unchecked power of the U.S. intelligence community. Flynn wanted to prioritize several foreign policy agenda items, such as ending the Iran deal, moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.

There was one more priority item for Flynn. Through his experience as a general in foreign war zones, he found that there were several fractures in the intelligence cycle, which harmed U.S. troops’ ability to succeed on the battlefield. As national security adviser, Flynn intended to conduct an audit on the intelligence community as a whole. A full audit of the U.S. intelligence community’s activities has not been completed since 1975, following the Nixon administration’s Watergate scandal.

While serving in the Obama administration, Flynn’s earlier attempts at intelligence reform infuriated the upper echelons of the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency. Flynn’s enemies list continued to grow when, as Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) director, he testified in front of the Congress and challenged the Obama White House narrative that al Qaeda had been “decimated . ” The Obama administration forced him into early retirement shortly thereafter.

It became quite clear that the incoming national security adviser posed a direct challenge to the fourth branch of government — the unaccountable Washington bureaucrat class, including the intelligence community, which some have come to refer to as the “deep state.”

A man who has spent his entire life dedicated to his country, who has served in some of the world’s most dangerous war zones on behalf of the United States, has been targeted for destruction. Robert Mueller’s team of Democrat prosecutors — using unethical wiretaps, along with the now-contested testimony of wholly corrupt FBI officials — has silenced Gen. Michael Flynn.

Some of Flynn’s associates have suggested that he should set up a GoFundMe drive to help with his tremendous legal expenditures, in addition to his legal defense fund. The former DIA director has outright refused, on moral grounds. “He refuses to do it. He is an honorable man and will not ask for money,” a person close to Flynn tells CR, on condition of anonymity due to the legal situation.

After being intimidated into pleading guilty for lying to the FBI — when the charges continue to fall flat under increased scrutiny — a lifelong patriot who has committed virtually zero wrongdoing now faces the prospect of a multi-year prison term.

The intelligence community and Mueller’s team have used leaks to the media and contacts with members of the TV pundit class to recklessly attribute labels to Gen. Flynn. Without evidence, we have heard for years now that Flynn has colluded with the Russians, with some even claiming he committed a form of treason. Flynn, on the other hand, has been silenced through legal intimidation tactics. He cannot speak for himself, so others must make the case for him.