Flynn lobbied for Turkish-linked firm after election, documents show

Source: Politico

President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn wrote an op-ed on Election Day calling for the U.S. to kick out an anti-government Turkish cleric without disclosing he was being paid by a firm linked to the Turkish government, according to documents newly filed with the Justice Department.

POLITICO reported in November that Flynn's consulting firm, Flynn Intel Group, was lobbying for a Dutch consulting firm with ties to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The new documents confirm that Flynn lobbied for the Turkish-linked firm, Inovo BV, before and immediately after the election. They also reveal that members of Flynn’s firm secretly met with the Turkish foreign and energy ministers in New York less than two months before the election.

The documents reveal that Inovo BV paid Flynn's firm $535,000 between Sept. 9 and Nov. 14. The firm's assignment focused on Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish cleric living in exile in Pennsylvania whom the Turkish government accuses of masterminding a failed coup against Erdogan last summer. The filing was first spotted by The Huffington Post's Paul Blumenthal.

Flynn's firm disclosed that it was lobbying for Inovo in September but did not register with the Justice Department as a foreign agent. Robert Kelner, a lawyer for Flynn's firm, wrote in a letter to the Justice Department on Tuesday that the firm believed at the time that the congressional disclosure was sufficient but is now registered retroactively as a foreign agent.

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Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/michael-flynn-lobby-turkey-235843