Mike Flynn, a retired three-star general and former White House national security adviser, may have lied to interviewers when he renewed his security clearance in early 2016 under President Obama, according to a senior House Democrat.
Flynn hid the fact that he had taken trips to Moscow that were funded by a Russian government-backed media outlet, according to the top Democrat on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. A statement from Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the top Democrat on the committee, said that shows he “may have lied” to security clearance investigators.
“[T]he Oversight Committee has in our possession documents that appear to indicate that General Flynn lied to the investigators who interviewed him in 2016 as part of his security clearance renewal,” Cummings wrote Monday. “Specifically, the committee has obtained a Report of Investigation dated March 14, 2016, showing that General Flynn told security clearance investigators that he was paid by ‘U.S. companies’ when he traveled to Moscow in December 2015 to dine at a gala with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The actual source of the funds for General Flynn’s trip was not a U.S. company, but the Russian media propaganda arm, RT.”
Cummings released that information as part of a letter demanding that committee chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, issue a subpoena demanding that the White House release documents pertaining to Flynn.
“We need to know what the president, vice president, White House counsel, and other top officials knew about General Flynn — and when they knew it,” Cummings wrote.
