Flynn asked 'tactical' Middle East questions during classified briefing — while secretly working for Turkey: CIA

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn was among the two advisers involved in a national security briefings for Donald Trump. A new CIA report detailed the types of questions that Flynn was asking and their information while he was secretly working for Turkey.

Legal analyst Marcy Wheeler cited the most recent chapter of the CIA's running history of Presidential briefing. This one covers the Trump transition.

According to the 40-page report, Flynn joined with former Gov. Chris Christie in Trump's first briefing, which went more than two and a half hours, and it was just the first half.

"In this first session, Trump was primarily a listener," the CIA report said. "He did ask some "big picture" questions, reflecting the fact that the material was new to him. Because several of the issues related to matters Flynn had dealt with in the military, he was the most active questioner. In [briefer Ted] Gistaro's words, 'He was on his home turf.' Most of Flynn's questions were on the Middle East and were quite tactical. However, a few of his questions, especially on Iran, raised policy issues and had to be turned aside for referral, if he wished, to the national security advisor."

Flynn not only was serving on Turkey's payroll, he worked diligently to hide it while serving as a top official on Trump's transition team.

Documents from former special counsel Robert Muller cited "a key component of Flynn's work for Turkey involved the government's efforts to remove from the U.S. a Turkish cleric living in Pennsylvania," reported NBC News in late 2018. "Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses the cleric, Fethullah Gulen, of orchestrating a failed coup against him in July 2016. Flynn began working for Turkey about a month later."

The first briefing with Trump and Flynn was in Aug. 2016.

Flynn didn't register as a foreign agent, as is required by law, until Feb. 2017, after he was fired as Trump's national security adviser.

Mueller's court filing confirmed that Flynn and his consulting company were paid $530,000 from Turkey.

"The defendant's business relationship with the Republic of Turkey was thus exactly the type of information FARA [Foreign Agents Registration Act] was designed to ensure was within the public sphere," the Mueller documents said at the time.

Read the full story at EmptyWheel.