Michael Flynn ignored official warnings about receiving foreign payments Michael Flynn

Flynn’s prosecution, they insisted, without evidence, was the result of a major conspiracy by the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies to sabotage Trump’s presidential campaign and presidency. Trump pardoned Flynn in the last days of his presidency.

But while pleading guilty in 2017, he also admitted to committing another crime: related to his acceptance of hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Turkish government without registering with the Department of Justice as an agent of a foreign government, which was required by law.

According to people familiar with the confidential findings of the IG investigation, the Guardian can reveal that Flynn was warned years earlier that his acceptance of foreign money and that he would not register as a foreign agent would likely be illegal.

On top of that, Flynn’s behavior took place while he was a private citizen, long before Trump became president. Collectively, this appears to be powerful new evidence that discredits Trump and Flynn’s claims of political persecution by those opposed to Trump’s agenda.

The new revelations show how a former military officer, despite his training to obey rules and orders, was rather driven by personal gain to break the law.

In a letter dated October 8, 2014, the Defense Intelligence Agency warned Flynn that he might accept foreign money a possible violation of federal law, as well as the compensation clause of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits such foreign payments to government officials.

On November 30, 2016, the Department of Justice separately warned Flynn that he might violate a federal law known as the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or Fara, in connection with his work as a lobbyist for the Turkish regime of the strongman Recep. Tayyip Erdogan. By law, Flynn had to register with the DoJ as a foreign agent and also disclose the details of his lobbying work to DoJ.

Despite the DIA warning not to take foreign money, Flynn still accepts $ 45,000 from RT, a Kremlin-controlled media organization described by US intelligence agencies as the ‘Kremlin’s major international propaganda outlet’, $ 22,000 of other Russian interests, and $ 530,000 to serve as a lobbyist for Turkey. And despite the Justice Department’s warning, Flynn did not comply with Fara legislation.

Flynn resigned as DIA director in early August 2014. More than a year later, in December 2015, he accepted the payments from RT. From August 2016 to November of the same year, Flynn worked as an unregistered lobbyist for Turkey – while at the same time serving as a foreign policy adviser for the Trump presidential campaign. On November 18, 2016, Trump, then elected president, appointed Flynn to be his national security adviser.

Because Flynn ignored the DIA’s warnings that its acceptance of foreign money would violate federal law, the DoD Inspector General is currently bringing the matter to the Secretary of the Army that Flynn is expected to receive a portion of the handing over Flynn’s proceeds to the U.S. Treasury. received from overseas sources. The IG argues that the payments were illegal under the compensation clause, as interpreted by legal opinions of the executive and related federal law.

This remedy seems to be civil rather than criminal.

And for ignoring the DoJ’s advice, Flynn pleaded guilty the following year in 2017, while pleading guilty to federal charges of lying to the FBI during an investigation into Russia’s intervention in the 2016 presidential election. also admits that he violated federal law in regards to his lobbying for Turkey.

In its letter of 8 October 2014 to Flynn, the DIA warned: “The Emoluments clause … as interpreted in the opinions of the auditor, and by the Department of Justice, prohibits the receipt of consultation fees, gifts, travel expenses, fees, or salary by all retired military personnel ”of foreign interest. The same letter states that such payments would be a violation of federal law.

The compensation clause of the constitution specifically prohibits any person holding an office of profit or trust from accepting a gift, emolument, office or title, of any kind, from any king, prince or foreign state ‘.

Subsequent legal opinions of the executive, and a federal law, prohibited retired military officers from accepting compensation or compensation of foreign interests because the officers could be recalled to active duty at any time, and thus could be considered a person who have an office of public trust. .

Retired military officers like Flynn can receive compensation or foreign compensation if they first approve it at Congress, the Secretary of State, and in the case of Flynn, as a retired military officer, the Secretary of the Army. But Flynn did not.

Clark Cunningham, a professor at the Georgia State University College of Law and an expert on compensation, told the Guardian: “There is little doubt that money Flynn received to lobby on behalf of the Turkish government or for Russian interests to be promoted, would be considered. remuneration ”.

Flynn himself originally sought the agency’s ethical advice. The first sentence of the agency’s letter reads: ‘This letter responds to you request a written opinion regarding the ethical restrictions applicable to your withdrawal from the US Army. ”

In May 2016, the chief of staff of former DIA directors wrote to Flynn and other former DIA directors to remind them that, despite their retirement, they were still required to report any important new information to the agency. Flynn’s acceptance of money from RT and other Russian interests would certainly have been of interest to the DIA, but Flynn withheld this information, documents show.

On November 30, 2016, the Department of Justice warned him in its own letter to Flynn that they had received information that Flynn “may have been [lobbying] activities on behalf of the Government of Turkey ”. DoJ officials then warned Flynn: “If such allegations are true, you may be required to register under the law.”

A DoD inspector general’s spokesman said in a statement that they closed Flynn’s our investigation ‘on January 27 after investigating allegations that’ Flynn did not get the necessary approval from the military and the Department of State’s Department before receiving any compensation from a foreign government-controlled entity ”.

The IG has since ‘sent several administrative matters to the acting secretary of the army for review and appropriate action’.

The spokesman declined to say whether the inspector general would release a public report on his findings, as the DoD IG and other IGs throughout the government have done in high-profile investigations.

The Washington Post reported for the first time in March that the DoD inspector general had completed his investigation into Flynn. But details on why the IG came to its findings, such as that Flynn was warned before accepting hundreds of thousands of foreign interests may violate the law, have not been reported before.

A year after being warned that such foreign fees could be illegal, Flynn accepted more than $ 45,000 to speak at a gala dinner in Moscow hosted by RT (formerly known as Russia Today), where he sat next to Vladimir Putin has. Flynn also accepted an additional $ 23,000 from other Russian interests.

After Trump was elected president on January 6, 2017, the American intelligence community formally concluded that Russia had a secret campaign for intelligence agencies to help elect Trump and defeat Hillary Clinton, and that RT played an important role played in the effort.

The late Maryland congressman Elijah Cummings, then a Democrat in the House of Commons and the Government Reform Committee, sounded a warning by pointing out that Trump had chosen someone as his national security adviser, someone who violated the constitution by tens of thousands. accept. of dollars from a global adversary who has attacked our democracy ”.