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Mueller seeks White House documents on Michael Flynn

Investigators are trying to establish if former NSA was paid by Turkish govt

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Outgoing FBI Director Robert Mueller reacts to applause from the audience during his farewell ceremony at the Justice Department in Washington Photo: Reuters

Mathew Rosenberg, Matt Apuzzo & Michael S Schmidt | NYT

Last Updated : Aug 05 2017 | 9:36 PM IST

Investigators working for the special counsel, Robert S Mueller III, recently asked the White House for documents related to the former national security adviser Michael T Flynn, and have questioned witnesses about whether he was secretly paid by the Turkish government during the final months of the presidential campaign, according to people close to the investigation.

Though not a formal subpoena, the document request is the first known instance of Mueller’s team asking the White House to hand over records.

In interviews with potential witnesses in recent weeks, prosecutors and FBI agents have spent hours poring over the details of Flynn’s business dealings with a Turkish-American businessman who worked last year with Mr. Flynn and his consulting business, the Flynn Intel Group.

The company was paid $530,000 to run a campaign to discredit an opponent of the Turkish government who has been accused of orchestrating last year’s failed coup in the country.

Investigators want to know if the Turkish government was behind those payments — and if the Flynn Intel Group made kickbacks to the businessman, Ekim Alptekin, for helping conceal the source of the money.

The line of questioning shows that Mueller’s inquiry has expanded into a full-fledged examination of Flynn’s financial dealings, beyond the relatively narrow question of whether he failed to register as a foreign agent or lied about his conversations and business arrangements with Russian officials.

Flynn lasted only 24 days as national security adviser, but his legal troubles now lie at the center of a political storm that has engulfed the Trump administration. For months, prosecutors have used multiple grand juries to issue subpoenas for documents related to Flynn.

President Trump has publicly said Mueller should confine his investigation to the narrow issue of Russia’s attempts to disrupt last year’s presidential campaign, not conduct an expansive inquiry into the finances of Trump or his associates.

Flynn declined to comment. Ty Cobb, special counsel to Trump, said, “We’ve said before we’re collaborating with the special counsel on an ongoing basis.” “It’s full cooperation mode as far as we are concerned,” he said.

After Flynn’s dismissal, Trump tried to get James B Comey, the FBI director, to drop the investigation, Comey said.