Michael Flynn’s situation grows worse by the day, and today is no exception to that rule. He recently saw his bid for immunity rejected by the Senate in the Trump-Russia investigation. It was then soon revealed that Flynn failed to report income from paid speeches that he made in Russia (including a gala where he sat next to Vladimir Putin). And of course, Flynn lobbied on behalf of Turkey during the U.S. election without registering as a foreign agent, and this money came from a Russian oil executive with strong ties to Putin.
CNN now reveals that the Pentagon warned Flynn “against accepting foreign payments as he entered retirement.” On April 11th, this revelation triggered an investigation by the Department of Defense’s inspector general, as the House Oversight Committee discovered, and here’s a statement from the top Democrat on the oversight committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings:
“These documents raise grave questions about why General Flynn concealed the payments he received from foreign sources after he was warned explicitly by the Pentagon. Our next step is to get the documents we are seeking from the White House so we can complete our investigation. I thank the Department of Defense for providing us with unclassified versions of these documents.”
It seems that the Pentagon has been far more cooperative in releasing Flynn documents than the White House, which recently denied such a request and prompted House Oversight Chair Jason Chaffetz to tell the press, “I see no information or no data to support the notion that General Flynn complied with the law.”
Flynn accepted all of these foreign payments while retaining his top-secret level security clearance (left over from not only his military career but a Director of National Intelligence stint) and promoting interests of foreign powers. He was paid approximately $60,000 for his Moscow speeches (one of them was delivered to Russia’s state-run propaganda news outlet, RT) and about $530,000 while lobbying for Turkey. He’ll probably spend all of this and more on legal fees … if he hasn’t already.
(Via CNN)