The top two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee said all options are “on the table” when it comes to determining how to proceed against Mike Flynn, who invoked his Fifth Amendment rights and refused to turn over subpoenaed documents.
That includes issuing new subpoenas not to Flynn, but to Flynn’s business, according to Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C, and Vice-Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va.
Speaking moments after a closed-door meeting was finished, Warner said the committee is now subpoenaing documents from two of Flynn’s businesses, and the committee will argue that corporations can not be shielded by the Fifth Amendment.
WATCH: @SenatorBurr & @MarkWarner on actions taken against Michael Flynn, including subpoenas. pic.twitter.com/RVFgwv4SuS— CSPAN (@cspan) May 23, 2017
“We keep all options on the table,” Warner said. “But, we think the committee will move forward aggressively.”
Going after business documents adds a new wrinkle for an investigation that has seemed to make progress in fits and starts.
On Monday, Flynn and his lawyer informed the committee that Flynn would not comply with the subpoena the committee issued just one day after James Comey was fired as FBI director.
“We’ve taken the actions that we feel are appropriate right now,” said Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C. “If in fact there is not a response (from Flynn), we’ll seek additional counsel advice on how to proceed forward. At the end of that option is a contempt charge and I’ve said that everything is on the table.
“That’s not our preference today. We would like to hear from Gen. Flynn. We’d like to see his documents. We’d like him to tell his story because he publicly said I’ve got a story to tell. We’re allowing him that opportunity to do it.”
Despite the rhetoric, an offer of immunity to Flynn is off the table — at least for now.
“As valuable as Gen. Flynn might be to our counter-intelligence investigation, we don’t believe that it’s our place today to offer him immunity from this committee,” Burr noted.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said he hoped Flynn cooperates with the committee.
“I hope Gen. Flynn decides to comply with our Intel Committee subpoena to produce business documents. Otherwise all options should be on table,” Rubio tweeted.
For the moment, Flynn appears to be the centerpiece of the numerous Russia-related investigations. He had business dealings with Russia in the years leading up to the 2016 election, and he was fired from his post as national security advisor after it was discovered he had lied to top officials in the Trump administration about the nature of a conversation with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Earlier on Tuesday, former CIA Director John Brennan said his agency had become more concerned about Russian activities in 2016, including a theory that the Kremlin was casting a wide net to lure individuals into compromised positions, or to somehow gain their unwitting cooperation, but did not name any specific persons who might have been the targets.
“Having been involved in many counterintelligence cases in the past, I know what the Russians do. They try to suborn individuals,” Brennan said.
“And they try to get individuals, including U.S. persons, to act on their behalf, whether wittingly or unwittingly. And I was worried by a number of the contacts that the Russians had with U.S. persons, and so therefore by the time I left office… I had unresolved questions in my mind as to whether or not the Russians had been successful in getting U.S. persons involved in the campaign or not, to work on their behalf, again, either in a witting or unwitting fashion.”
No concrete evidence has surfaced to date of any premeditated collusion between a member of the Trump campaign and any official with the Kremlin.
