美国总统唐纳德·特朗普的前国家安全顾问、退役中将迈克尔·弗林周四出现在众议院调查委员会面前1月6日攻击他的律师说，他在美国国会大厦行使了第五修正案的权利来回答陪审团的问题。

委员会传唤弗林11月，要求提供有关2020年12月18日的文件和证词，据报道，他与时任总统特朗普在椭圆形办公室参加了一次会议，据称在那里讨论了没收2020年选举中使用的投票机的问题。

据称，弗林还参与起草了几份备忘录，命令多个联邦机构没收投票机，特朗普最终没有签署。

弗林的首席律师大卫·沃林顿说，弗林在周四出庭时“行使了第五修正案的权利，拒绝回答委员会的问题”。

委员会发言人拒绝对弗林的出场发表评论。

据称，特朗普曾考虑下令美国国土安全部没收各州的投票机，作为他挑战2020年选举结果的努力的一部分，弗林公开敦促特朗普宣布戒严令，并命令军方监督特朗普输掉的战场州的新选举。

在特朗普会见弗林的前一天，这位前国家安全顾问告诉保守派新闻媒体Newsmax，特朗普“可以采取军事能力，他可以把它们放在这些州，基本上在这些州重新举行选举。”

布莱恩·特里Oklahoman通过《今日美国》网络

迈克尔·弗林在俄克拉荷马州参议员候选人杰克森·拉梅尔的集会上发言...

弗林去年12月对众议院议长南希·佩洛西(Nancy Pelosi)和委员会成员提起诉讼，寻求从委员会寻求他的记录和证词的传票中获得“宣告性和禁令性救济”。

一名联邦法官很快驳回了弗林申请临时限制令的努力，该限制令将禁止该委员会对他执行传票，并从第三方电信公司获取他的任何手机数据。

弗林和前特朗普律师西德尼·鲍威尔试图争取一名五角大楼官员的帮助推翻选举，ABC新闻首席华盛顿记者乔纳森·卡尔在他的书《背叛:特朗普秀的最后一幕》中写道。

根据这本书，弗林刚刚收到了一份无条件的总统赦免从特朗普在2017年认罪到在俄罗斯调查期间向联邦调查局撒谎，他疯狂地打电话给一位名叫以斯拉·科恩(Ezra Cohen-Watnick)的特朗普高级情报官员，他之前在国防情报局和国家安全委员会(National Security Council)的弗林手下工作。

据卡尔报道，弗林敦促科恩“他需要签署命令，需要没收选票，需要采取非常措施来阻止民主党人窃取选举”。

“先生，选举结束了，”科恩告诉弗林，根据这本书。“是时候继续前进了。”

Former Trump adviser Michael Flynn meets with Jan. 6 committee, takes 5th

President Donald Trump's former national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, appeared Thursday before the House committee investigating theJan. 6 attackon the U.S. Capitol and exercised his Fifth Amendment right in response to the panel's questions, his attorney said.

The committeesubpoenaed Flynnin November, requesting documents and testimony in reference to a December 18, 2020, meeting he reportedly attended with then-President Trump in the Oval Office, where seizing voting machines used in the 2020 election was allegedly discussed.

Flynn was also allegedly involved in efforts to draft several memos ordering multiple federal agencies to seize voting machines, which Trump ultimately did not sign.

Flynn's lead counsel, David Warrington, said Flynn "exercised his 5th amendment right to decline to answer the Committee's questions" at his appearance Thursday.

A committee spokesperson declined to comment on Flynn's appearance.

Trump had allegedly contemplated ordering the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to seize states' voting machines as part of his efforts to challenge the 2020 election results, and Flynn publicly prodded Trump to declare martial law and order the military to oversee new elections in the battleground states that Trump had lost.

One day before Trump met with Flynn, the former national security adviser told the conservative news outlet Newsmax that Trump "could take military capabilities and he could place them in those states and basically rerun an election in each of those states."

Flynn filed a lawsuit against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and members of the committee in December seeking "declaratory and injunctive relief" from a subpoena from the committee seeking his records and testimony.

A federal judge quickly rejected Flynn's effort to get a temporary restraining order that would have barred the committee from enforcing its subpoena against him and obtaining any of his cell phone data from a third-party telecommunications company.

Flynn and former Trump attorney Sidney Powell tried to enlist a Pentagon official to helpoverturn the election, ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl wrote in his book "Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show."

According to the book, Flynn -- who had just received an unconditionalpresidential pardonfrom Trump after pleading guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI during the Russia probe -- made a frantic phone call to a senior Trump intelligence official named Ezra Cohen (sometimes referred to as Ezra Cohen-Watnick), who previously worked under Flynn at both the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council.

Flynn urged Cohen that "he needed to get orders signed, that ballots needed to be seized, and that extraordinary measures needed to be taken to stop Democrats from stealing the election," Karl reported.

"Sir, the election is over," Cohen told Flynn, according to the book. "It's time to move on."