The special counsel probing Russia’s meddling in the US election and possible ties to the Trump campaign will take over a grand jury investigation of ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn, a new report said Friday.
Former FBI chief Robert Mueller wants to dig down into Flynn’s paid work as a lobbyist for a Turkish businessman in 2016 as well as contacts between Flynn and Russian officials during and after the Nov. 8 election, Reuters reported, citing a trio of sources.
Federal prosecutors in Virginia are investigating a deal between Flynn and Turkish businessman Ekim Alptekin as part of a grand jury criminal probe, according to a subpoena seen by the news service.
Alptekin’s company, Netherlands-based Inovo BV, paid Flynn’s consulting business $530,000 between September and November to produce a documentary and research on Fethullah Gulen, an exiled Turkish cleric living in the US.
Turkish strongman Tayyip Erdogan blames Gulen for a failed coup last July.
Alptekin, an ally of Erdogan, told Reuters he hired Flynn to provide research on how Gulen is “poisoning the atmosphere” between Turkey and the US.
Gulen has denied any role in the coup and dismisses Turkey’s allegations that he heads a terrorist organization.
The grand jury in Virginia has issued subpoenas to some of Flynn’s business associates involved in the work for Inovo, two people familiar with the probe said.
The subpoena seeks bank records, documents and communications related to Flynn, his company, Flynn Intel Group, Alptekin and Inovo.
Flynn’s lawyer, Robert Kelner, did not respond to questions about Flynn’s work for Inovo or Mueller’s investigation.
A spokesman for Mueller — appointed by the Justice Department after President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey — declined to comment.
Alptekin declined to comment.
Mueller’s move to take over the Virginia grand jury’s criminal investigation highlights his broad powers as special counsel.
Trump, who has said there was no coordination between his campaign and Russia, has decried the investigation as a “witch hunt,” and charged that Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan gave misleading testimony when they testified before Congress about Russian ties.
One of Trump’s most trusted aides during the election campaign, Flynn had a long career in the military.
He set up the Flynn Intel Group, an Alexandria, Virginia-based intelligence consultancy, after President Barack Obama dismissed him as head of the military’s Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014.
Trump fired Flynn in February after it became clear that he had falsely characterized the nature of phone conversations he had with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak in December, just after the Obama administration imposed new sanctions on Russia for what US intelligence agencies had concluded was a Kremlin-led effort through computer hacking, fake news and propaganda to boost Trump’s chances of winning the White House.
Flynn’s work for Inovo came under scrutiny after he published a commentary on a political news website on Election Day calling Gulen a “radical Islamist” who should be extradited to Turkey.
With Reuters