# The Flynn charges > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "The Flynn charges," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-flynn-charges/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *John Kiriakou supported the appointment of a special counsel in 2017 while rejecting the Russia allegations outright — arguing that the case for an investigation rested not on election interference but on a list of ordinary, provable crimes he believed senior Trump campaign figures, and Michael Flynn in particular, had already committed.* - **Unregistered agent:** For Turkey, and for Russia - **Unreported payment:** Given variously as $40,000 and $65,000 - **Ethics report:** Incorrect and improper information - **Others named:** Manafort, Carter Page, possibly Roger Stone - **Told to:** Peter B. Collins, 19 May 2017 Kiriakou has been consistent that he did not believe the intelligence community's account of Russian interference in the 2016 election. He was equally clear that this did not settle the question of whether the Trump campaign should be investigated, and on that he parted company, as he put it, with a lot of his friends on the left.[1] ## Why he backed a special counsel He supported the appointment of a special counsel, he said, not because he thought there was anything to the Russian issues, but because he thought crimes had been committed by senior members of the Trump campaign.[1] The distinction matters to the shape of his argument. The offences he listed require no theory about foreign intelligence services at all; they are failures of registration and disclosure, each of which he enumerated as a discrete crime. ## The list Michael Flynn, he said, was known to have failed to register as an agent for a foreign government while lobbying for Turkey. That is a crime. He also failed to register as an agent for the Russian government while taking money from the Russians to lobby. That is a crime. He did not report the payment — a figure Kiriakou gives with explicit uncertainty, as either forty thousand or sixty-five thousand dollars, saying he has seen both. That is a crime. And he filled out incorrect, improper information on his ethics report, which is also a crime.[2] That, Kiriakou said, was what he wanted to get to the bottom of: Flynn, Paul Manafort, Carter Page, possibly Roger Stone. He wanted to see what was going on inside that campaign.[3] ## The company he did not keep His endorsement of the office did not extend to the man appointed to it. Kiriakou has said plainly that he is no fan of Robert Mueller — it was Mueller who headed the investigation that put him in prison, and Mueller who created what the FBI called the John Kiriakou Task Force — but that he nonetheless thought a special counsel was needed.[4] ## See also - [Robert Mueller](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/robert-mueller) - [The Attribution Problem In The Dnc Hack](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-attribution-problem-in-the-dnc-hack) - [Donald Trump](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/donald-trump) - [The Washington Post editorial on the cover-up](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-washington-post-editorial-on-the-cover-up) ## Sources 1. In-Depth Interview - Former CIA Officer John Kiriakou Talks About His Prison Experience (2017-05-19), at 45:16. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auddfe68a43b&t=2716s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-05-19-peter-b-collins-show-in-depth-interview-former-cia-officer-john-ki/ 2. In-Depth Interview - Former CIA Officer John Kiriakou Talks About His Prison Experience (2017-05-19), at 45:51. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auddfe68a43b&t=2751s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-05-19-peter-b-collins-show-in-depth-interview-former-cia-officer-john-ki/ 3. In-Depth Interview - Former CIA Officer John Kiriakou Talks About His Prison Experience (2017-05-19), at 46:22. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auddfe68a43b&t=2782s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-05-19-peter-b-collins-show-in-depth-interview-former-cia-officer-john-ki/ 4. In-Depth Interview - Former CIA Officer John Kiriakou Talks About His Prison Experience (2017-05-19), at 48:44. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auddfe68a43b&t=2924s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-05-19-peter-b-collins-show-in-depth-interview-former-cia-officer-john-ki/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-flynn-charges/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt