Former national security adviser Mike Flynn is facing questions from Special Counsel Robert Mueller over allegations that he improperly concealed his financial ties to Turkey and Russia, The Wall Street Journal writes.
Mueller is investigating Flynn’s work on an unfinished film financed by Turkish interests as part of its wider probe into whether the former adviser improperly concealed financial ties to Turkey and to Russia, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Journal notes that the focus on the film comes amid signs that Flynn may be working on a deal with Mueller. Flynn’s lawyers this week stopped cooperating with White House attorneys defending President Donald Trump, according to other people familiar with the matter.
The FBI is preparing to interview consultants hired by Flynn to work on a documentary film targeting an exiled Turkish cleric who Ankara accuses of trying to overthrow the country’s president, according to people familiar with the investigation. Details of the unfinished film project were first reported by The Wall Street Journal in May.
The film was at the heart of Flynn’s work for Turkish interests while he served as top adviser on then-candidate Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. While working to get Trump elected, Flynn’s company signed a $530,000 contract with a Turkish businessman with close ties to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
FBI agents have contacted Beirut-based freelance journalist David Enders and Rudi Bakhtiar, a former CNN anchor hired to work on the documentary, to ask them about their roles in the venture, according to people familiar with the matter, The Journal informs.
According to The Journal, Mueller also is probing the alleged role played by Flynn and his son, Michael Flynn Jr. , in a plan to forcibly remove Gulen and deliver him to Turkey in return for millions of dollars. Under the alleged proposal, Flynn and his son were to be paid as much as $15 million for delivering Gulen to the Turkish government.
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