Former national security adviser Michael Flynn likely accepted money from foreign governments without permission or proper disclosure and appears to have broken the law in so doing, top members on the House Oversight Committee said Tuesday.
The remarks from Chairman Jason Chaffetz came after his committee viewed classified documents related to Flynn’s foreign contacts. Chaffetz told reporters that Flynn, as a former military officer, was required to seek permission before accepting payments from foreign powers.
“Personally I see no information, or no data, to support the notion that Gen. Flynn complied with the law,” he said. “He was supposed to seek permission and receive permission from both the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Army prior to traveling to Russia, not only to accept that payment, but to engage in that activity.”
Flynn, who was fired from his post as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014, accepted roughly $34,000 for a speech during a 2015 trip to Russia. After leaving his post with the Trump administration, Flynn registered as a foreign agent and disclosed that he and his lobbying firm received $530,000 between August and November 2016 from a Turkish client.
“It appears as if he did take that money,” Chaffetz said. “It was inappropriate, and there are repercussions for the violation of law.”
Ranking member Elijah Cummings said that the committee had obtained Flynn’s January 2016 security clearance application form. Flynn did not report the funds from Russia, he said.
“There is no evidence, as the chairman said, anywhere in these documents that reported the funds he received for this trip,” Cummings said. “There’s also no evidence that he sought permission to obtain these funds from a foreign source.”
Cummings added that the committee’s attempts to obtain documents related to Flynn’s contacts with foreign nationals from the White House have not been successful.
“The White House refused to provide the committee with a single piece of paper in response to our bipartisan requests,” he said. “We received no internal documents relating to what General Flynn reported to the white house when they vetted him to become national security adviser.”
Flynn resigned in February after he misled the vice president about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador.
