House oversight panel seeks ex-Trump aide Flynn's records

Reuters
Michael Flynn (C) arrives prior to a joint news conference between Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 13, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The main investigative panel of the U.S. House of Representatives has asked the White House and the FBI for documents regarding former national security adviser Michael Flynn's foreign contacts with Russia, Turkey and others, its Republican chairman and Democratic counterpart said on Wednesday. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz and Ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings said in a statement that the panel also requested related documents from the Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The committee is considering whether Flynn, who resigned less than a month after President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, fully disclosed his payments from foreign sources. Flynn's departure followed a report that the Justice Department had earlier warned the White House that Flynn could be vulnerable to blackmail for contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak before Trump took office. Another report later showed Flynn, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general, had been working as a representative for Turkey during last year’s presidential campaign even as he was advising Trump. Separately on Wednesday, U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee Chairman Devin Nunes, a Republican, said intelligence agencies had swept up incidental communications by Trump's political campaign after the Nov. 8 election, raising concerns about spying on the newly elected president. Chaffetz and Cummings said their request included documents on security clearance applications as well as on foreign contacts and payments, including payments Flynn received from RT, the Kremlin-backed media outlet. The committee called for the White House and the other agencies to provide all the documents related to Flynn dating back to his retirement in 2014 to the present, and to deliver them to the panel by April 3. (Reporting by Tim Ahmann and Susan Heavey; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Grant McCool)