Amid reports that he tried to broker a business deal with Russia to build nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia, Donald Trump’s disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn may now be cooperating with the FBI in the investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, according to a statement by two-term Rhode Island Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, in an interview with CNN on Monday.
If Whitehouse is correct, his revelation would appear to confirm a story published on her blog by controversial independent journalist and former Conservative member of the British Parliament Louise Mensch, who reported in May that Flynn , “has already had at least one lengthy interview with the FBI.”
While Mensch’s report was largely dismissed at the time, Whitehouse now says that “all the signals” point toward Flynn having been a cooperating FBI witness, possibly flipping against his former patron Trump , “for some time.”
“First of all, they had him dead to rights on a felony false statement, on the statement they took from him at the White House on the Kislyak conversations,” Whitehouse told CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, referring to Flynn’s failure to reveal meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the Trump transition period between the November election and January inauguration.
“Second, (now-fired FBI Director James) Comey reported that one of the things the FBI does with cooperators is get them to go back and clean up areas of non-compliance,” Whitehouse continued. “Flynn, who will never be hired by a foreign government again, went back and cleaned up his foreign agent filings.”
Whitehouse said Flynn has now “gone absolutely silent” despite having previously been “one of the most talkative people in Trumpland.”
Flynn’s silence, Whitehouse said, indicates that prosecutors and FBI agents with whom Flynn is now allegedly cooperating have advise him to refrain from all public comments, to avoid incriminating himself.
Watch Whitehouse make his allegations about Flynn to Blitzer on Monday afternoon, in the video below.
The FBI is investigating the 2016 Trump presidential campaign for possible ties to Russia at a time last year when the Russian government was running a computer hacking operation to disrupt the American electoral process and help put Trump in the White House.
The revelations about Flynn’s Russia contacts — contacts that he has failed to disclose on legally required forms, leading to his forced resignation at national security adviser just a month into the Trump term — have continued despite Flynn’s apparent withdrawal from the public stage. On Monday, several House Democrats sent a letter to Flynn’s consulting firm requesting documents relating to a deal to build nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia, a deal that would partner the United States and Russia to build the nuke plant with Saudi finances.
“We have no record of General Flynn reporting this trip or any contacts with foreign officials on his security clearance renewal application or in his interview with security clearance investigators,” the Democratic legislators wrote.
The deal was first reported by Newsweek on June 9 , detailing how Flynn attempted to help broker “a U.S.-Russian partnership to build and operate plants and export the dangerous spent fuel under strict controls.”
Flynn’s firm was to obtain a contract to provide the elaborate and extensive security measure for the nuclear project.
[Featured Image By Alex Wong/Getty Images]