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It is not known when the Ministry of Defense can announce its decision on the matter. The Washington Post first reported the report being referred to the military.
Former President Donald Trump pardoned Flynn, his first national security adviser, last November, an action that erased the guilty plea Flynn made in 2017 – then tried to step down in 2020 – for lying to the FBI on his contacts with Russia. during the 2016 presidential transition.
The Defense Department’s Inspector General’s office opened its own investigation in April 2017, examining the money Flynn received from Russian and Turkish entities after he retired from service and whether he had obtained the appropriate authorization to do so. The military has strict rules for the payments retired officers can receive from foreign countries after they retire.
This investigation was suspended while the investigation by then-special advocate Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential campaign and other investigations were underway.
On April 11, 2017, the DoD OIG opened an investigation into an allegation that retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn did not obtain the required approval from the military and the State Department before receiving a fee from a foreign government or a foreign government. At the request of the Department of Justice (DOJ), we put our investigation on hold in June 2017, pending the outcome of the criminal allegations against the LTG Flynn, ”IG spokesperson Dwrena Allen said in a statement. communicated.
“After the former president pardoned the LTG Flynn on November 25, 2020, we received authorization from the DOJ to continue our investigation. On January 27, 2021, we closed our investigation of LTG Flynn and referred several administrative matters to the Acting Secretary of the Army. for consideration and appropriate action, ”Allen added.
In December 2017, Flynn became one of the most senior and longest-serving defendants to plead guilty and cooperate with the Mueller investigation. He admitted to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia during Trump’s presidential transition in 2016 and is secretly lobbying for Turkey.
But he drastically turned the tide in 2019, attempted to withdraw his guilty plea in 2020, and promoted conspiracy theories on the Mueller investigation.
Flynn has returned to Trump’s orbit, and he and his lawyer ultimately aided the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
CNN’s Marshall Cohen contributed to this report.
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