Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating a plan that former national security adviser Michael Flynn allegedly hatched with Turkey to deliver a cleric in exchange for $15 million, according to two reports.
The Wall Street Journal and NBC News report that Flynn took a meeting with Turkish officials last December in New York City to discuss a plan that would involve forcibly removing cleric Fethullah Gulen from Pennsylvania and returning him to Turkey, his home country.
Turkey believes Gulen was a driving force behind last year's coup, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants him imprisoned as a political enemy.
In return, Flynn and his son, Michael Flynn Jr., would secretly be paid upwards of $15 million by Turkey, according to both reports.
The December 2016 meeting — after Flynn had been tapped to be President Donald Trump's NSA — was a follow-up to a pre-election meeting in September during which Turkey first broached the idea with Flynn about delivering Gulen, the Journal reported.
That meeting was attended by former CIA director James Woolsey, who told The Journal that the Turkey-Flynn plan was "a covert step in the dead of night to whisk this guy away."
Further, NBC reports that Flynn and Turkey were working on a wider deal that would have the former general secretly working for Ankara while in the White House.
Flynn lasted just 24 days as NSA for not informing the Trump administration about his dalliance with Russian officials.
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