President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have maintained that they did not know about former national security adviser General Michael Flynn's lobbying for Turkey during the election, but a high ranking Democrat wrote Pence a letter in November informing him of Flynn's potential conflicts of interest, according to Business Insider.
"Recent news reports have revealed that Lt. Gen. Flynn was receiving classified briefings during the presidential campaign while his consulting firm, Flynn Intel Group, Inc., was being paid to lobby the U.S. Government on behalf of a foreign government's interests," Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., wrote.
"Lt. Gen. Flynn's General Counsel and Principal, Robert Kelley, confirmed that they were hired by a foreign company to lobby for Turkish interests, stating: 'They want to keep posted on what we all want to be informed of: the present situation, the transition between President Obama and President-Elect Trump.'
"When asked whether the firm had been hired because of Lt. Gen. Flynn's close ties to President-elect Trump, Mr. Kelley responded , 'I hope so,'" Cummings added.
"Hearing that story today was the first I'd heard of it," Pence said on Fox News Thursday, adding that he "fully support[s] the decision that President Trump made to ask for General Flynn's resignation."
Flynn Intel Group, Inc., received $500,000 for four months of work from Turkish businessman Ekim Alptekin, who told The Associated Press on Friday that he disagreed with Flynn's recent decision to register as a foreign agent because he wasn't paid by the government.
Flynn was hired to lobby the U.S. to extradite Turkish cleric Fetullah Gulen, whose been accused of planning the attempted coup against Erdogan last year.
"I disagree with the filing," said Alptekin, who sits on a Turkish economic relations board headed by an appointee of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "It would be different if I was working for the government of Turkey, but I am not taking directions from anyone in the government."