WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - Democratic lawmakers are probing whether retired U.S. General
Michael Flynn secretly promoted a U.S.-Russian project to build dozens of
nuclear reactors in the Middle East after becoming President Donald Trump’s
first national security adviser.
Representatives
Elijah Cummings and Eliot Engel made the disclosure in a letter they sent on
Tuesday to Flynn’s lawyer and executives of firms that developed the reactor
scheme and for which Flynn’s now-defunct consulting company worked.
“The
American people deserve to know whether General Flynn was secretly promoting
the private interests of these businesses while he was a (Trump) campaign
adviser, transition official, or President Trump’s national security adviser,”
the two said in the letter made public on Wednesday.
They asked
Flynn’s lawyer and executives of companies involved in the project to provide
“all communications” they had with Flynn or other administration officials
during the 2016 campaign, the post-election transition or Flynn’s tenure as
national security adviser.
Robert
Kelner, Flynn’s lawyer, declined to comment.
The project
proposes to construct 40 nuclear reactors across the Middle East that would
feed a regional electric grid. The reactors would be “proliferation proof,”
meaning they could not be used to produce fuel for nuclear weapons.
Cummings,
the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and
Engel, the senior Democrat on the House Foreign Relations Committee, asked that
the documents be provided by Oct. 4.
‘SIGNIFICANT
QUESTIONS’
Flynn is a
central figure in a federal probe led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a
former FBI director, into whether Trump aides colluded in an alleged Russian
effort to boost Trump’s presidential campaign. Russia has denied interfering in
the U.S. election and Trump has said there was no collusion.
Trump, who
took office on Jan. 20, fired Flynn on Feb. 13, 18 days after a top Justice
Department official warned that the former Defense Intelligence Agency director
could be blackmailed because Moscow knew he made misleading statements about
his contacts with Russian officials.
Cummings and
Engel sent their letter as part of an inquiry into the renewal of Flynn’s 2016
Top Secret security clearance.
They said
Flynn failed to disclose a June 2015 trip he made to Egypt and Israel to
promote the reactor project to investigators reviewing his renewal application
and that he also did not list the foreigners with whom he met.
The
lawmakers wrote that replies from the executives and Kelner to a June letter
confirmed that Flynn made the trip.
“Based on
your responses, it appears that General Flynn violated federal law,” they
wrote.
“Since these
violations carry criminal penalties of up to five years in prison, we are
providing your responses to Special Counsel Robert Mueller,” they wrote to
Kelner, Alex G. Copson of X-Co Dynamics/ACU Strategic Partners, and retired
Rear Admiral Michael Hewitt of X-Co Dynamics/Ironbridge Group/IP3. All are
private companies.
“Second,
your responses raise significant questions about whether General Flynn
continued to communicate with you and others about this project after the
presidential election, after Donald Trump was sworn in as president, and after
General Flynn assumed the post of national security adviser - without
disclosing his foreign travel or contacts,” the lawmakers added.
Donald
Gross, counsel for ACU Strategic Partners, said the company has cooperated with
the oversight committee in providing information about the project being
developed along with Hewitt’s IP3, and “General Flynn’s limited involvement in
June 2015.”
Hewitt did
not respond to a LinkedIn message seeking comment.
The proposed
reactor project would be funded by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states and
built and run by a consortium of U.S., Russian, French, Dutch, Arab, British,
Ukrainian and Israeli firms. A promotional slide promoting the project said
security would be provided by Rosoboron, a Russian state-owned arms exporter
that is under U.S. sanctions.
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