Flynn to Provide Documents for Russia Investigation After Initially Refusing

By Tom LoBianco and Phil Mattingly, CNN

31 May 17

ormer national security adviser Michael Flynn will provide documents requested by the Senate intelligence committee -- including an initial batch by June 6 -- a person close to Flynn said Tuesday.

The source said that Flynn's lawyers alerted the intelligence committee Tuesday that he would respond to the two subpoenas sent to his businesses and would also provide personal documents sought via a separate subpoena after Senate investigators narrowed the scope of the request. The Associated Press first reported that Flynn would comply with the subpoena.

The source said that all the documents from the two subpoenas to the businesses will be provided. But the source said that fewer documents from the personal subpoena will be submitted after negotiations with the Senate committee. The source said it was too early to determine what percentage of that original request would be filled or how soon the entire request would be met.

Senate intelligence chairman Richard Burr of North Carolina and vice chairman Mark Warner of Virginia floated the prospect of holding Flynn in contempt of Congress if he continued withholding the documents.

The source added that the topic of Flynn testifying was not discussed today.

Flynn and three other former Trump campaign operatives -- former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former adviser Roger Stone and former foreign policy adviser Carter Page -- have been the central focus of congressional investigators for months now.

But House and Senate investigators have also expanded their sights to more recent Trump aides, including personal lawyer Michael Cohen and former on-air surrogate Boris Epshteyn.

Still, Flynn has drawn the most attention. House oversight committee investigators revealed that Flynn did not disclose payments from Russia's state-run television, RT, on his request for a security clearance. Similarly, Flynn did not register as a foreign agent while lobbying indirectly for Turkey.

And a string of damning revelations have trickled out in the months since Trump fired Flynn, including former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates' public testimony that she warned the White House that Flynn could become a target for Russian blackmail because he never disclosed his talks with the Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak.

Flynn has sought immunity in order to testify before any of the Russia probes, and he initially cited his Fifth Amendment protection from incriminating himself when he first declined to hand over documents to Senate investigators.