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By Ken Dilanian
WASHINGTON – Donald Trump's National Security Council whistleblowers told a congressional committee that the efforts of former national security advisor Michael Flynn to transfer sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia could have violated the law, and investigators still fear a new report obtained by NBC News.
The House Oversight Committee has officially opened an investigation into the matter, issuing an Interim Team Report that adds new details to previous public accounts on how Flynn attempted to pass the nuclear proposal on behalf of a group he had advised. Tom Barrack, a major Trump lender who has business relations with the Middle East, is also involved in the project, the report says.
Just days after Trump's inauguration, Project Sponsors sent documents to Flynn for approval, including a draft Cabinet Note stating that the President had appointed Mr. Barrack as Special Representative to implement the project. plan and directing agencies to support its efforts, says the report. .
National career security officials opposed this plan, citing what they saw as a conflict of interest at Flynn, but also that the proposal was intended to circumvent a review of required policies whenever nuclear technology is being transferred to another country, says the report.
The proposal, which involved using the US nuclear industry to build nuclear power plants across the Middle East, was supported by a group of retired generals who had created a company called IP3. Flynn is described in financial reporting documents as an "advisor" to an IP3 subsidiary, IronBridge Group Inc., from June 2016 to December 2016 – at the same time it served as Trump's National Security Advisor during the presidential campaign and presidential transition. says the report.
The report quoted a senior Trump official as saying that the proposal was "not a business plan", but rather "a ploy allowing these generals to earn money" and adding, "OK, you know that we can not do it. "
Click here to read the report of the House Oversight Committee.
"The alert launchers who came forward expressed strong concerns about potential procedural and legal violations related to the rush of a nuclear technology transfer plan in Saudi Arabia," the report said.
"They warned of conflicts of interest between key White House advisers that could involve federal criminal laws." They also warned of a working environment inside the House. White marked by chaos, dysfunction and slander ".
The monitoring committee, led by representative Elijah Cummings, D-MD, said his investigation of the plan "is particularly critical, as the administration's efforts to transfer sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia appear to be continue".
On February 12, the report notes that Trump has met with nuclear energy developers at the White House about sharing nuclear technology with countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia. Next week, Trump's son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, is scheduled to visit Middle Eastern capitals, including Riyadh, to discuss the economic side of the Middle East government's peace plan.
"Experts are concerned that the transfer of sensitive US nuclear technology could allow Saudi Arabia to produce nuclear weapons that contribute to the proliferation of nuclear weapons in an already unstable Middle East," the report said.
Marshall Plan for the Middle East
The proposal, referred to by its supporters as the "Marshall Plan for the Middle East," implied IP3 International, which means "International Peace Power & Prosperity". Among the people involved in IP3, according to published reports, were People. Keith Alexander, Jack Keane and James Cartwright; former Middle East Ambassador Dennis Ross; Fran Townsend, George W. Bush Domestic Security Advisor; and Robert "Bud" McFarlane, one of Ronald Reagan's national security advisers. Keane was considered by Trump for the Secretary of Defense.
The House's monitoring report indicates that whistleblowers told the committee that one of Flynn's key collaborators, Derek Harvey – senior director of Middle East and North African affairs at the Council of national security from January to July 2017 – said during the first week of the Trump administration that Flynn had already decided to adopt the IP3 nuclear plan and develop "dozens of nuclear power plants."
Seven days after the inauguration – and two days before a scheduled call with King Salman of Saudi Arabia -, Harvey met in his office at the White House a group of retired generals working for IP3, including co-founders Keane and McFarlane. the report says.
Immediately after the meeting, Harvey asked the NSC staff to add information about the "IP3 nuclear plant plan" in the briefing brief of Trump 's call with King Salman.
The report indicates that career staff warned that any transfer of nuclear technology must comply with the Atomic Energy Act and that the United States and Saudi Arabia should achieve that. calls for a "123 agreement", which would define how Saudi Arabia should comply with the non-proliferation requirements.
"Harvey would have ignored these warnings and insisted that the decision to transfer nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia had already been made," the report said.
Career and political staff at the White House have agreed that Harvey's directive could be against the law, says the report.
According to whistleblowers, the National Security Council's Ethics Counsel felt that Flynn's involvement could constitute a violation of the Conflict of Interest Act, the report says. As a result, NSC counsel John Eisenberg ordered NSC staff to stop all work on the plan.
But Harvey continued to pursue the case, according to the report, even after Flynn was fired in February 2017 for lying to the FBI.
Harvey said at a meeting on March 2, 2017: "I talk with Michael Flynn every night," the report says.
In mid-March 2017, the Assistant National Security Advisor, K.T. McFarland reportedly said at a meeting that Trump had told Barrack that he could direct the implementation of the plan, the report said.
Harvey then held a teleconference with Barrack and Rick Gates, former Trump Deputy Campaign Director and Vice Chairman of the Inauguration Committee, who pleaded guilty to crimes and cooperates with Special Advocate Robert Mueller.
At the time, Barrack hired Gates to manage the Barrack Company's Washington office. A career NSC staffer who joined the call later told his colleagues that Harvey was trying to promote the IP3 plan "so that Jared Kushner could present it to the president for approval," according to the report.
Flynn's replacement, H.R. McMaster, finally ordered the board to stop working on the issue, the report said. He fired Harvey, who is now part of the minority intelligence staff of the House Intelligence Committee.
The report raises further questions about Flynn, who is awaiting his conviction for cooperating with Mueller. Flynn has not indicated in its security clearance renewal application that it had visited Saudi Arabia in June 2015 on behalf of IP3 and its predecessor. Although he reported a separate trip to Saudi Arabia in October 2015, Flynn omitted key details, the report says, including the identity of the customer who funded the trip.
Flynn claimed to have spoken at a conference during the trip, but none of the offices of his three speakers were involved in the trip or knew of any conference in that location, the report said. Flynn told investigators that he had stayed at the King Khaled International Hotel, but that a US consulate official could not identify such a hotel in Saudi Arabia, the report said.
Republicans and congressional Democrats have expressed concern over the transfer of nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia, the report said.
In October, Republican Senators Marco Rubio, Todd Young, Cory Gardner, Rand Paul and Dean Heller sent a letter to Trump urging him to "suspend negotiations on a possible civil nuclear cooperation agreement between the United States." and Saudi Arabia ", for" reason ". serious concerns about the transparency, accountability and judgment of the current decision-makers in Saudi Arabia. "
They expressed concern that "the Saudi government has been refusing for many years to consider any agreement that includes so-called" Gold Standard "requirements against the use of technologies to enrich the technology. 39, uranium and reprocess the spent nuclear fuel loaded with plutonium. "
House oversight committee sends requests for additional documents to White House and Trade, Defense, Energy, Finance and Treasury Departments, Joint Chiefs of Staff , to the CIA and the companies associated with this effort, including IP3, the Flynn Intel Group, ACU Strategies and Colony NorthStar, says the report.
The committee also wants interviews with key people involved in promoting this plan with the White House.
The White House, Harvey and a Flynn lawyer did not immediately respond to NBC News' requests for comment.
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