US

Michael Flynn’s Lawyers Say He Is No Longer Joining Lobbying Firm

REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Chuck Ross Investigative Reporter
Font Size:

An announcement on Tuesday that former national security advisor Michael Flynn joined a global consulting firm was due to a “misunderstanding,” his attorneys say.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier on Tuesday that Flynn took a position as a consultant for Stonington Global LLC., a lobbying firm founded by Nick Muzin, a former staffer for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and Joey Allaham.

An announcement issued by the firm said that Flynn would “help private investors and sovereign-wealth funds develop and execute investment strategies.”

But Flynn lawyers Robert Kelner and Stephen Anthony issued a statement after The Journal published its article stating that “General Flynn has not joined Stonington and did not personally issue any public statement.”

“He was aware that a statement was being drafted, but he did not intend that it be issued at this time,” Kelner and Anthony said.

Muzin and Allaham issued a statement of their own after the mix-up, saying: “We cannot comment on General Flynn’s considerations about the timing of the announcement, but we have faith in his patriotism and long history of service to our country. We look forward to working together.”

The announcement and subsequent retraction comes shortly after Flynn left a hearing in federal court in Washington regarding his case before the special counsel. Flynn, a retired lieutenant general, pleaded guilty on Dec. 1 for making false statements to the FBI about his contacts with former Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Flynn faces up to five years in prison for the charge, though he is expected to face between zero and six months in jail. He has been cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team as part of the plea deal.

Flynn, who served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in the Obama administration, has worked before as an international lobbyist. While a member of the Trump campaign, Flynn’s former consulting firm, Flynn Intel Group, signed a $600,000 contract with a Dutch company operated by a Turkish businessman linked to the Turkish government. (RELATED: Michael Flynn Worked For Obscure Dutch Company With Links To Turkish Government)

Flynn retroactively registered as a foreign agent of Turkey in March 2017, amid an investigation by the Department of Justice.

Flynn’s contract called for him to lobby for the extradition of Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric who is a political foe of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Flynn wrote an op-ed for The Hill on Election Day, Nov. 8, 2016, calling for Gulen’s removal from the U.S. The op-ed did not disclose that Flynn was being paid for the anti-Gulen campaign.

As part of Flynn’s plea deal, the special counsel’s office agreed not to charge him with any crimes related to his work for the Turkish government.

Muzin’s lobbying work has also put him in the public spotlight. He worked most recently on a $300,000-per-month contract with the government of Qatar. Elliott Broidy, a former Republican National Committee finance co-chairman, recently sued Muzin and the Qatari government, claiming that they hacked his personal email account. Broidy had links to the United Arab Emirates, a rival to the Qataris. (RELATED: Michael Flynn Charged With Making False Statements To The FBI)

Muzin and the Qatari government have denied the hacking allegations.

According to TheWSJ’s initial reporting, Flynn’s son, Michael Flynn Jr., was also slated to join Stonington Global. The updated report does not mention him.

This article has been updated to reflect changes in The Wall Street Journal’s reporting. 

Follow Chuck on Twitter

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel