Report: Mueller investigating 2017 event attended by Flynn, Nunes, and foreign officials

Special Counsel Robert Mueller and federal prosecutors in Manhattan are both taking a close look at a breakfast held in January 2017 at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., attended by former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), three people familiar with the matter told The Daily Beast.

About 60 people were invited to the Jan. 18 event, held the day after the Global Chairman's Dinner and just before President Trump's inauguration. Foreign officials from Israel, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Japan, Angola, and other countries were invited, while former Kazakh Ambassador Kairat Umarov and two senior Qatari officials were in attendance, The Daily Beast reports. The Global Chairman's Dinner was a way for foreign diplomats to meet with Trump, and some guests also attended the breakfast.

This breakfast is of interest because federal prosecutors are investigating whether the Trump inaugural committee misspent funds and if people gave money as a way to gain influence with the White House, while Mueller's team is looking into whether foreigners used American intermediaries to give money to the Trump inaugural fund, The Daily Beast reports. Flynn, who pleaded guilty in late 2017 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with former Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, is cooperating with Mueller, and has been asked about the breakfast, two people with knowledge of the matter told The Daily Beast. Read more about the breakfast, and the role of Nunes — the former House Intelligence Committee chair and one of Trump's most vocal defenders — at The Daily Beast.

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