Whistleblower Provides Key Info About Flynn Text to Business Colleague During Trump Inauguration

Dec 6, 2017
Press Release

Whistleblower Provides Key Info About Flynn Text to Business Colleague During Trump Inauguration

 

Cummings Asks Gowdy to Stop Blocking Flynn Investigation and Finally Subpoena White House and Others

 

Washington, D.C. (Dec. 6, 2017)—Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter informing Chairman Trey Gowdy about a whistleblower who has come forward with evidence that Lt. General Michael Flynn—within minutes of Donald Trump being sworn in as President—was communicating directly with his former business colleague about their plan to work with Russia to build nuclear reactors in the Middle East.

According to the whistleblower, Alex Copson, the managing partner of ACU Strategic Partners—which funded Flynn’s trip to the Middle East in 2015—attended an event on Inauguration Day during which he claimed to have received a text message from Flynn saying the project was “good to go” and directing Copson to contact their business colleagues to “let them know to put things in place.”  The text was reportedly sent while President Trump was delivering his Inaugural Address.  According to the whistleblower, Copson also explained that General Flynn was making sure that sanctions would be “ripped up” as one of his first orders of business and that this would allow money to start flowing into the project. 

“Our Committee has credible allegations that President Trump’s National Security Advisor sought to manipulate the course of international nuclear policy for the financial gain of his former business partners.  These grave allegations compel a full, credible, and bipartisan congressional investigation,” Cummings wrote.

Cummings asked Gowdy to issue a subpoena to compel the White House to produce all of the documents it has been withholding about Flynn in response to the bipartisan request the Committee made in March.  The White House has refused to produce a single document.  Gowdy has refused all requests to issue a subpoena and blocked all requests to allow Committee Members to vote to issue a subpoena.

Cummings also asked Gowdy to issue subpoenas to compel General Flynn’s company and his business colleagues to produce all of the documents they are withholding in response to letters Cummings sent in June, September, and November.  Gowdy previously declined to join all of these requests.

“I believe the American people want Congress to hold President Trump and his Administration accountable, and they are tired of Republicans in Congress putting their heads in the sand when faced with credible allegations of grave abuses while at the same time conducting investigations of allegations against Secretary Clinton that were debunked years ago,” Cummings wrote.

“If you choose to continue blocking our Committee’s investigation of General Flynn and allowing the White House to defy our bipartisan requests, the Oversight Committee will be faced with allegations of hypocrisy that are extremely difficult to defend,” Cummings concluded.  “The integrity of this Committee’s work will be questioned, and the credibility of its investigations will be severely degraded.”

Newsweek first reported that Flynn traveled to the Middle East in the summer of 2015 to promote this “fantastical plan for a joint U.S.-Russian (and Saudi-financed) program to get control over the Arab world’s rush to acquire nuclear power.”

 

President Donald Trump Inaugural Address (Jan. 20, 2017)  Original photo:  Brendan Smialowski, AFP

 

Click here to read today’s letter with the whistleblower’s account.

Click here for a timeline of Flynn’s efforts to lift sanctions on Russia and promote this nuclear project.

Click here for a Fact Sheet about Gowdy’s reversal on conducting congressional investigations during ongoing criminal investigations.  

115th Congress