Huh, what the heck heeft dit allemaal met Trump en collusion te maken?
Wel met een Nederlands tintje aan deze zaak:
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn made “materially false statements and omissions” to the Justice Department about his work last year for the Turkish government, according to court filings submitted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Friday.
Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general, pleaded guilty in federal court on Friday to lying to the FBI about his conversations last year with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador. (RELATED: Michael Flynn Charged With Making False Statements To The FBI)
But Flynn’s work for the Turkish government last year has been a heavy focus of Mueller’s prosecutors. Flynn’s consulting firm, Flynn Intel Group, signed a $600,000 contract in Aug. 2016, while Flynn was advising the Trump campaign, with a Turkish businessman close to Ankara.
In a statement of offense, Mueller’s prosecutor Brandon Van Grack says that Flynn falsely claimed in foreign agent registration filings submitted to the Justice Department on March 7 that he “did not know whether or the extent to which the Republic of Turkey was involved in the Turkey project.”
Flynn also omitted that “officials from the Republic of Turkey provided supervision and direction over the Turkey project.”
Flynn’s assertion that “the Turkey project was focused on improving U.S. business organizations’ confidence regarding doing business in Turkey” was also false as was his claim that he wrote an op-ed smearing Turkish government foe “at his own initiative.”
Flynn disclosed some details of his consulting contract when he registered as a foreign agent of Turkey under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
The disclosure was filed several weeks after Flynn resigned from the White House for purportedly lying to Vice President Mike Pence about his interactions with Kislyak.
In the filing, Flynn acknowledged that he was hired by the Turkish businessman, Ekim Alptekin, to investigate Fethullah Gulen. Turkey’s authoritarian president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, blames Gulen for a coup attempt carried out in July 2016.
Flynn Intel agreed to investigate Gulen and also to direct a media outreach campaign aimed at smearing the exiled cleric, who lives in Pennsylvania.
The media outreach component included a documentary that was filmed but never released. Flynn also authored a Nov. 8, 2016, op-ed calling on the U.S. government to extradite Gulen.
A man named Hank Cox was paid $300 to edit the article, which appeared in The Hill on Election Day. Sphere Consulting, a lobbying firm that sub-contracted for Flynn Intel on the Turkey project, helped place the article. Alptekin reviewed the piece prior to publication but has told The Daily Caller that he was not involved in writing it.
Flynn's op-ed is what led to the revelation of his relationship to Alptekin, who hired Flynn through a Netherlands-based shell company he owns called Inovo BV. The Daily Caller discovered the Flynn-Alptekin link days after the op-ed was published. (RELATED: Michael Flynn Lobbied For Turkish Businessman)
Trump tapped Flynn as national security adviser several days after the election. Internal Justice Department documents showed that officials in the agency's national security division first reached out to Flynn's lawyers about his contract with Alptekin at the end of Nov. 2016. (RELATED: What Prompted Michael Flynn To Register As A Foreign Agent Of Turkey?)
Flynn also appears to have omitted key details from his FARA filing about a meeting he had with Turkish government officials on Sept. 19, 2016. Alptekin arranged the meeting, which was held in New York City and was attended by Turkey's foreign minister and energy minister.
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Václav Klaus