Pentagon puts Michael Flynn under formal investigation over payments from Russia

A Pentagon inspector general is launching its own investigation into whether US President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn took payments from foreign entities without approval

The inspector general of the Department of Defence is probing whether Michael Flynn had “failed to obtain required approval prior to receiving any emolument from a foreign government”
The inspector general of the Department of Defence is probing whether Michael Flynn had “failed to obtain required approval prior to receiving any emolument from a foreign government”

Donald Trump’s former national security adviser is under formal investigation by the Pentagon for his apparently undisclosed paid speaking engagements in Russia, it emerged on Thursday.

The inspector general of the Department of Defence is probing whether Michael Flynn had “failed to obtain required approval prior to receiving any emolument from a foreign government”, according to the letter to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

The investigation concerns payments of more than $33,000 that Flynn received from Russian state-backed television network Russia Today in 2015. As a retired Army officer, Flynn was obligated to request permission from the Department of Defence and State Department before receiving payments from foreign governments, members of the Oversight Committee allege.

Acting Pentagon inspector general Glenn Fine disclosed the inquiry in an 11 April letter to the House oversight committee, which is also investigating Flynn. The committee released Fine’s letter on Thursday.

Additionally, newly disclosed DIA documents show that Flynn was warned of “criminal sanctions” in 2014 should he fail to obtain express official approval for accepting money for services rendered to a foreign government.

Just months after Flynn’s 2014 firing from DIA, the intelligence agency’s lawyers informed the retired general of ethics guidelines for his post-government career.

Among them, a letter dated October 2014 shows, was a warning that Flynn would need “advance approval from the [Army] secretary and the secretary of state before accepting employment, consulting fees, gifts, travel expenses, honoraria or salary from a foreign government.”

Violations of a host of ethics restrictions, including unapproved foreign compensation, “carry criminal penalties”, the DIA general counsel’s office warned.