Did Michael Flynn Register As A Foreign Agent For Turkey

Michael Flynn talks to reporters every bit he arrives at Trump Tower in New York in Nov, after the presidential ballot. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

Attorneys for Michael Flynn, President Trump's former national security adviser, informed the incoming White House legal counsel during the transition that Flynn might need to annals with the authorities as a foreign agent — a phone telephone call that raised no alarms within Trump's squad, despite the unusual circumstance of having a top national security post filled by someone whose work may have benefited a foreign government.

The firm Flynn headed, Flynn Intel Group, was hired last twelvemonth when Flynn was an adviser to the Trump campaign by the Netherlands-based firm ­Inovo BV, which is endemic past Turkish businessman Ekim Alptekin. Alptekin has close ties to Turkish President Recep Tay­yip Erdogan.

Although the contract ended after the election, new details about the work Flynn did for Inovo resurrect the controversy over his short tenure as Trump's top national security aide.

The national security adviser is supposed to exist an honest broker inside the executive branch, pulling together military and diplomatic options for the president then he can decide what policy to pursue. Just Flynn's work potentially benefiting Turkey meant he was representing the interests of a country other than the United States at the same time he was advising Trump on strange policy during the election.

Flynn's firm was paid more than $500,000 by Inovo for public relations and research work, including looking into exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who resides in Pennsylvania. His extradition is being sought by Turkey, which has accused him of fomenting a coup endeavour terminal year.

Flynn wrote an op-ed on Nov. eight for the Hill newspaper in which he called for Gulen's extradition — a controversial diplomatic result for the United States.

"The principal os of contention between the U.Due south. and Turkey is Fethullah Gülen, a shady ­Islamic mullah residing in Pennsylvania whom former president Clinton in one case called his 'friend' in a well circulated video," Flynn wrote.

"Gülen portrays himself equally a moderate, merely he is in fact a radical Islamist," he wrote.

Flynn resigned from his White Business firm mail service last month later just 24 days on the task amid reports he misled Vice President Pence about his contacts with the Russian administrator.

Merely the disclosures this calendar week about Flynn'due south ties to Turkey underscore how the specter of the controversial retired lieutenant full general however hangs over the White Business firm.

On Tuesday, Flynn filed paperwork with the Justice Department identifying himself equally a foreign agent who was paid terminal yr to practise work that could do good the Turkish government.

Then on Friday it was revealed that Flynn's attorneys twice told Trump's legal counsel squad of his possible plans to register as a foreign agent — once in a conversation with Don McGahn, Trump's counsel, earlier the inauguration and and so in a chat with another member of the White House legal team during the administration'south early days, someone with noesis of the situation told The Washington Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

A White House official confirmed both calls, the commencement of which was reported past the Associated Press, simply said that Flynn'southward attorneys had simply been seeking guidance, which Trump'due south legal team said information technology was unable to provide.

Trump was never informed that his meridian national security selection felt he might demand to register as a foreign agent, the White House said Friday.

Dan Pickard, a partner at Wiley Rein and an skillful in the Foreign Agents Registration Human action, under which Flynn registered, said information technology is unusual but not unheard of for a senior campaign official to besides be registered as an agent of a foreign authorities.

"I've been aware of people who are registered under FARA being involved at relatively senior levels of a entrada, only in my feel that's more than the exception than the rule,'' said Pickard, calculation that the legal brunt of complying with FARA "is relatively modest.''

FARA was passed in the run-up to World War Ii as a ways of making pro-Germany activists acknowledge whether they were receiving financial support from that country.

For some in Washington, the political appearance of being a paid agent of a foreign government tin can be more problematic than the actual legal issues, co-ordinate to others well versed in the law.

Some political campaigns accept asked FARA registrants in the past to notify them of their status if they nourish a fundraiser, and some operatives are wary of beingness publicly associated with a foreign regime.

The controversy over Flynn's ties to Turkey illustrate why.

Nearly four weeks after his divergence, the White Firm still tin't seem to escape Flynn.

In a calendar week when the administration is making its biggest legislative push withal, White House press secretary Sean Spicer'southward Friday afternoon news conference was yet again overshadowed by unflattering reports about Flynn — with Spicer devoting precious time to defending a staffer who no longer fifty-fifty works for the assistants.

 "The burden is on the individual to seek the legal advice or professional expertise to make up one's mind what they take to file and not," Spicer said, parsing his explanation every bit to how someone who might have had to register as a foreign agent was hired as national security adviser.

"It's non up to the transition attorney to go through someone's livelihood and determine what they demand to seek," Spicer said. "They were given the proper legal communication at the fourth dimension, which was to seek expertise in that matter."

On Thursday evening, in an interview with Pence, Fox News'southward Bret Baier pressed the vice president on reports that Flynn had registered as a foreign amanuensis lobbying, substantially, on behalf of the Turkish government.

"Well, let me say, hearing that story today was the first I heard of it, and I fully support the determination that President Trump fabricated to inquire for General Flynn's resignation," Pence said. "The commencement I heard of it, and I think it is an affirmation of the President'southward determination to ask General Flynn to resign."

Still, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Doc.), the ranking Democrat on the Firm Committee on Oversight and Regime Reform, sent Pence a letter in November asking for more data on Flynn'south "apparent conflicts of interest" because of his and his house'southward lobbying piece of work, specifically mentioning Flynn's piece of work in Turkey.

Asked why the letter did not pique Pence'south interest or why the vice president never alerted Trump, Spicer said, "It'southward not a question of raising flags."

"Information technology'southward non for u.s. to adjudicate whether or not someone needs to file under, you know, the Lobbying Disclosure Act, the FARA registration act, that's not the chore of a transition attorney," he said. "Information technology's to tell them to seek additional counsel or to explicate to them where to find that data, non to tell them what to do or non to practise."

When Flynn resigned last month, Trump dedicated his national security adviser as a "wonderful man" who had "been treated very, very unfairly past the media." On Friday, it remained unclear whether Trump had changed his assessment of Flynn in light of the latest disclosures.

Simply, Spicer said, the White Business firm expects "every employee to follow the constabulary."

"I can tell you the president has fabricated articulate to every person in this administration, you are expected to live up to the loftier standards that he has set for them and that if you don't yous will be dismissed," the press secretarial assistant said.

Devlin Barrett contributed to this report.

Did Michael Flynn Register As A Foreign Agent For Turkey,

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/flynn-told-trump-team-he-might-register-as-a-foreign-agent/2017/03/10/7e30713a-05cb-11e7-b9fa-ed727b644a0b_story.html

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