Michael Flynn Under New Probe For Undisclosed Ties To Russia

WASHINGTON, DC — Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn will be investigated by the Defense Department Inspector General for receiving undisclosed payments from the Russian government, and leading Democrats criticized the White House for obstructing a House committee investigation into ties between Russia and Donald Trump's campaign.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat and ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, spoke at a press briefing Thursday and criticized the White House for failing to disclose information about Flynn that his committee has requested. "There is a paper trail that the White House does not want our committee to follow," he said.

White House officials have argued that they do not have all the requested documents, and that those they did have were too sensitive to release and were irrelevant to congressional investigators.

"I watched Sean Spicer make all kinds of excuses about how hard it would be to comply with our request," Cummings said, taking aim at the White House press secretary. "Look, General Flynn served in his position for 24 days. So those excuses from the White House are not going to fly."

Cummings also released letters confirming that the Defense Intelligence Agency warned Flynn in 2014 that he could not accept payments from foreign powers under the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution without advanced permission. The DIA has no record of Flynn obtaining such permission. Previous records showed that Flynn was paid more than $45,000 by Russian propaganda outlet RT.

“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,” Cummings said. “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.”

Flynn's attorney said in a statement: "As has previously been reported, General Flynn briefed the Defense Intelligence Agency, a component agency of the Department of Defense, extensively regarding the RT speaking event trip both before and after the trip, and he answered any questions that were posed by DIA concerning the trip during those briefings."

But this does not address whether or not Flynn received permission from DIA to be paid by the Russian government.

A spokesman for the Defense Department’s inspector general said on Thursday that the office had opened its own investigation into Flynn on April 4. In February, The New York Times reported that the Army was looking into whether he had received money for a speech in Moscow around the time he left the Trump administration.

According to the Defense Department letter cautioning Flynn about accepting payments from foreign governments, the penalty for failing to do could lead to the suspension of his military retirement pay.
The penalty for “knowingly falsifying or concealing” information on the form Flynn filled out to renew his security clearance, is fines and up to five years in prison.

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