Flynn rejects Senate panel’s file demands
Fifth Amendment invoked; lawyers cite ‘public frenzy’
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination Monday in rebuffing a subpoena in the investigation into Russia’s election meddling.
Flynn’s decision, which his attorneys announced in a letter sent Monday to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., came as a top House Democrat cited new evidence that he said appeared to show Flynn lied on a security-clearance background check.
With Trump in the Middle East on his first foreign trip as president, investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign — and allegations of collaboration by the Trump campaign — showed no sign of slackening in Washington. Flynn’s decision reflected the high legal stakes he faces as investigations intensify: a U.S. counterintelligence probe of Russia, a federal investigation in Virginia and multiple congressional inquiries.
And The Washington Post reported Monday that Trump asked two top intelligence officials in March to deny publicly that there had been collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign.
Citing current and former officials, the Post said the national intelligence director, Dan Coats, and the director of the National Security Agency, Adm. Michael Rogers, both refused Trump’s request, judging it to be inappropriate. Coats could face questions on the report today, when he is scheduled to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Flynn’s attorneys told the Senate Intelligence Committee that he will not turn over personal documents sought under the congressional subpoena, citing an “escalating public frenzy.” They also said earlier in the day that the Justice Department’s appointment of a special counsel has created a legally dangerous environment for him to cooperate with the Senate panel’s investigation.
Rep. Elijah Cummings, senior Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said in a letter Monday to the panel’s chairman, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, that government documents he’s reviewed showed inconsistencies in Flynn’s disclosures to U.S. investigators in early 2016 during his security clearance review.
Cummings said Flynn appeared to have misled authorities about the source of a $33,000 payment from
Russia’s state-sponsored television network; failed to identify foreign officials with whom he met, including Russian President Vladimir Putin; and glossed over his firing as chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency during the administration of former President Barack Obama. Cummings made his points in a letter asking Chaffetz to subpoena the White House for documents related to Flynn.
It’s unclear from Cummings’ letter whether Flynn would face legal jeopardy for his answers to security clearance investigators. But in a statement in April, Cummings warned that falsifying or concealing material facts on security clearance reviews are federal crimes and that convictions could lead to fines and up to five years’ imprisonment.
Flynn attorney Robert Kelner declined to comment on the new assertions by Cummings.
Trump appointed Flynn, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and military intelligence chief, as his top national security aide in January, only to fire him less than a month later. The White House has said that Flynn misled top U.S. officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, about his contacts with Russian officials, including Russia’s ambassador to the United States.
Cummings and other Democrats have blasted Trump and his team for failing to more carefully check Flynn’s background before they recruited him to the White House, while the Trump administration has accused the Obama administration of failing to properly
vet Flynn earlier.
Cummings said Flynn provided inconsistent or misleading statements to U.S. security clearance investigators in the first three months of 2016 during the renewal of his credentials.
Cummings cited a March 2016 report that he said showed the retired Army general telling authorities that payments he received for a 2015 trip to Moscow were paid by “U.S. companies.” But the Oversight Committee released detailed email and payment records months ago showing that the source of Flynn’s payment of more than $33,000 was RT, the Russian state-sponsored television network that has been labeled a propaganda network by U.S. intelligence.
The payments, which were through Flynn’s U.S.-based speakers bureau, stemmed from Flynn’s trip to Moscow to appear at an RT gala, where he sat at the head table with Putin.
In addition to the RT payments, Flynn has come under scrutiny for collecting more than $500,000 for lobbying work on behalf of Turkish interests.
In his letter, Cummings cited a standard security clearance question that asks respondents to disclose contacts with foreign governments or their representatives. According to Cummings, Flynn told investigators that he had only “insubstantial contact” with foreign nationals over the previous seven years, and he did not detail the names of any foreign officials he had met. Among those omitted were Putin, RT officials and Russian military intelligence officials whom Flynn had met in Moscow in 2013 as part of his duties as defense intelligence chief.
Cummings said he found it difficult to understand how Flynn could have characterized his dinner with Putin as “insubstantial contact.”
“General Flynn had a duty to be truthful in his security clearance renewal form and during his interview with security clearance investigators,” Cummings wrote, noting that he’s been in contact with the Justice Department and the special counsel Robert Mueller about his findings.
The Senate committee’s subpoena to Flynn focused on his interactions with Russian officials. It sought a wide range of information and documents about his and the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russians dating back to June 2015.
Flynn’s response stressed that his decision to invoke his constitutional protection was not an admission of wrongdoing but rather a response to a political climate in which Democratic members of Congress are calling for his prosecution. Even “truthful responses of an innocent witness” can give the government ammunition that could be used against him, the attorneys noted, quoting a 2001 Supreme Court ruling.
The attorneys said that if Flynn complied with the committee’s request, he could be confirming the existence of documents, an act that itself could be used against him.
Trump has defended Flynn since his ouster and called for him to strike an immunity deal, saying Flynn was facing a “witch hunt.” The president’s comments were in stark contrast to his words during the 2016 campaign for people who received immunity or invoked the Fifth Amendment in the probe of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
“If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” Trump asked at a September campaign rally in Iowa.
Trump himself walked back into the Russia controversy during his visit to Israel, volunteering that he “never mentioned the word or the name Israel” during his recent Oval Office conversation with top Russian diplomats.
That comment referred to revelations that he divulged classified information about an Islamic State threat in his May 10 meeting in the Oval Office with Russia’s foreign minister and ambassador. U.S. officials have said the information originated with Israel. However, it has not been alleged that Trump told the Russians that Israel was the source.
Responding to the prospect that Flynn would refuse to turn over documents, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in an emailed statement that “both the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees should continue to seek other ways to gain access to this information.”
Feinstein said she and Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, “have sent requests to the White House, FBI and Defense Department for memos, recordings, notes and other documents. The investigation will go on.”