Former US national security adviser received money from Russia

White House documents released on April 1 show that former US national security adviser Michael Flynn concealed the fact that he received money from Russian companies.

Former US national security adviser Michael Flynn - Photo: Reuters

On March 31, in a signed financial disclosure, Mr. Flynn admitted to receiving money from Russians, including speeches for the Russian government-sponsored television station RT-TV and Volga-Dnepr Airlines.

Mr. Flynn continued to keep the matter vague by not revealing exactly how much money he received from Russia, but the remuneration for these speeches was classified as "compensation in excess of $5,000 per year."

Continuously concealed

Previously, there were rumors that Mr. Flynn received money from Russian companies since 2015, including more than 22,000 USD from security firm Kaspersky and Russian airline Volga-Dnepr Airlines.

These two amounts were not mentioned in the financial disclosure signed by Mr. Flynn himself and released on March 31. However, it is noteworthy that all of these amounts did not appear in Mr. Flynn's financial disclosure last February, the time before he resigned, according to Reuters.

This also means that once again the former US national security adviser - who was once trusted by Donald Trump - once again lied about his relationship with Russia.

Former Army Lieutenant General Flynn had to resign on February 13 for lying about his dealings with Russians before Donald Trump took office as US President.

Recently, Mr. Flynn became the center of attention again when he set the condition of "exoneration" to testify before the US Senate Intelligence Committee.

This immediately "fueled the fire" for Democratic lawmakers to attack Mr. Flynn and the Donald Trump administration's team, while investigations into alleged Russian interference in the US election and the connection between Mr. Trump's campaign team and the Russians have not yet been concluded.

Democratic Representative Adam Schiff of the House Intelligence Committee questioned why Mr. Flynn would want to be exonerated if he was not guilty. Other Democrats even used the "stick to beat back" tactic, recalling Mr. Flynn's own words late last year that "if you ask for immunity, you must have committed a crime."

The White House is out of control

The White House and the Trump administration are facing one crisis after another. According to CNN, the Trump administration prefers to solve a crisis by focusing on another, bigger crisis, but contrary to expectations, the White House seems to have lost control and the crises keep piling up and escalating.

From the story of Mr. Trump suggesting that Mr. Flynn should be acquitted when he testifies, to avoid the Democrats' "nitpicking", to the story of him declaring war on the Republican conservative group and stirring up internal strife.

The White House's temporary strategy at this time is to blame the previous administration. White House press secretary Sean Spicer on March 31 accused the Barack Obama administration of "playing tricks", saying that before the end of its term, it spread rumors throughout the government about Russian interference in the US election, intentionally leaving behind what could be considered "evidence" for future investigators.

Mr Spicer also cited Evelyn Farkas, a former Pentagon official under Mr Obama, who urged colleagues to provide such information to Congress before Mr Trump took office.

Mr. Spicer said the above call was a trick of the previous administration, turning information leaks into a tool for political games.

Meanwhile, speaking to CNN, Ms. Farkas asserted that her call stemmed from the possibility that the Trump administration might suppress this information when he took office. Therefore, she urgently called for providing it to congressional committees.

According to tuoitre.vn