Mike Flynn secretly met Turkish officials to plan illegal 'dead of night' extradition of fugitive cleric
Lieutenant General Michael Flynn (ret.), National Security Advisor Designate speaks during a conference on the transition of the US Presidency from Barack Obama to Donald Trump at the US Institute Of Peace in Washington DC, January 10, 2017 (AFP Photo/CHRIS KLEPONIS)

Former CIA Director James Woolsey said that he attended a secret meeting in September with ousted Trump national security adviser Adm. Mike Flynn to plan a covert operation to "whisk away" a fugitive cleric and hand him over to Turkey's authoritarian government.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Woolsey and other people present at the meeting confirmed that Flynn was coordinating with officials from the cabinet of right-wing Turkish Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan in anticipation of extraditing Fethullah Gulen back to Turkey should Trump win the presidency.

The "dead of night" operation was intended to circumvent normal U.S. extradition laws, Woolsey said. The meeting took place on Sep. 19, and Woolsey said he arrived late only to be startled and alarmed that the discussion was treading into potentially illegal territory.

The plan, according to Woolsey, was “a covert step in the dead of night to whisk this guy away.” Gulen is wanted in Turkey for allegedly aiding last summer's failed military coup against the Erdogan regime.

"It isn’t known who raised the idea or what Mr. Flynn concluded about it," said the Journal.

Flynn was forced to step down from Trump's cabinet when it came to light that he lied to Vice President Mike Pence and the public about his communications with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.