Thread: Michael Flynn: Documents sought from ex-Trump advisor over Russia inquiry

Michael Flynn: Documents sought from ex-Trump advisor over Russia inquiry

1 hour ago
May 10, 2017

A US Senate panel investigating Russian interference in last year's election has issued a formal demand for documents from President Donald Trump's former national security adviser.

Michael Flynn has failed to voluntarily co-operate with the investigation, the Senate Intelligence Committee says.

He was forced to resign in February after failing to disclose the content of his talks with Russian diplomats.

Meanwhile, the fallout continues over the firing of the FBI director.

The White House maintained that James Comey was removed on Tuesday for his handling of the inquiry over Hillary Clinton's emails.

But US media reported that he had recently asked the Justice Department for more resources for his Trump-Russia investigation.

The Senate Intelligence Committee said it issued a subpoena after Mr Flynn rejected its request on 28 April to submit documents relevant to the investigation.

Mr Flynn, a retired army lieutenant-general, misled the White House about discussing US sanctions against Russia with the country's envoy, Sergei Kislyak, before Donald Trump's inauguration in January.

His links to Russia are being scrutinised by the FBI and the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, as part of wider investigations into claims Moscow sought to tip the election in favour of Mr Trump, and into contacts between Russia and members of the president's campaign team.

The rare use of a subpoena by senators makes it clear that the committee is forging ahead with its investigation into the alleged Trump-Russia links, the BBC's Laura Bicker in Washington says.

Reaction to Mr Comey's firing continued on Wednesday, with a White House spokeswoman saying that President Trump had been considering sacking the FBI director since he was elected.

But critics accuse the Republican president of firing the nation's top law enforcement official because he was leading the Russian inquiry.

The White House has rejected calls to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate allegations the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin over last year's election.

The Senate Intelligence Committee invited Mr Comey to testify next week.

In a farewell letter to staff, Mr Comey said he would not "spend time on the decision or the way it was executed".

"It is very hard to leave a group of people who are committed only to doing the right thing," he added.

"My hope is that you will continue to live our values and the mission of protecting the American people and upholding the Constitution."

President Trump stood by his actions, saying Mr Comey was fired "because he was not doing a good job".

On Wednesday, Democratic senators Dianne Feinstein and Richard Durbin told US media that Mr Comey had asked the deputy attorney general for more resources - mainly staff - for the FBI investigation.

Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores called those reports "totally false".

Either way, Republicans and Democrats vowed the House and Senate Intelligence Committees' investigations into the Russia claims would continue.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said if Mr Trump believed replacing Mr Comey would halt the inquiries "he made a big mistake".

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39879749

I don't think the US Congress has subpoena power over a private citizen. I've never heard of such a thing. If for some reason they've given themselves this power, this power needs to repealed and stripped away post haste.

We have a Bill of Rights and no one should be required under a subpoena to submit documents or testify against themselves. It's outrageous! If Flynn has done something wrong, then the appropriate authorities, not Congress, should charge him and give the man a trial before his peers.

I'm very sorry, but I can no longer support Richard Burr because of his role in this sham witch hunt against Flynn. This soooo crosses the line of proper conduct of a US Senator. Our members of Congress are supposed to protect our rights not steam-roll over them.

SHAME!!

I just heard the FBI has assigned 150 agents to the "Russia Inquiry". Oh my God, and they've got nothing. What a waste of time and money, no wonder Trump is wanting change in leadership at the FBI.

This constantly flogging the Russians is going to come to a bad end. Nobody cares and nobody really believes that the Russians are some kind of evil force in the world.

I completely agree. I discuss it with people here and in my family and they go "yeah, why does everyone hate on the Russians?" It's like they really hadn't thought about it, but when they do, they don't see the validity of former government positions on Russia. It's all been FAKE.GOV just like what's going on now in the CORRUPT MEDIA and Congress with the "Russia Inquiry".

It's all going to back-fire on them, too. Trump is pushing ahead with the important matters of establishing good relations with Russia. I think he and Tillerson, Lavrov and Sislyak had a nice day together making plans to fix the problem in Syria with the safe zones, some issues to overcome and work out, but speedily on the road to establishing safe areas for refugees to go to and most importantly return to. According to an article I read they also discussed violence in Ukraine, other Middle East situations, and the overall desire of both countries to have better relations.

Another looming problem is Albanian territorial aggression in the Balkans. It was a mistake to give them control over Kosovo, they never had any intentions to stop with Kosovo, they want a lot more territory seized mostly from Orthodox Christians.