siN LiKe FLYNN
Took foreign $ even after warning not to
THE PENTAGON’S inspector general has launched an investigation into President Trump's former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn over his acceptance of, and failure to report, payments from the Russian government, documents released Thursday show.
Officials at the Department of Defense and the Defense Intelligence Agency warned Flynn in 2014, following his retirement as the DIA chief, that it would be illegal for him to accept payments from foreign governments, newly declassified documents released by the House Oversight Committee revealed.
The documents also indicated Flynn did not report the payments he received in 2015 for speaking at a gala for RT, the Kremlin-run TV network, or money he was paid by an air freight company and a cybersecurity firm with direct connections to Russia.
“These documents raise grave questions about why Gen. Flynn concealed the payments he received from foreign sources after he was warned explicitly by the Pentagon,” Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight panel, said.
Cummings said his committee was still attempting to acquire related documents form the White House, but added that the Trump administration was still not cooperating with the probe.
Cummings’ committee released an Oct. 8, 2014, letter from the DIA to Flynn warning the newly retired general that he was “prohibited by the Constitution from receiving payments from foreign sources without advance permission.”
Other documents released by the panel, including a letter this month from the DIA to the committee, showed that agency officials never received any records or disclosure from Flynn that he’d been paid by RT or any foreign sources.
The release of the letters Thursday was a damning development for the former Trump aide, who is also under investigation by the House and Senate intelligence committees and the FBI as part of their probes into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Flynn’s lawyer responded by saying he and his client “respectfully disagree” with Cummings' characterization of the April letter, claiming “it actually confirms, in a terse section that is partly redacted,” that Flynn “provided information and documents on a thumb drive to the Department of Defense concerning the RT speaking event in Moscow.” The lawyer, Robert Kelner, added that Flynn briefed the agency before and after the event. The White House, meanwhile, said Thursday that it was “appropriate” for the agency to have opened a probe into Flynn. “If they think there’s wrongdoing, the department’s inspector general should look into that,” Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer said during his daily briefing. But in an unusual tangent, Spicer blamed the lack of proper vetting on Flynn — who was fired as national security adviser in February after he lied to Vice President Pence about the nature of his discussions with the Russian ambassador — on the Obama administration. Spicer indicated Trump’s team never fully explored Flynn’s background because the Obama administration had renewed his security clearance — although that’s normally just one step in the vetting for such a powerful post.