Documents detail Flynn payments from Russian interests


              FILE - In this Feb. 10, 2017 file photo, then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn sits in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Documents released in a congressional inquiry show Flynn was paid more than $33,750 by RT, Russia’s government-run television system, for appearing at a Moscow event in December 2015. Flynn had retired months earlier as head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 10, 2017 file photo, then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn sits in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Documents released in a congressional inquiry show Flynn was paid more than $33,750 by RT, Russia’s government-run television system, for appearing at a Moscow event in December 2015. Flynn had retired months earlier as head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) - Documents released in a congressional inquiry show former national security adviser Michael Flynn was paid more than $33,750 by RT, Russia's government-run television system, for appearing at a Moscow event in December 2015. Flynn had retired months earlier as head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., wants the Defense Department to recover the payments, saying they violate the Constitution's emoluments clause, which prohibits retired military officers from accepting gifts from foreign governments.

Russia's RT network was identified last year by U.S. intelligence as a propaganda arm of the Russian government.

Flynn was also paid $11,250 each by two other Russian firms, including a major cybersecurity company.

A Flynn spokesman said Thursday that Flynn informed the government before he went to Moscow and on his return.

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