WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 (UPI) — Michael Flynn, President-elect Donald Trump‘s choice for national security adviser, violated regulations regarding intelligence while an Army general, a U.S. military report indicates.
Flynn “inappropriately shared” classified information with foreign military officers while serving in Afghanistan, newly released documents obtained by The Washington Post show. A 2010 investigation of Flynn’s actions remain classified so the report is incomplete, but former U.S. officials familiar with the situation have said Flynn revealed activities of the CIA and other agencies working in Afghanistan, the newspaper said Wednesday.
The CIA has had a large presence in Afghanistan since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States.
The report says that though Flynn, a lieutenant general at the time and serving as U.S. military intelligence chief in Afghanistan, lacked authorization to share the classified material, he was not disciplined by the Army. The investigation concluded “there was no actual or potential damage to national security as a result” of his actions. Flynn, in the past, has acknowledged that he was investigated for sharing classified information with British and Australian allies while in Afghanistan, but has referred to the case as insignificant.
Two government officials have said Flynn also failed to follow established security protocols when he shared classified information from other U.S. agencies with Pakistan on the topic of terror networks, CNN reported Thursday. He was formally reprimanded for those actions but never charged with wrongdoing.
Flynn was forced to retire from the army in 2014, and as a civilian became a critic of President Barack Obama‘s administration and its policies in dealing with Iran and al-Qaida.
In 2016 and retired from the Army, Flynn actively campaigned for Trump in the presidential election. He was critical of Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton‘s handling of sensitive information while she served as secretary of state. At the Republican National Convention in July, he encouraged the crowd’s chant of “Lock her up” and said, “If I, a guy who knows this business, if I did a tenth, a tenth of what she did, I would be in jail today.”
As nominee for the position of national security adviser, Flynn is not subject to congressional approval.
