House Dems question Flynn disclosures of Middle East travel
WASHINGTON — Two top House Democrats are questioning whether Michael Flynn failed to report a 2015 trip to the Middle East to federal security clearance investigators, a potential omission that could add to the legal jeopardy President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser faces over the truthfulness of his statements to authorities and on government documents.
The lawmakers — Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y. — said in a letter released Monday that they believe Flynn may have violated federal law by failing to disclose the trip, which they believe involved a proposal to provide nuclear power to several Middle Eastern countries, and any foreign contacts he had during another trip to the region that year.
The letter from Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House oversight committee, and Engel, the ranking Democrat on the House foreign affairs committee, is the latest to call attention to potential problems with what Flynn reported to the U.S. government about his foreign travel, contacts and business after he left the Defence Intelligence Agency in August 2014.
Federal and congressional probes have been looking closely at Flynn’s foreign travel and contacts as part of investigations into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election and any possible collusion with associates of Trump or his campaign.