Lots going on in FlynnWorld this week.
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.
The man, Ekim Alptekin, has in recent years helped to coordinate Turkish lobbying in Washington with Dmitri “David” Zaikin, a Soviet-born former executive in Russian energy and mining companies who also has had dealings with Putin’s government, according to three people with direct knowledge of the activities.
This unusual arrangement, in which Alptekin and Zaikin have helped steer Turkish lobbying through various groups since at least 2015, raises questions about both the agenda of the two men and the source of the funds used to pay the lobbyists.
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.
Flynn’s lawyer, Robert Kelner, declined to comment. In a filing with the Justice Department, Flynn said he relied on assurances from Alptekin that he was not directly or indirectly funded by a foreign government. But shifting explanations and a web of business ties raise questions about the arrangement.
Flynn has offered evolving accounts of his lobbying work for Alptekin. In September, Flynn reported his client as a Dutch shell company owned by Alptekin. After being forced to leave the White House — reportedly because he lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations during the transition with the Russian ambassador — Flynn filed new paperwork in March acknowledging that his lobbying work “principally benefitted” the Turkish government.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/2 ... sia-237550
House Oversight Committee's Chaffetz and Cummings:
President Donald Trump's former national security adviser did not properly disclose payments from Russia and does not appear to have complied with the law, House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz and ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings said Tuesday after reviewing Michael Flynn's application for a security clearance.
"As a former military officer, you simply cannot take money from Russia, Turkey or anybody else. And it appears as if he did take that money. It was inappropriate. And there are repercussions for the violation of law," Chaffetz said.
Chaffetz and Cummings announced their findings to reporters on the Hill following a classified gathering of the committee in which they reviewed documents that Cummings described as "extremely troubling."
"I see no data to support the notion that Gen. Flynn complied with the law," Chaffetz said, referring to whether Flynn received permission from the Pentagon or the State Department or that he disclosed the more than $45,000 he was paid for a speech he gave to RT-TV in Russia.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/25/politics/ ... index.html
White House denies request for documents relating to Flynn
The White House said it was “unable” to fulfill a bipartisan request by the House Oversight Committee to provide documents on payments made by foreign governments to former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, according to a letter released Tuesday by the committee.
The letter, dated April 19, came in response to a March request from Republican Representative Jason Chaffetz, who heads the committee, and Representative Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat. In releasing the White House letter Tuesday, Cummings said he and Chaffetz had reviewed documents relating to Flynn from the Defense Intelligence Agency, calling them "extremely troubling."
The April 19 White House letter came from Marc Short, director of legislative affairs. He referred some of the requests for documents to the Defense Department and said other documents were likely to contain classified or confidential information.
Flynn, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, served Trump as a campaign adviser and briefly as national security adviser until news reports revealed he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about the contents of conversations with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. during Trump’s transition.
https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/arti ... s-to-house
