Trump hired him, fired him, and eventually gave him a pardon. Now, Michael Flynn is waiting to learn if he’ll be fined tens of thousands of dollars for accepting money from Russian and Turkish interests.
According to The Washington Post, the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General recently finished a long-delayed investigation into Donald Trump’s first national security advisor. The inquiry focused on two payments he received from foreign entities. In 2015, RT, a Kremlin-controlled media organization, paid Flynn $45,000 to attend a gala and appear alongside Russian president Vladimir Putin. A year later, Inovo BV, a lobbying company that represent the Turkish government, paid the Flynn Intel Group over half a million dollars.
The foreign emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution prohibits government officials from accepting money or gifts from any “King, Prince, or foreign State.” Since Flynn is a retired three-star general who receives military retirement benefits, he was subject to the emoluments clause when he received the payments from Russia and Turkey.
The DoD’s watchdog began its investigation into Flynn’s foreign dealings in 2017, but the case was put on hold pending other court proceedings involving the Trump loyalist. Now complete, the findings of the inquiry have been forwarded to the Army. The Washington Post explains the potential consequences:
Defense Department guidelines warn that it “may pursue debt collection” if a retired service member does not secure approval to accept foreign payments before doing so. Collection due to an emoluments violation is capped at no more than what an individual made in retirement pay during a period of unauthorized employment.
Flynn, whose retirement pay is more than $10,000 per month, worked for Inovo for three months.
Flynn was fired from the Trump administration for making misleading statements about his contact with Russian officials during the presidential transition. In 2017, he plead guilt to lying to the FBI about those contacts and agreed to cooperate with the Mueller investigation.
But in 2019 Flynn tried to withdraw his guilty plea. He began defending Trump with renewed vigor and eventually received a pardon from the then-president in November 2020. Trump announced the pardon on Twitter, “It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon,” Trump tweeted. “Congratulations to @GenFlynn and his wonderful family, I know you will now have a truly fantastic Thanksgiving!”
Flynn became a QAnon supporter and one of the leading proponents of the “Stop the Steal” effort to overthrow the 2020 election. He encouraged Trump to declare martial law and rerun the presidential election – but just in swing states that broke for Joe Biden.
It is unclear when the Army will make a decision on Flynn’s punishment.