WASHINGTON
(AP) = As Donald Trump delivered his presidential inaugural address
last January, his national security adviser Michael Flynn told a former
business associate in text messages that a private plan to build nuclear
reactors in the Mideast was "good to go" and that U.S. sanctions
hobbling the plan would soon be "ripped up," a whistleblower told
congressional investigators.
The
witness did not specify which sanctions Flynn was referring to in his
texts. But the nuclear project that Flynn and his business associate had
worked on together was stymied by U.S. financial sanctions on Russia.
The
witness's account, made public Wednesday by the ranking Democrat on the
House oversight committee, raises new concerns about the extent to
which Flynn may have blurred his private and public interests during his
brief stint inside the White House.
Trump
fired Flynn in February, saying he had misled Vice President Mike Pence
and others about his contacts with Russia's ambassador to the U.S.
Flynn, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general, pleaded guilty in federal
court last week to one count of making false statements to the FBI and
is now a cooperating witness in special counsel Robert Mueller's probe
into possible coordination between Trump's campaign and Russian
intermediaries during the 2016 election.
Maryland
Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform, said Wednesday the whistleblower's
allegations raise concerns that Flynn improperly aided the nuclear
project after joining the White House as one of Trump's top national
security officials. The project has yet to get off the ground.
Cummings
detailed the whistleblower's allegations in a letter to committee
chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., and urged Gowdy to authorize subpoenas to
Flynn and his business associates to learn more about his efforts.
In
a reply late Wednesday, Gowdy said he had shared Cummings' letter with
Rep. Michael Conaway, R-Texas, and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the
chairman and ranking Democrat heading the House intelligence committee
inquiry into Russian involvement in the 2016 election. Gowdy spurned
Cummings' request for subpoenas, echoing his replies to previous
Cummings subpoena requests.
"If you have evidence of a crime, you should provide it to the Special Counsel immediately," Gowdy wrote.
Flynn
had been a paid consultant for the venture before he joined the Trump
campaign last year. The plan, backed by a group of investors, nuclear
power adherents and former U.S. military officers, was to construct
dozens of nuclear reactors across the Mideast with aid from Russian and
other international private interests.
House
Democrats noted that a federal ethics law requires White House
officials to refrain for a year from dealing with any outside interests
they had previously worked with on private business.
"Our
committee has credible allegations that President Trump's national
security adviser sought to manipulate the course of international
nuclear policy for the financial gain of his former business partners,"
Cummings said.
The
whistleblower told House Democrats that while Trump spoke in January,
Flynn texted from the Capitol steps to Alex Copson, the managing
director of ACU Strategic Partners and the nuclear project's main
promoter. The whistleblower, whose identity was not revealed in
Cummings' letter, said that during a conversation, Copson described his
messages with Flynn and briefly flashed one of the texts, which appeared
to have been sent 10 minutes after Trump was sworn in as president.
"Mike
has been putting everything in place for us," Copson said, according to
the whistleblower. Copson added that "this is going to make a lot of
very wealthy people." The whistleblower also said that Copson intimated
that Flynn would ensure that U.S. financial sanctions hobbling the
nuclear project were going to be "ripped up," allowing investment money
to start flowing into the project.
Attorneys
for Flynn and Copson did not immediately return email and phone
requests for comment. White House lawyer Ty Cobb declined to comment on
the allegation.
In
Flynn's plea agreement last week, prosecutors said he lied to FBI
agents about his discussions on sanctions against Russia with Russian
Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition.
Copson
had promoted a succession of nuclear projects designed to include
Russian participation dating back to the 1990s. In an earlier note to
the committee, Copson said his firm had provided Flynn with a $25,000
check — left uncashed — and paid for Flynn's June 2015 trip to the
Mideast as a security consultant for the project.
Flynn's
financial disclosure did not cite those payments, but he did report
that until December 2016, he worked as an adviser to two other companies
that partnered with Copson's firm. That consortium, X-Co Dynamics Inc.
and Iron Bridge Group, initially worked with ACU but later pushed a
separate nuclear proposal for the Mideast.
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