Gen. Flynn Publishes an Open Letter to Trump Regarding Epstein: ‘I Hesitated to Write This’

The retired Army general who served briefly as President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser in Trump’s first term is offering some advice for the president in his second.

In an open letter to Trump published on the social media platform X Wednesday, retired Gen. Mike Flynn weighed in on the current controversy regarding Trump’s handling of information about the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whose 2019 death in a federal prison cell is still reverberating in American politics.

But it’s advice Trump might not want to hear.

Flynn started the lengthy post acknowledging his uncertainty about addressing the president about his concerns and alluding to his own long-running, complicated battles with the FBI, federal prosecutors, and, ultimately, a federal judge that only ended with a Trump presidential pardon in November 2020 as Trump’s first term was nearing its end.

“I hesitated to write this however, with the utmost respect and deference to you for all you’ve withstood (few know it better than me what the ‘deep state’ can do when they want to turn on a person),” he began in the post, which was published at 12:35 p.m. Eastern.

“The EPSTEIN AFFAIR is NOT about who killed him or if he committed suicide … But neither is this a hoax.”

.@realDonaldTrump I hesitated to write this however, with the utmost respect and deference to you for all you’ve withstood (few know it better than me what the “deep state” can do when they want to turn on a person). The EPSTEIN AFFAIR is NOT about who killed him or if he…

— General Mike Flynn (@GenFlynn) July 16, 2025

That directly contradicts a statement Trump published on social media hours earlier that branded the continuing controversy a “scam” and “hoax” cooked up by his political opponents.

“Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bulls***,’ hook, line, and sinker,” Trump wrote. (He didn’t use asterisks.)

“They haven’t learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years. I have had more success in 6 months than perhaps any President in our Country’s history, and all these people want to talk about, with strong prodding by the Fake News and the success starved Dems, is the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax.”

Epstein was a high-flying — literally — social figure who was accused for years of sexually exploiting young women. His criminal record bore a 2008 conviction after he pleaded guilty in Palm Beach County, Florida, to two felony counts of solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of a minor for prostitution, according to The Palm Beach Post.

His private plane bore the alarming nickname of the “Lolita Express” because of the young women he surrounded himself with. (“Lolita” was the name of the girl victimized by a sexual predator in the 1955 Vladimir Nabokov novel. Most people who haven’t read the book don’t realize how tragic her victimization was.)

His private island in the Caribbean was dubbed “Pedophile Island” by some locals.

At the time of his death, he was facing federal sex trafficking charges. The death was officially ruled a suicide, but there remains a strong contingent who maintain that Epstein was murdered to prevent evidence from coming out about wealthy and powerful individuals who might have joined him.

Flynn urged Trump to find a way to settle those theories for good — and ensure that the guilty receive just punishment.

“All we want at this stage is for a modicum of trust to be reestablished between our federal government and the people it is designed to serve. That’s all (PERIOD!),” Flynn wrote.

Later, he made an apparent allusion to the idea that Epstein was involved in intelligence work — potentially with U.S. or Israeli agencies. (It’s a theory the former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, a one-time head of the country’s renowned Mossad, has publicly blasted.)

“It is NOT about Epstein or the left. It is about committing crimes against CHILDREN. If he were part of an intel operation known or run by our CIA (shame on them) and those responsible MUST be held accountable. If there is another country involved, then shame on them as well. If there are elites inside of our country that committed crimes against CHILDREN (shame on them) and they MUST be held ACCOUNTABLE.”

Near the close, Flynn urged Trump to settle the Epstein affair once and for all.

“With my strongest recommendation, please gather your team and figure out a way to move past this. The roll out of this was terrible, no way around that. Americans want America to be successful, therefore, WE NEED YOU TO BE SUCCESSFUL.

“Please take this missive as though coming from someone who willingly and voluntarily fought for this country against multiple enemies overseas only to come home to face my greatest enemy right here at home. You know precisely what I mean.”

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