House Oversight Members Press for Evidence on Flynn’s Fees from Russia

The refusal of the Trump administration to respond to demands for documents relating to the Russian ties of fired National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has prompted lawmakers from both parties to exert more pressure on the White House, the Army, the FBI, and the Defense Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to produce information.

In addition, the Pentagon inspector general on April 4 opened a probe of Flynn’s payments from Russian sources over the past year, the watchdog’s office confirmed to Government Executive on Thursday. The IG said the investigation will “determine if Lieutenant General (retired) Flynn accepted payments in violation of the [Constitution’s] Emoluments Clause, implementing laws, or Department of Defense regulations."

The pressure from lawmakers is on-again-off-again and is bipartisan, though Democrats have been more aggressive in urging House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, to look into Flynn. Committee Democrats told Chaffetz unanimously in a Thursday letter on Flynn that “this is a key moment in your stewardship of this committee.”

The day before, Chaffetz had joined with ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., in releasing new documents on Flynn, noting particularly a $33,000 speaking engagement in Moscow. They obtained the SF86 security clearance application Flynn filed in January 2016. And they displayed an Oct. 8, 2014, letter to Flynn from the general counsel of the agency he formerly ran, the Defense Intelligence Agency, warning him, as he entered retirement, that he was prohibited by the Constitution from receiving payments from foreign sources without advance permission.

Cummings and Chaffetz also released a reply from DIA under the Trump administration, dated April 7, 2017, saying the agency “did not locate any records of Lieutenant General Flynn seeking permission or approval for the receipt of money from a foreign source.”

Chaffetz on Wednesday declared, “I see no evidence or no data to support the notion that Gen. Flynn complied with the law.”

Since February, following Flynn’s resignation as national security adviser after 24 days on the job, both the Republican and Democratic committee leaders had sent letters to Flynn’s consulting firm and to the major national security agencies seeking documents related to Flynn’s foreign contacts.

Earlier this week, White House spokesman Sean Spicer dismissed such requests, telling reporters that the lawmakers’ request was “a form letter” that was “overly burdensome.” He referred inquiries to the Trump transition team, and said, “To ask for every call a national security adviser made is pretty outlandish.” 

In an official response to the committee on April 17, the White House said any such documents “are likely to contain classified, sensitive, and/or confidential information,” according to the Oversight panel. The panel argued, however, that “Our committee deals with classified, sensitive, and confidential information on a regular and routine basis, and this excuse is not a valid ground to withhold all documents from the committee.”

On Thursday, Chaffetz—who for months clashed with Democrats who accused him of going easy on President Trump’s potential ethics issues following years of House committee probes of Democrat  Hillary Clinton—took his own action. He wrote to the acting Army Secretary asking for a “final determination” as to whether Flynn violated the law (U.S. Code, Title 37, Section 908) by accepting payments from foreign government-controlled entities.

   Cummings told reporters that the president fired Flynn “for lying about his communications with the Russian ambassador. They should be bending over backwards to cooperate,” Cummings said. “It does not make any sense—and it makes the American people think the White House has something to hide.”