The military determined in 2010 that retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, President-elect Trump’s national security adviser, “inappropriately shared” classified documents with allies during his time in Afghanistan after an investigation was ordered by then-Gen. James Mattis, Trump’s pick for defense secretary.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Flynn wasn’t authorized to share the classified material. The investigation determined “there was no actual or potential damage to national security as a result,” Army records reported.
Documents obtained by the Post indicate the investigation into Flynn was ordered by the head of U.S. Central Command. At that point in 2010, the commander would have been Mattis.
As a result, Flynn was verbally reprimanded by James Clapper, who was an intelligence official at the Pentagon at the time and went on to become the director of national intelligence. Clapper later endorsed Flynn to succeed him as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Flynn was serving as the U.S. military intelligence chief in Afghanistan at the time, and he’s previously acknowledged the investigation. The Post reported that he’s called the case insignificant.
“That was substantiated because I actually did it. But I did it with the right permissions when you dig into that investigation. I’m proud of that one. Accuse me of sharing intelligence in combat with our closest allies, please,” he told the Post in August.
According to the report, Flynn did not have the permission he said he did when telling foreign allies about the activities of American agencies operating in Afghanistan, including the Central Intelligence Agency.
The documents obtained by the Post do not reveal what was in the information Flynn shared. “It was a general intelligence briefing that included stuff that shouldn’t have been on those slides,” an anonymous former senior U.S. intelligence official to the Post.
The official added it was “stuff the intelligence community was doing that had a much higher level of classification.”
Former U.S. officials have in the past alleged Flynn shared sensitive information with Pakistani military officials about U.S. intelligence capabilities watching an insurgent group.
Flynn was one of many who criticized Hillary Clinton during the campaign for mishandling classified information. During his speech before the Republican National Convention in July, Flynn led the crowd through chants of “lock her up,” adding “If I, a guy who knows this business, if I did a tenth, a tenth of what she did, I would be in jail today.”
