Turkish non-delight...

Flynn business associates charged with illegally lobbying for Turkish government

By CAITLIN OPRYSKO

Two former business partners of ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn have been charged with failing to register as foreign agents as they covertly lobbied on behalf of Turkey.

Bijan Rafiekian, a former partner at Flynn’s shuttered lobbying firm, the Flynn Intel Group, is being charged with acting as an agent of a foreign government and conspiracy for his work trying to get a Turkish cleric accused of inciting a failed coup in 2016 extradited from the U.S.

The cleric, Fethullah Gulen, has been living in Pennsylvania while the Turkish government has accused him of plotting to overthrow the government and leading a terrorist group. Gulen has denied the claims.

A Turkish businessman, Ekim Alptekin, who allegedly helped bankroll the lobbying using his Dutch firm as a cover, has also been charged with conspiracy and failing to register as a foreign agent, as well as with lying to investigators.

Both men are accused of trying to conceal the Turkish government’s involvement in their efforts to “discredit and delegitimize” Gulen in the American public and political spheres.

The Trump administration earlier this year reportedly considered allowing his extradition to Turkey to ease pressure after the murder of a Washington Post journalist in the Saudi consulate there, and Turkey's foreign minister claimed just a day ago that President Donald Trump was working on Gulen's extradition.

Flynn, who was forced out of the Trump administration for lying about his contacts with Russians during the presidential transition, pleaded guilty in a separate case for lying to investigators last year about his conversations with the Russian ambassador and admitted to lying about his lobbying work.

The indictment unsealed on Monday morning refers to a “Person A,” who appears to be Flynn, who worked with Rafiekian and Alptekin on the effort to have Gulen transported back to Turkey.

The charges against Rafiekian and Alptekin were brought by a grand jury in Alexandria, Va., at the request of prosecutors there, under the authority of U.S. Attorney Zach Terwillinger.

Rafiekian appeared in court in Alexandria briefly Monday morning, accompanied by his attorney Robert Trout, according to court records, and he was released on his own recognizance. He is expected back in court Tuesday for a formal arraignment before the district court judge assigned to the case, Anthony Trenga, a George W. Bush appointee.

Court records show no indication that Alptekin is in custody, though the charging documents say that he currently resides in Turkey, and chances are slim that Turkey would extradite him in a case like this.

Prosecutors outline a scheme in which Alptekin allegedly coordinated with Turkish government officials to determine a budget for the project they began calling the “Truth Campaign.” The name of the project was later changed, and after securing funding from the Turkish government, Rafiekian changed the name of his and Flynn’s client to a Dutch company owned and operated by Alptekin, rather than Turkey, prosecutors allege.

As part of the project, prosecutors say, Flynn, Alptekin and Rafiekian met with Turkish ministers in New York in September 2016 to discuss Gulen and Turkey’s attempts to secure his extradition, which the Department of Justice had rejected.

Former CIA Director James Woolsey, who joined the meeting after it was underway, told the Wall Street Journal in March 2017 that the discussion broached the idea of “a covert step in the dead of night to whisk this guy away.”

However, Woolsey later said there was no explicit discussion of a kidnapping in his presence, although it was his impression that what was being contemplated was improper.

The indictment makes no mention of any kidnapping or other use of force. “The conversation centered on the Turkish citizen [Gulen] and the Turkish government’s efforts to convince the U.S. government to extradite the Turkish citizen to Turkey,” the indictment says.

Prosecutors also say Rafiekian lobbied a member of Congress, a congressional staffer and a “state government official” on the issue, urging the member to hold hearings on Gulen’s predicament.

During this time, which occurred in the run-up to the 2016 election, Alptekin was keeping high-level officials in the Turkish government apprised of the project’s progress, the indictment says.

The indictment also refers to an op-ed that ran on The Hill on the day of the 2016 presidential election. Though the editorial carried Flynn’s name as the author, prosecutors say it was drafted by Rafiekian and sent to Alptekin the same day the latter complained that Flynn and Rafiekian’s firm had not publicized enough negative information about Gulen.

The op-ed contained several of the same talking points Alptekin and Rafiekian discussed in their initial outline of the lobbying effort, as well as those prepared for the trio’s meeting with Turkish officials earlier in the year.

That op-ed drew the attention of investigators to Flynn, who claimed to have written the piece of his own accord. Nevertheless, the attention resulted in Flynn retroactively registering as a foreign agent. Flynn’s attorney wrote in the original filing that though the client, Alptekin’s company, was Dutch, Flynn’s work on Alptekin’s behalf “could be construed to have principally benefited the Republic of Turkey."

The indictments of Flynn’s former associates leave his fate up in the air. As part of his coordination with special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election, Flynn admitted to lying on the forms he used to retroactively register.

Two weeks ago, Mueller’s team wrote in a sentencing memo that Flynn had provided “substantial assistance” to investigators in its Russia investigation as well as two unnamed criminal investigations, and as such recommended little or no jail time.

Flynn is set to be sentenced on Tuesday.