The Senate Intelligence Committee has issued subpoenas for the business records of two companies owned by former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr and Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the chairman and vice chairman of the committee, made the announcement Tuesday afternoon, a day after Flynn’s attorney said that the retired lieutenant general was refusing a subpoena and would invoke his Fifth Amendment rights.
They also told reporters that a contempt charge “is on the table” for Flynn if he refuses to turn over the subpoenaed records, which are being sought as part of the committee’s counterintelligence investigation into Russian meddling in the presidential campaign.
Warner, a Democrat, said that the subpoenas were issued Tuesday afternoon for Flynn Intel, LLC. and Flynn Intel, Inc., two Alexandria, Va.-based consulting firms that Flynn started after he left the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014.
Warner said that Flynn’s businesses are being subpoenaed because it is believed that “a business does not have the right to take the Fifth if it’s a corporation.”
In his remarks, Burr said that the committee would still like to hear from Flynn and to review his business documents related to the Russia investigation.
Flynn received payments from several foreign entities through Flynn Intel. He was paid $45,000 by RT, the Russia-owned media outlet, to appear at a gala in Moscow in Dec. 2015.
And in August, Flynn signed a $600,000 lobbying contract with a Dutch shell company closely linked to the Turkish government.
Records regarding that relationship are reportedly the subject of a federal grand jury subpoena issued out of the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia.
“If in fact there’s not a response we’ll seek additional counsel advice on how to proceed forward. At the end of that option is a contempt charge,” Burr told reporters.
And asked whether the committee is considering granting Flynn immunity, Burr ruled out the idea.
“We don’t believe that it’s our place today to offer him immunity,” he said.