Trump’s White House responded to a House Oversight request for information on Michael Flynn with a big bag of nothing:
The White House declined Tuesday to provide documents related to President Donald Trump's former national security adviser that the panel investigating Michael Flynn had requested, according to a letter obtained by CNN.
But the White House is slamming this barn door way too late. Information that’s already out there on Michael Flynn shows that what got him in trouble was a lot more than just fumbling a chat with Mike Pence.
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn may have broken the law by taking money from Russia and Turkey without permission, the top lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee said Tuesday.
As a recent military officer, Flynn should have asked permission in advance before accepting money from foreign sources. He didn’t. And he should have reported those payments when applying for security clearance. He flunked that test, as well. But Flynn was not some rogue operator in the wilderness. He was part of Trump’s campaign from the beginning. At best the Trump White House has been ineffective and ignorant. That’s at best.
The most likely answer is simply that they knew. They knew Flynn had taken money from Russian sources. They knew he’d been acting as an unregistered foreign agent. They knew he failed to report all his actions to the Defense Department. They knew he had more extensive contacts with Russia than he was revealing in public. They just didn’t care.
Not only did Flynn break the law coming and going, there’s another aspect of his overseas work that Team Trump likely doesn’t want to discuss. Because even the work Flynn did for Turkey has a Russia connection.
The Turkish man who gave Mike Flynn a $600,000 lobbying deal just before President Donald Trump picked him to be national security adviser has business ties to Russia, including a 2009 aviation financing deal negotiated with Vladimir Putin, according to court records. …
Although Turkey is a NATO ally, its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has grown increasingly authoritarian and friendly with Putin. And the hiring of Flynn by Alptekin came at a time when Flynn was working for Trump’s campaign and Putin’s government was under investigation for interfering with the U.S. election.
It’s not surprising that there was a connection. With the number of oligarchs and wealthy insiders on both sides crossing paths (and sharing Cypriot banks), it’s almost as if they all work for the same company. Autocrat, Inc.
