The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition
Michael Flynn’s troubles keep getting worse. On Tuesday, the chairman and ranking member of the House Oversight Committee said that the former national security adviser had likely broken the law by failing to seek permission to receive, and failing to disclose payments he received, from Russia and Turkey.
“I see no data to support the notion that General Flynn complied with the law,” Jason Chaffetz, the Republican chair of the committee, said after a briefing on Tuesday. (Chaffetz recently announced he will leave Congress.) “As a former military officer, you simply cannot take money from Russia, Turkey, or anybody else. And it appears as if he did take that money. It was inappropriate.”
The payments in question involve two matters. One was a 2015 trip to Russia, which was reportedly paid for by the Kremlin-owned network RT, and during which Flynn attended a dinner with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The other was a lobbying contract on behalf of the Turkish government, which ended around the time Flynn was appointed Trump’s national security adviser in November. Flynn belatedly filed documents in March acknowledging that his work in that contract, which went through a Dutch company, was lobbying for Turkey.
Aside from the question of registering as a lobbyist, Chaffetz and Democratic counterpart Elijah Cummings are focused on whether Flynn sought the required permission to receive moneys in either case, and whether he declared them as required. Cummings said Tuesday that Flynn did not mention the Russian travel on a required form renewing his security clearance in January 2016—only about a month after his trip. Cummings said he wished to declassify as many materials as possible in the case, and Chaffetz said that if the money was
