House

Chaffetz: Oversight Committee looking into Flynn payments from foreign governments

by Rebecca Savransky - 04/03/17 10:56 AM ET

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Monday his committee is looking into payments that former national security adviser Michael Flynn received from foreign governments.

“Our committee [has] actually been looking at something,” Chaffetz said Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“We have paperwork that’s due from the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department today, but we may be doing something later this week related to his payments that he received from not only Russia but Turkey as well,” he continued.

{mosads}”You’re just not allowed to accept these types of payments as a former military officer.”

Chaffetz said the committee is prepared “maybe as early as Tuesday” to send a letter “for final determination” to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

“It’s not a criminal referral,” he said. “But a referral to the GAO, and then the penalty most likely — at least based on precedent — would be he’d have to repay all that money that he did take.”

Chaffetz said the amount likely be “tens of thousands of dollars.”

During the interview, Chaffetz also dismissed Flynn’s request for immunity in exchange for the retired lieutenant general’s testimony before panels investigating Russian meddling in the election.

“I don’t think he should get immunity,” he said. “Immunity for what?”

Flynn did not list payments from Russian companies in his original financial disclosure forms submitted in February. He filed an amended disclosure last week reporting payments for speeches from three Russian-linked companies, including the state-backed news outlet RT.

Flynn was paid $45,000 by RT in 2015 to speak at the group’s 10th anniversary gala. The two other companies paid him more than $5,000, according to the documents.

Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee had released documents last month that included the payments. Those documents showed that Flynn received $11,250 from Volga-Dnepr Airlines in August 2015 and $11,250 in October 2015 from the Kaspersky Lab subsidiary.

Flynn resigned from his White House post earlier this year after misleading top Trump officials about his talks with Russia’s ambassador.

The Senate Intelligence Committee last week turned down Flynn’s request for immunity.

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