WASHINGTON—Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Rep. Eliot L. Engel, the Ranking Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, sent two new letters in light of a troubling new report in the Wall Street Journal that Lt. General Michael Flynn—just days after President Trump named him as National Security Advisor—was secretly coordinating with his former business colleagues from inside the White House on a proposal to build nuclear reactors throughout the Middle East.
The Ranking Members sent their first letter to Robert “Bud” McFarlane, a Co-Founder and Director of IP3/Iron Bridge Group. According to the Journal report, McFarlane personally emailed General Flynn various documents, including a draft memo directing cabinet agencies to implement the plan. Flynn then reportedly conveyed this proposal forward to National Security Council staff with instructions to “package” the documents for the President. McFarlane also attended a subsequent meeting with then-White House staffer Derek Harvey to discuss this project.
“As you know, we have requested multiple times that you and your organization produce to Congress all of your communications with General Flynn, but you have repeatedly refused,” Cummings and Engel wrote. “Given today’s report, we request that you produce, by December 12, 2017, all documents previously requested in our letters of June 19, 2017, September 12, 2017, and September 15, 2017.”
Cummings and Engel also requested that McFarlane produce all documents referenced in the Journal article, all documents and communications between McFarlane and Flynn, and all documents relating to meetings with Trump transition team or Administration officials regarding the nuclear plan.
Cummings and Engel sent a second letter to Thomas J. Barrack, Jr., who reportedly had a “series of conversations” with General Flynn, Senior Adviser to the President Jared Kushner, and others about the nuclear project proposal. It has also been reported that Barrack met with General Flynn’s former business colleagues on this proposal at the White House in April 2017, and he has publicly advocated for President Trump to embrace a Middle East “Marshall Plan”—a term that General Flynn’s business associates use to characterize their proposal.
Cummings and Engel requested that Barrack participate in a transcribed interview by December 12, 2017, to answer questions about discussions he had regarding this nuclear plan with former and current officials in the Trump Administration and foreign officials or business colleagues in the Middle East, and his role in promoting this plan to Trump Administration officials and cabinet agencies.
Click here to read the letter to McFarlane.
Click here to read the letter to Barrack.
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