Special counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly looking into former national security adviser Mike Flynn’s alleged role in a plot to forcibly remove a Turkish cleric from the United States and fly him to Turkey in exchange for up to $15 million.
Flynn discussed the plan with Turkish officials, according to the Wall Street Journal, which would involve Flynn and his son, Michael Flynn Jr., delivering cleric Fethullah Gulen to the Turkish government. In exchange for their work, the two were to be paid as much as $15 million.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan believes Gulen orchestrated the failed coup against him in 2016, and Erdogan has been urging the U.S. government to extradite the cleric, who lives in Pennsylvania.
Flynn and representatives of the Turkish government reportedly talked about the plan to remove Gulen from the U.S. during a meeting at the “21” Club in New York City in December. The FBI has asked four people about the meeting.
Sources told the Wall Street Journal, the group talked about flying Gulen on a private jet from the U.S. to a Turkish prison island, Imrali.
The December meeting in New York City was the second during which the removal of Gulen was discussed. The Wall Street Journal previously reported Turkish officials raised the possibility of removing Gulen with Flynn during a meeting in a hotel room Sept. 19.
Mueller is investigating the contents of the meetings as part of his probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Flynn’s foreign contacts and work for foreign governments has become part of the investigation.
Flynn’s company, Flynn Intel Group, was paid $530,000 during the 2016 campaign for work that benefited the Turkish government, which Flynn did not disclose. Flynn retroactively registered as a foreign agent with the Justice Department in March.
He was fired from his post as national security adviser in February after misleading Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with then-Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak.
A source told the Wall Street Journal that Flynn was planning to leverage his power in the White House to push for the legal extradition of Gulen.
