Top Democrats from a range of congressional committees sent a letter to the Pentagon on Wednesday requesting an investigation into President Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Flynn.
The letter alleges Flynn violated the Constitution’s “emoluments” clause by dining with Russian President Vladimir Putin and accepting a speaking fee for appearing at the gala hosted by Russia Today (RT), a television channel of Russia’s state-run media.
In an interview with the Washington Post last August, Flynn defended his trips to Russia saying, “I saw the relation with Russia as necessary to the U.S., for the interests of the U.S. We worked very closely with them on the Sochi Olympics. We were working closely with them on the Iranian nuclear deal. We beat Hitler because of our relationship with the Russians, so anybody that looks on it as anything but a relationship that’s required for mutual supporting interests, including ISIS … that’s really where I’m at with Russia. We have a problem with radical Islamism and I actually think that we could work together with them against this enemy. They have a worse problem than we do.”
Reps. Elijah Cummings, Adam Smith, John Conyers, Bennie Thompson, Adam Schiff and Eliot Engel, the ranking members of the Committees on Oversight and Government Reform, Armed Services, Judiciary, Homeland Security, Intelligence, and Foreign Affairs all signed the letter.
By requesting the investigation, Democrats dragged two controversies back into the spotlight that had seemingly died down: the Trump administration’s ties to Russia, and conflicts of interest via the emoluments clause.
