Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is among the many allies of Donald Trump who faced criminal charges and was granted a presidential pardon while the former president was still in the White House. Flynn’s foreign interactions were a major source of controversy during the Trump years, and according to Guardianreporter Murray Waas, Flynn was warned about accepting foreign money even before Trump was elected president in 2016.
The office of the Defense Department’s inspector general, Waas reports, “has uncovered evidence that Michael Flynn accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from foreign interests and governments, despite repeated warnings by the DoD and the Justice Department that his conduct might be illegal.”
In 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. But Trump defended Flynn vigorously, claiming that his former national security adviser was a victim of political persecution from “the deep state.” Continue reading.