Michael Flynn to receive new order to hand over Russia documents

Former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn, already the subject a Senate Intelligence Committee subpoena, is now being subpoenaed by the House of Representatives as well.

Representative Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he planned to issue the subpoenas this week, as part of his committee’s investigation into Russian meddling in the US election.

Mr Flynn has refused the committee’s previous requests for information.

"We will be following up with subpoenas, and those subpoenas will be designed to maximise our chance of getting the information that we need," Mr Schiff said at an event sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.

Mr Flynn has also refused to comply with a Senate Intelligence Committee subpoena seeking records of his communications with Russian officials. He is expected to plead the fifth, invoking his right against self-incrimination to avoid turning over the documents.

"The subpoena seeks to compel [Flynn] to offer testimony through the act of producing documents that may or may not exist. In these circumstances, [Flynn] is entitled to, and does, invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege against production of documents," Flynn's lawyer wrote in a letter to the Senate committee.

Leaders of the Senate investigation now say they may hold him in contempt of Congress.

"The only thing I can tell you is immunity is off the table,” Senator Richard Burr, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said this week.

Both the Senate and House committees are hoping that Mr Flynn will provide information relating to the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia, and whether they engaged in any collusion during the 2016 presidential election.

Mr Trump has called the ongoing investigation “the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history”. The White House has refused to turn over documents related to Mr Flynn’s foreign payments to the House Oversight Committee.

The former national security adviser first came under scrutiny after it was revealed that he had spoken with the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, about US sanctions against the country. He was fired shortly thereafter for misrepresenting the conversations to Vice President Mike Pence.

It has since been revealed the Mr Flynn received payment from Russian state media outlet RT for a speaking engagement in 2015, and was contracted by the Turkish government to aid in negotiations with the US in 2016.

The House Oversight Committee has accused Mr Flynn of misleading the Pentagon about his contacts with and payments from foreign governments when he applied for renewed security clearance last year.