In March, the House Oversight Committee submitted requests to various administrative offices which included the White House and the Department of Defense to obtain records of payments received by former national security adviser Michael Flynn. It was reported that the committee reviewed those documents at the Pentagon behind closed doors on Tuesday. Both chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) concluded that Flynn broke the law by not revealing his payments from Russia and Turkey when he completed his application to renew his security clearance.
Brief history on Michael Flynn
Prior to joining the Trump campaign, Michael Flynn was the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2012 until he was fired by former President Barack Obama. His return in a new role as a national security advisor under a Trump administration was largely seen as revenge against the former Obama administration. Flynn would end up giving his resignation in February under pressure that he had not told Vice President Mike Pence that he had conversed with Russian officials in December. This was after the Department of Justice, through acting Attorney General Sally Yates, informed the White House that Flynn could compromise national security because of those calls.
The calls it was discovered were to lift sanction on Russia once President-elect Trump entered the Oval Office.
Not declaring payments from Russian network
Michael Flynn failed to disclose payments from Russian propaganda network https://t.co/OyOkyjfjjX pic.twitter.com/Kyp8iZe6lH
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) April 1, 2017
As for the request by the committee to the White House, it was rejected, saying that they could not provide documents they don't have, as whatever he's being accused of happened before Donald Trump's inauguration.
The application for his renewal was in January 2016 after he made paid appearances with Kremlin-backed firms and the Russian television station RT. The director of Legislative affairs, Marc Short, also said that any documents about Flynn after Trump's inauguration including sensitive information as another reason as to why they would not release them.
His rejection letter to the committee for those documents is dated April 19.
New investigation on Flynn, White House stalling
JUST IN: White House rejects Oversight Committee request for Flynn documents https://t.co/FyoLriEglI pic.twitter.com/H14kqV7yiX
— The Hill (@thehill) April 25, 2017
Its also been reported that in original financial disclosure forms that were submitted in February by Flynn, post-Donald Trump's inauguration, he did not disclose those payments. This would not have raised suspicion if it had not been for the fact that Flynn filed an amended disclosure last month which showed the payments not in the originals, including $45,000 from the Russia Today network for speeches. Thus far, both Chaffetz and Cummings agree that Flynn is on the hook and until Thursday, at the very least.
Cummings would not say directly that the White House was obstructing the investigation. In a statement to the press on Thursday, Cummings announced that they received a new letter that the Defense Intelligence Agency did not find the documents that Flynn's attorney claims exist, which shows that he accepted foreign funds and that the White House was intentionally stalling the investigation. He also said that the Inspector General of the Department of Defense also said that they were launching an investigation.
