Lynch wants White House to hand over Flynn docs
Probe of ex-national security adviser grows
U.S. Rep. Stephen F. Lynch said he wants the House Oversight Committee to subpoena the White House to produce documents related to Gen. Michael Flynn, as the multi-agency investigation intensified over the former national security adviser’s failure to disclose foreign contacts and payments from Russia.
“I’d like to see us subpoena the White House for the documents that we requested,” Lynch, a South Boston Democrat and member of the committee, told the Herald yesterday.
“It’s clear there is an intent to delay this process and we think it is very important to get to the bottom of this to find out what capacity Gen. Flynn was acting in when he was in contact with the Russians,” Lynch said.
The White House rejected the committee’s request, saying most of the documents had already been produced by other agencies or pertained to Flynn’s actions before the Trump administration. Yesterday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer suggested that the Obama administration is to blame for how Flynn was vetted.
“When Gen. Flynn came into the White House, he had an active security clearance that was issued during the Obama administration,” Spicer told reporters, adding the Flynn was responsible for updating that information in between every five-year review of his clearance.
Lynch scoffed at Spicer’s suggestion.
“They were vetting him for the national security advisor position, so the blame is clearly on the administration that was trying to put him in that position,” Lynch said.
Lynch, ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and other committee Democrats sent a letter yesterday to the committee chairman, Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, demanding he push the White House to deliver the documents. The letter stopped short of calling for a subpoena, demanding instead for “the Committee hold a meeting with White House officials to discuss the terms of the document production.”
Meanwhile, the Pentagon’s inspector general confirmed it is probing whether the payments were from foreign governments and whether Flynn properly notified military authorities about them. Failing to disclose foreign payments is a criminal offense that could lead to fines and jail time.
Oversight Committee Democrats also revealed declassified documents showing that Flynn was warned by Defense Department officials in 2014 not to accept payments from foreign governments.