The questions surrounding Michael Flynn keep increasing. Now it turns out that Donald Trump’s former national security adviser failed to disclose he received payments from the Kremlin-funded television network RT. He also received payments for speaking engagements with two other firms that have Russian ties, Volga-Dnepr Airlines and the cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Government Security Solutions.
The payments are listed in an amended financial disclosure form that Flynn filed on Friday and the White House revealed on Saturday, more than a month after he stepped down from his position. Although the form doesn’t list how much Flynn was paid for the speaking engagements, they are listed in a section titled “sources of compensation exceeding $5,000 in a year.” Flynn did not list those speaking engagements in the form he submitted in February. Considering he was forced to step down on Feb. 13 after he failed to disclose conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, this latest revelation is likely to increase the former national security adviser’s legal woes.
It also shows how Flynn “quickly cashed in on his experience and access by working with more than a dozen Washington D.C. consulting firms and Silicon Valley tech companies seeking to expand their federal government contracts” after he was replaced as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014, notes Politico. Although the practice is quite ordinary in Washington, Flynn had publicly condemned those who went straight from the Pentagon to make big bucks in the public sector. But the new form reveals he received payments from numerous private sector firms.
At this stage though, accusations of hypocrisy are likely the least of Flynn’s concerns as he has requested immunity to testify before congressional intelligence committees. Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said Sunday he was treating Flynn’s immunity request with “healthy skepticism.”
Considering all the twists and turns in the Flynn story, little wonder that Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham seemed a bit flabbergasted when he talked about the former national security adviser in a town hall meeting on Saturday. “We’re going to talk about the Flynn deal,” Graham said at a town hall on Saturday. “It’s getting weirder by the day, isn’t it? Yeah.”
