He became a household name in Ireland in January when his brave reporting for CNN of the assault on the Capitol buildings in Washington saw him trending on social media, universally commended for his composure and even booked as guest on RTE’s The Late Late Show.

Now, Donie O’Sullivan, the Irish reporter whose calm and poised reporting was a counterbalance to the manic rioting, is dealing with a different type of assault: a $75 million defamation lawsuit filed in federal court last Thursday.

The action is being taken by John ‘Jack’ Flynn, the brother of former national security advisor and retired general Michael Flynn, and his wife Leslie.

John and Leslie Flynn have filed a 20-page complaint against CNN in relation to a number of reports about them, one of which is by O’Sullivan entitled: “CNN Goes Inside A Gathering of QAnon Followers.”

QAnon, according to the Flynn claim, has been described by The Wall Street Journal as a “far right-wing, loosely organized network and community of believers who embrace a range of unsubstantiated beliefs” that believe a “cabal of Satan-worshipping paedophiles” control the “deep state government,” and had sought to under the presidency of Donald Trump.

O’Sullivan’s report is primarily about a meeting in Arizona of QAnon followers in the run-up to the 2020 United States presidential election that was attended by the QAnon Shaman, a conspiracy theorist called Jake Angeli who stormed Washington’s Capitol wearing a furry hat and animal horns.

In their action, however, John and Leslie Flynn claim that a brief mention of them by O’Sullivan was defamatory, causing them to sue CNN.

“In the piece, O’Sullivan falsely claimed that ‘where we go one, we go all’ was an ‘infamous QAnon slogan promoted by Trump’s first National Security Advisor Michael Flynn,” according to the Flynn statement of complaint filed in the Southern District of New York.

The complaint adds: “In support of O’Sullivan’s comment, CNN produced an edited clip from a video posted to Twitter by General Flynn on July 4, 2020.

“The video was taken during a Fourth of July barbecue at Plaintiffs’ home in Newport County, Rhode Island In the video, members of the Flynn family, including Plaintiffs, took an oath to the United States Constitution, the same oath taken by Members of Congress. After finishing the oath, General Flynn stated, ‘where we go one, we go all’, and the entire family exclaimed, ‘God Bless America.’

“In the CNN clip included with O’Sullivan’s ‘exclusive’, CNN intentionally edited out the oath to the United States Constitution and omitted the words “God Bless America”, fraudulently making it appear and insinuating that Plaintiffs pledged an oath of allegiance to QAnon. CNN intended and endorsed the defamatory meaning.”

John and Leslie Flynn state they are “not followers or supporters of any extremist or terrorist groups, including QAnon,” and that any suggestion otherwise is defamatory.

The Flynns state that the size of their defamation claim relates not just to the millions of CNN viewers who watched this segment on television but also because it was posted to its 12.2 million YouTube subscribers and to its 459,000 followers on Twitter.

CNN said it had a policy of not commenting on litigation when contacted.

Michael Flynn served as Trump’s first national security advisor in 2017 before the then United States president fired him over a controversy in relation to his contacts with the then Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak. Flynn later pled guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about interactions he had with Kislyak in the week’s running up to Trump’s inauguration. He later tried to withdraw this plea, claiming he was tricked into a plea agreement. But this became irrelevant after Trump pardoned Michael Flynn in November 2020.

From Storyful to CNN

Donie O’Sullivan started his career in journalism in Storyful in January 2014 where he worked with a talented team assembled by founder Mark Little that included Gavin Sheridan, Malachy Browne, Aine Kerr and Markham Nolan. A dual Irish and American citizen, he moved to New York in 2015 with Storyful but got a job after six months working with CNN behind the scenes verifying videos and researching stories. Samantha Barry, today the editor-in-chief of Glamour magazine, hired him for the role. In 2018 he became a reporter for CNN and he has since become a regular on-air presence on the station specialising in disinformation, politics, and technology. John King, CNN’s chief national correspondent, has described the Cahirciveen native as “awesome”.