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Michael Flynn: A trip to Moscow, a distraction from Ukraine, and secret phone calls

Michael Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, is now Trump's national security adviser. Flynn was paid by the Kremlin to speak at a gala in December 2015, and is believed to have regularly communicated with the Russian ambassador to the US before Trump was sworn in.

What the dossier says

According to the dossier, a Kremlin official involved in US relations said that Russia attempted to cultivate US political figures by "funding indirectly their recent visits to Moscow."

These political figures, the dossier alleges, included "a delegation from Lyndon LaRouche, presidential candidate Jill Stein of the Green Party, Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page, and former DIA director Michael Flynn." The dossier went on to say that the effort to cultivate these figures had been "successful in terms of perceived outcomes."

The dossier alleges that the Trump campaign pledged to "raise defense commitments in the Baltics and Eastern Europe to deflect attention away from Ukraine." Recent reporting indicates that Flynn, now Trump's national security advisor, is poised to make good on that pledge.

What happened

In December 2015, Flynn, then recently retired from the Defense Intelligence Agency, traveled to Moscow to speak at a gala celebrating the 10th anniversary of state-sponsored news agency Russia Today.

Flynn later told The Washington Post that he had been paid to speak at the gala, where he was photographed sitting next to Putin at dinner.

Top Democratic lawmakers are now calling on the Defense Department to investigate whether Flynn ran afoul of the US Constitution by accepting money from the Kremlin. 

Since the dinner in Moscow, Flynn has toed a Russia-friendly line that's out of line with his more hawkish former US defense colleagues. He has appeared on Russia Today (RT) several times as a commentator. He also suggested last year that he saw no difference between the state-run RT and other news networks like CNN, MSNBC, and Al Jazeera.

One of Flynn's appearances on RT in October 2015 ran under the headline: "Former DIA Chief Michael Flynn Says Rise Of ISIS Was A 'Willful Decision' Of US Government."

Last Tuesday, Politico reported that Flynn will recommend that Trump support the ascension of Montenegro, a small Balkan nation, into NATO. Russia officially opposes such a move. But it aligns with the dossier's suggestion that the Trump White House would support raising commitments "in the Baltics and Eastern Europe to deflect attention away from Ukraine."

Last Thursday, moreover, both The Washington Post and The New York Times reported that Flynn had spoken with Russia's ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, about the US economic sanctions on Russia before Trump was sworn in -- including at least one call on the day President Barack Obama imposed new penalties on Russia for its election-related meddling.

Both Flynn and Vice President Mike Pence initially denied that Flynn and Kislyak discussed US sanctions during these calls. But counterintelligence officials told the Times that they have transcripts of the conversations and that the sanctions were discussed. Flynn has since backtracked on his denial, saying that he doesn't recall exactly what they spoke about.

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