THREAD: Mueller is expected to release new details about former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn today. Here are some highlights from our explainer on his long history of sketchy foreign influence: themoscowproject.org/explainers/fly…
While serving as the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2013, Flynn took a delegation to Moscow to meet with the GRU, becoming the first U.S. officer to step inside GRU headquarters. washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoin…
Flynn really, really seemed to want to build a relationship with the GRU, trying to schedule another visit and reportedly inviting some GRU officers to the U.S. newyorker.com/magazine/2017/…
Even then, that raised lots of eyebrows, including from the CIA’s chief of Russia operations and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who warned him against a second trip. newyorker.com/magazine/2017/…
While still heading DIA, Flynn traveled to Cambridge to give a talk at a seminar that has since been accused of “unacceptable Russian influence,” where he met with and began a correspondence with a Russian-British national. telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/1…
Flynn signed his correspondence with her—which he didn’t disclose—as “General Misha” the Russian version of Mike. bbc.com/news/magazine-…
After being pushed out of DIA in 2014, Flynn became a contributor on the Russian propaganda network RT, where he often echoed Kremlin talking points. politico.com/magazine/story…
For example, in 2015, Flynn suggested that a chemical-weapons attack by the Syrian government was actually a “false flag,” a charge Putin had previously made in an op-ed. cnn.com/2016/11/20/pol…
Those appearances are what led to Flynn attending RT’s December 2015 gala, where he sat at the same table as Putin himself. nbcnews.com/news/world/gue…
In the meantime, he’d started Flynn Intel Group, which took money from multiple foreign companies, including Kaspersky Labs, a Russian cybersecurity firm with alleged ties to the Kremlin. nytimes.com/2017/03/16/us/…
He also acted as an unregistered agent of the Turkish government, taking $600,000 for his efforts—many of which happened while he was advising Trump’s presidential campaign. politico.com/story/2017/04/…
This work culminated in an Election Day 2016 op-ed calling for the U.S. to deport a Turkish dissident back to Turkey—and supposedly, a plot to help kidnap that dissident himself in return for $15 million from the Turkish government. bbc.com/news/world-asi…
The foreign influence continued during the transition, when Flynn championed a plan—from a private company he’d advised—to build nuclear power plants in the Middle East. propublica.org/article/white-…
That plan would’ve required ripping up sanctions in Russia—which Flynn reportedly promised an associate would soon be happening while at Trump’s inauguration. nytimes.com/2017/12/06/us/…
He also received a plan from a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician to get rid of sanctions the U.S. had placed on Russia after the 2014 invasion of Crimea. nytimes.com/2017/02/19/us/…
And of course, there’s the reason Flynn pleaded guilty in the first place: his calls with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak to undermine the Obama administration’s efforts to sanction Russia for its attack on the 2016 election. reuters.com/article/us-usa…
Flynn lied to the FBI about those calls within days of taking office. The rest of the Trump administration lied to the public, sending out officials who knew full well of the details to say Flynn had done nothing wrong. nytimes.com/2017/12/01/us/…
The main question has been whether Trump knew about, or even directed, the calls—and whether he knew Flynn had lied to the FBI when Trump asked Comey to go easy on Flynn. nytimes.com/2017/05/16/us/…
If he did, that’s as clear a case of collusion and obstruction of justice as you can get. But whatever the case is, Mueller likely knows—and may be revealing what he knows in his filings today.
To see the full outline of Flynn's shady behavior, check out his page on our interactive timeline here: themoscowproject.org/players/michae…
