A deceased Republican activist who tried to obtain emails he believed were stolen from Hillary Clinton’s private server also met with former national security adviser Michael Flynn in 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
In emails previously described by the newspaper, the operative, Peter W. Smith, claimed that he was using his ties to Flynn’s son and consulting firm, the Flynn Intel Group, to try to secure access to the missing emails.
The new Journal article provides the first concrete indication of just how far back Smith’s relationship with Flynn went.
“As you are aware Peter started a business relationship with Gen. Mike Flynn in November 2015. We spoke with him on the day he left for his trip to Moscow,” a Smith associate wrote in an email provided to the newspaper.
Flynn admitted last year to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials, and is scheduled to be sentenced in December.
Smith committed suicide last year shortly after talking to the Journal about his fruitless months-long effort to get ahold of Clinton’s emails.
His quest is of “expanding” and “intense interest to federal investigators” in special counsel Robert Mueller’s office, who have interviewed a number of Smith’s associates, according to a Sunday Journal report. The newspaper reported that multiple donors contributed over $100,000 to Smith’s effort.
Read the latest full report here.