Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the Trump administration's incoming national security adviser, sat in on classified intelligence briefings over the summer while at the same time heading a private consulting firm that advised foreign clients.
Recent disclosures reveal the firm, Flynn Intel Group, registered in September to lobby on behalf of a Dutch company owned by a Turkish businessman who is closely tied to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Yahoo News reported Thursday.
Flynn began receiving U.S. intelligence briefings in August as his firm offered "all-source intelligence support" to international clients. The overlap has raised conflict-of-interest concerns.
"This is profoundly troubling and should be disqualifying," Norm Eisen, who served as President Obama's ethics adviser and later as an ambassador to the Czech Republic, told Yahoo. He predicted "wholesale resignations of national security professionals" should Donald Trump select Flynn as his national security adviser.
Flynn accepted the position Thursday night. In a statement released earlier in the day, Flynn vowed to sever all ties to his company, "in accordance with the policy announced by President-elect Trump," should he return to government service. Flynn has not yet commented on his plans to leave the firm since accepting the post.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said on Thursday that Obama had authorized Trump, Vice President-elect Mike Pence, and "designated" staff on Trump's transition team to begin receiving the President's Daily Brief materials, which is composed of sensitive intelligence information.
White House officials did not say whether Flynn, a senior member of the Trump transition team, was among those "designated." The retired lieutenant general was not present on Tuesday when Trump received his first President Daily Brief at Trump Tower in New York.