More legal grief awaits Michael Flynn and son

(Credit: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, who briefly served as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, is facing criticism from Democrats from the House Oversight Committee for failing to disclose ties to Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile his son, Michael G. Flynn, has been ensnared in the federal government’s probe into alleged ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia.

Reps. Elijah Cummings of Maryland and Eliot Engel of New York are behind the latest accusations against the senior Flynn, according to Bloomberg. They claim that Flynn failed to mention activities and contacts he made related to a joint Russian/Saudi Arabian plan to build nuclear power plants across the Middle East, including a 2015 business trip.

In a letter released on Wednesday, Cummings and Engel claimed that “it appears that General Flynn violated federal law by omitting this trip and these foreign contacts from his security clearance renewal application in 2016 and concealing them from security clearance investigators who interviewed him as part of the background check process.” They also wrote that they have received “multiple independent confirmations” about Flynn’s 2015 trip; they argue that “it appears that General Flynn violated federal law by omitting this trip and the foreign contacts from his security clearance renewal application in 2016,” as well as from security clearance investigators. Because their accusations could bring criminal penalties against Flynn, they note that they are “providing [Flynn’s] response to Special Counsel Robert Mueller.”

In related news, Michael G. Flynn is now part of the broader federal investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, according to NBC News. Three of the four officials who reported this to NBC News mentioned that the investigation would at least partially encompass Flynn’s work with his father’s lobbying firm, the Flynn Intel Group. The news has broken at a time when special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into the Russia scandal is heating up, although the younger Flynn’s implication in the probe is a bit of a surprise. Although Flynn was part of Trump’s transition team, he was best known for embarrassing his father by spreading right-wing conspiracy theories like the discredited “Pizzagate” conspiracy.