SCOOP: The Army falsely denied for days that Lt. Gen. Charles Flynn, the brother of disgraced conspiracy theorist Michael Flynn, was involved in its heavily scrutinized response to the assault on the Capitol.

w/ @PaulSonne @CarolLeonnig @byaaroncdavis https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/flynn-national-guard-call-riot/2021/01/20/7f4f41ba-5b4c-11eb-aaad-93988621dd28_story.html

The discussion focuses on a key meeting the afternoon of the insurrection, in which Army officials expressed concerns about the visuals of National Guard members responding at the Capitol.

For days, officials have said that Lt. Gen. Charles Flynn, a senior officer who will soon be promoted to four-star general, was not in the room during the call.

"HE WAS NOT IN ANY OF THE MEETINGS!" one Army official said to me last week, after multiple questions about it from The Washington Post.

Here's the thing: Flynn now says in a statement to The Post that he was in and out of the meeting before it ended. He declined to answer whether he said anything.

He has a job where it absolutely would make sense that he *would* be in the room.

And yet, aware of how it might look to some Americans, Army officials denied it was so.

We asked outgoing Army Secretary McCarthy about Flynn. He defended him vigorously.

“Charlie Flynn is an officer of an incredibly high integrity,” McCarthy said. “Multiple combat tours. He has buried a lot of people. This guy has given a lot to this country."

More quote:

More McCarthy:

"It is incredibly awkward for this officer every day for what is going on with him and his brother, but he puts his head down in, and he is locked in to serve the Constitution.”

Here's the thing: We asked about this for days. We didn't necessarily see a problem, but we did want to accurately reflect what happened. After the false denials, now we end up writing a separate story instead.