Michael Flynn: Turkey Lobbying Cover-Up, Foreign Agent, NSA Lies to FBI

Overview

Michael Flynn was one of Trump's most prominent campaign surrogates — leading rally crowds in chants of "lock her up" — while secretly collecting half a million dollars to lobby for Turkish interests.

He served as National Security Advisor for 24 days. In that time, it emerged he had lied to the FBI about conversations with the Russian ambassador — conversations in which he discussed the easing of sanctions imposed for Russia's interference in the election that had just put him in office.

The Turkish Lobbying

The Foreign Agents Registration Act requires disclosure when working to advance a foreign government's interests in the United States. Flynn did not disclose his Turkish work during the campaign or the transition. He filed retroactively only after becoming National Security Advisor — meaning that at the time he was briefed on the nation's most sensitive intelligence, his undisclosed foreign ties had not been vetted.

The op-ed Flynn published on Election Day — arguing that the U.S. should extradite Fethullah Gülen to Turkey — was characterized as personal opinion. It was produced as part of a paid foreign lobbying campaign.

The Warning That Was Ignored

Sally Yates was the acting Attorney General. She warned the White House twice in January 2017 that Flynn had lied about his Kislyak contacts and was potentially subject to blackmail. The White House kept Flynn for 18 more days.

When Yates was asked years later about the White House's response, she described a conversation in which she was asked why it mattered to the Justice Department whether one White House official lied to another. Her response: because it mattered that the National Security Advisor not be subject to leverage by a foreign power.

The Pardon

Flynn's pardon came after years of litigation in which Flynn attempted to withdraw a guilty plea he had made under oath. The pardon foreclosed accountability for the conduct Flynn had admitted to — lying to investigators about his role in a foreign-government influence operation during a presidential transition.