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"Though not a formal subpoena, the document request is the first
known instance of Mr. Mueller’s team asking the White House to
hand over records," said the Times, which cited unnamed people
close to the investigation for the report.
The Times also said the investigators had questioned witnesses
about whether Flynn was secretly paid by the Turkish government
during the final months of the 2016 campaign.
The White House and Flynn's lawyer, Robert Kelner, did not
immediately respond to requests from Reuters for comment.
The Times quoted Ty Cobb, special counsel to Trump, as saying
“We’ve said before we’re collaborating with the special counsel
on an ongoing basis.”
Trump has denied any collusion between his campaign and Russia
and called the investigation a witch hunt.
The Republican president fired Flynn in February after it became
clear that he had falsely characterized the nature of phone
conversations he had with the Russian ambassador to Washington
in December.
Reuters reported in June that according to a subpoena, federal
prosecutors in Virginia were investigating a deal between Flynn
and Turkish businessman Ekim Alptekin as part of a grand jury
criminal probe. [nL1N1IZ171]
Alptekin’s company, Netherlands-based Inovo BV, paid the
now-inactive Flynn Intel Group $530,000 between September and
November 2016 to produce a documentary and research on Fethullah
Gulen, an exiled Turkish cleric living in the United States.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan blames Gulen for a failed coup
last year.
(Reporting by Washington Newsroom; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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