Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s brief attempt at cashing in on his role as a Trump adviser has resulted in two of his business associates being indicted, while revealing more details on Flynn’s work for Turkish government officials while he was also advising Trump’s campaign.
The indictment of Bijan Kian and Ekim Alptekin on charges for failing to register as foreign agents and making false statements shed light on the Ankara-backed lobbying campaign that was aimed primarily at extraditing Turkish preacher Fetullah Gulen to Turkey, where he stands accused of organizing a July 2016 coup attempt.
Here’s what we learned:
Apple tree
Flynn first triggered attention from the Justice Department after writing a Nov. 8, 2016 op-ed in The Hill titled “Our Ally Turkey Is In Crisis And Needs Our Support,” in which the former Defense Intelligence Agency director advocated for Gulen’s removal from the U.S., calling him a “radical cleric.”
Kian — in consultation with Turkish officials — drafted parts of the op-ed, the indictment alleges. Prosecutors trace a line comparing the Ayatollah Khomenei’s pre-revolutionary days meditating under an “apple tree” in France to Gulen’s spiritual refuge in Pennsylvania from an Aug. 4 email that Kian sent Flynn to the final draft, published in November.
The op-ed raised alarm bells at the time, particularly given Flynn’s soon-to-be official role as national security adviser. The indictment says that the Justice Department contacted Flynn about the Nov. 8 op-ed, asking whether he and others had “an obligation to register as an agent of a foreign government.”
‘Truth’ campaign
The same Aug. 4 email thread in which Kian proposed the “apple tree” line allegedly features a broader discussion about starting a project called the “Truth Campaign.”
In the purported messages, Alptekin tries to use Flynn to gain access to the Obama-era State Department, writing him, “Do we know anyone on [John Kerry]’s team?”
The discussions revolved around signing an agreement with Flynn Intel Group, a private consulting and lobbying company that Flynn owns.
Alptekin allegedly demanded a 20 percent cut of the total $600,000 fee provided to Flynn Intel Group, which prosecutors characterize as a “kickback.”
Publicly, the client for Flynn’s company would be registered as a Dutch company, but in reality, the money was coming from the Turkish government, the indictment says.
Alptekin and Kian purportedly changed the name of the project from “Truth Campaign” to “Operation Confidence,” adding that using the “apple tree” anecdote to compare Gulen to the Ayatollah would be a key part of the initiative’s “playbook,” per the indictment
Woolsey and the Turks
The campaign led to a meeting on Sept. 19 between Flynn, Kian, Alptekin, former CIA Director James Woolsey, and two Turkish government ministers: Foreign minister Mevlet Cavusoglu and energy minister (and Erdogan son-in-law) Berat Albayrak.
The indictment alleges that conversation at the meeting “centered on [Gulen] and the Turkish government’s efforts to convince the U.S. government to extradite the Turkish citizen to Turkey.”
Afterwards, the indictment says, Kian and others began a lobbying campaign to convince Congress and the State Department that Gulen was “a threat who should be returned to Turkey.”
Orders from Ankara
Throughout the project, the indictment alleges, Alptekin would hold weekly phone calls with Flynn and would then report back and consult with the Turkish government.
All of this occurred during the heat of the 2016 presidential campaign, with Flynn allegedly taking phone calls on “whether the Turkish officials were satisfied” in the weeks leading up to the election.
Those discussions culminated in the op-ed’s publication on Nov. 8.
“This is a very high profile exposure one day before the election,” Kian emailed Alptekin, before the opinion piece’s publication.
The DOJ opened an investigation into Flynn’s company after the op-ed was published. Flynn Intel Group hired law firm Covington and Burling to investigate whether it was obligated to register as a foreign agent under FARA.
Kian and Alptekin then allegedly lied to the law firm conducting the investigation, leading to a false FARA report that was filed in March 2017.
Their alleged lies are the same that Flynn copped to in his December 2017 plea agreement.
Rats. The lot of them. I’m awash in schadenfreude.
I disagree that the triggering factor was the editorial Flynn wrote which was published on election day.
They didn’t just plan to extradite Gulen in September of 2016 they discussed kidnapping a US resident and rendering him illegally to Turkey. We know this because Admiral Woolsey was so upset by what he heard in the meeting he allegedly got word to VP Biden.
I believe that when the former director of the CIA reaches out to the current VP that is what started a foreign intelligenceinvestigation.
Eventually on or about December 30th 2016 at another meeting at the 21 Club in NYC, with Woolsey present Flynn was offered $15 million to have Gulen extradited and as soon as dt was sworn in he tried to get it done before being fired.
Worse just last week a Turkish official said the dt administration was looking at this again after being rebuffed by the State Department just last fall.
Now Trump thinks he can hand over this cleric in order to shut up Turkey on the pursuit of MBS financier and murderer and of course BFF of Kushner.
I believe that is why President Obama raised Flynn with Trump just days after the election and warned him not to hire Flynn.
Prison.Rule of Law.
I’ve been wondering why Flynn was going to charge $600k for a kidnapping.
Then I figured it out:
When your business focus is “helping villains,” you have to automatically add a few hundred thousand dollars to every job to cover the cost of winning the inevitable fight with law enforcement. The standard markup on the black market for power.
It is becoming obvious that the US criminal justice system has been totally distracted by the so called “war on terror” which has left many of our own citizens to greatly enrich themselves while jeopardizing US national Security by selling out to foreign governments including our greatest enemies.
While we can never forget 9/11 and how the Saudis bombed the world trade center and killed over 3,000 Americans, it is high time the FBI and ATF and DOJ start waking up and realize the white Republicans and all their money are NOT Patriots…they are the 1st to sell out to foreign countries if it means money in their pockets and retaining power in Washington.
Look at McKenzie and company…basically economic hit men selling America to the highest bidders. Time to start issuing longterm prison sentences for these crimes.
Flynn is getting off way too easy…he should get at least 10 years in prison. Trump’s lawyer Cohen’s 3 year sentence is a disgrace and diminishes the importance of Mueller. Cohen should get at least 20 years and lose all his ill gotten assets - PERIOD!
What I find most amazing about this is the utter garbage this lobbying campaign is. Seriously, $600000 buys a couple op Ed articles with a few coined expressions about an apple tree? And the use these to build up some sort of campaign on congress critters? This isn’t some policy piece written with a legion of writers that extensively footnote, this is midnight drivel on a typewriter.
Next what are these contacts with congress? Was this a double secret handshake of the order of “my client has paid me a lot of money to come influence you today, so I’d appreciate that you bring up a bill or talk about this is committee?” Who would fall for this ploy? Or is there money in this $600k eventually for them? Or a wink for future money? Or a wink for a favor?
Let’s ignore this was for a foreign government, subject TO FARA. This is shady if it was a domestic entity doing the same thing.
This swamp reaks.