While in the White House, Flynn reportedly pushed policy for former business associate

In late January, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn forwarded an email to members of his staff from a onetime business associate, and ordered them to turn the memo about building nuclear power plants in the Middle East into policy for President Trump's approval, two people with knowledge of the matter told The Washington Post on Tuesday.

It "made no sense" for him to push the idea, one person told the Post, because "it was a business proposal in the form of a policy paper." The email was written by the co-founder of IP3, a company Flynn advised from August to December 2016, and Flynn told staffers to "essentially put it on White House letterhead and send it to the president for approval," a person familiar with Flynn's directions told the Post. Several administration officials were worried about Flynn having a conflict of interest, and it's unclear if Trump ever saw the proposal.

In a statement to the Post, IP3 said Flynn was never paid by the company and did not accept its offer to serve as an adviser (Flynn put on disclosure forms that he worked with the company until a few weeks before he joined the Trump administration). IP3 also said it did not make any requests in the memo. Flynn served as an adviser from April 2015 to June 2016 to another company that wanted to build nuclear plants in the Middle East, called ACU Strategic Partners. That company paid Flynn to go to Egypt and Israel to promote the plan, and when filling out his 2016 security clearance renewal application, he did not reveal he went on this trip, Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.