Private-sector backers of a controversial Middle East nuclear-power plan worked with former national security adviser Mike Flynn to promote it inside the White House, to the point of sending him a draft memo for the president to sign authorizing the project.

At issue was a proposal to build dozens of nuclear reactors, billed by its backers as a “Marshall Plan for the Middle East.” Before joining the White House, Mr. Flynn, a retired lieutenant general, had advised some of the U.S. companies involved in the plan in his capacity as a consultant.

Mr. Flynn’s efforts to promote the plan included telling a National Security Council staffer to create an official directive detailing the plan for President Donald Trump to sign, according to people familiar with the matter. He also brought the project to the attention of a key administration ally, these people say. The plan was projected to generate $250 billion in revenue for U.S. companies, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Details of Mr. Flynn’s promotion of the project inside the White House first became public in September. Evidence now is surfacing about how far it progressed inside the administration, and how Mr. Flynn’s former staffer continued to promote it after Mr. Flynn left office in February.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating Mr. Flynn’s relationship with the companies involved and to what extent his prior consulting career overlapped with his role as a top adviser to Mr. Trump.


Special counsel Robert Mueller separately is investigating Mr. Flynn’s work before he joined the White House as part of a probe into whether he improperly concealed financial ties to Turkey and to Russia, amid signs that Mr. Flynn may be working on a deal with Mr. Mueller, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Flynn was forced to resign in February for misleading White House officials about earlier conversations with the Russian ambassador about U.S. sanctions.

This account of his efforts to push the nuclear plan is based on interviews with current and former government officials, private-sector individuals who worked on it and documents describing the plan. Mr. Flynn declined through his lawyer to comment.

A White House spokesman said “the White House and National Security Council have rigorous processes in place to ensure that all outside proposals are thoroughly evaluated for their potential legal and policy implications.”

In White House disclosure forms, Mr. Flynn noted his relationship with two of the companies involved in the project, but didn’t reveal any payments. He later amended those forms, saying a third company paid him more than $5,000. He said his relationship with the companies ended in December 2016.

Robert McFarlane, pictured with Mr. Flynn in December, was one of the project’s backers. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Associated Press

Two ranking House Democrats said in September that Mr. Flynn appeared to violate federal law by failing to disclose details of his work for the firms on his security-clearance interview and renewal application in 2016.


Since his resignation, his former private-sector colleagues have continued to lobby various federal agencies about the plan and recently met with Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and a senior White House adviser.

In early January, Mr. Flynn talked favorably about the proposed deal with Mr. Trump’s friend, real-estate magnate Thomas Barrack Jr., who was heading the inauguration, according to a person familiar with the conversation. Mr. Flynn suggested to Mr. Barrack that he talk with one of the project’s backers.

The suggestion kicked off a series of conversations between Mr. Barrack, who was interested in broader change in the Middle East and has extensive business contacts in the region, and Mr. Flynn’s former colleagues, as well as Mr. Kushner. A White House official said nothing came of the meetings with Mr. Kushner.

Mr. Flynn arrived at his National Security Council job with a group of people who felt the Obama administration had been too soft on Iran. They believed the nuclear-power plan, which envisioned building and operating dozens of nuclear plants in Saudi Arabia and across the Middle East, would strengthen Iran’s rivals.

Retired Army Col. Derek Harvey, who worked for Mr. Flynn in the White House, met with private-sector backers of the nuclear plan. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

One of the people Mr. Flynn brought with him, former Army Col. Derek Harvey, said at a meeting during the first week of the new administration that Mr. Flynn had told him to develop a regional economic and energy plan for the Middle East. When staffers pointed out there was an NSC office that handled economic and energy issues, Mr. Harvey said Mr. Flynn had directed him to take the lead on the issue.


A spokesman for Mr. Harvey declined to make him available for comment.

Mr. Harvey met with a private-sector backer of the nuclear plan the first week of the Trump administration. Days later, another of the project’s backers, Robert “Bud” McFarlane, a national security adviser to President Reagan, emailed documents to Mr. Flynn.

One was an appeal to Mr. Trump saying the nuclear plan would boost American industry, generate American jobs and leverage the private sector to reshape the Middle East.

The appeal said the retired military officers involved were known and respected by Mr. Trump. They included Gen. Jack Keane, former Army vice chief of staff, Rear Adm. Michael Hewitt and Gen. Keith Alexander, former head of the National Security Agency.


Mr. McFarlane included a draft of a memo about the project Mr. Trump could send to cabinet heads.

In emailed responses to questions from the Journal, the plan’s backers said the meetings were held and documents were provided at the administration’s request. They said Mr. Flynn had been invited to join their group in the summer of 2016, but that in December he said he wouldn’t participate.

Mr. Flynn forwarded Mr. McFarlane’s email to his staff with an instruction: Prepare a package for the president. Mr. Harvey told his staff to put the contents of the draft memo into an official “cabinet memo” from the president. There is no indication such a memo ever went to Mr. Trump.

NSC lawyers soon directed the council members to stop working on the project because of Mr. Flynn’s prior work as an adviser. They told Mr. Flynn not to attend a planned follow-up meeting with Mr. McFarlane, which Mr. Harvey attended instead.

After Mr. Flynn was ousted, Mr. Harvey pushed NSC colleagues to continue working on the nuclear plan. The private-sector group still promotes the deal and holds weekly meetings.

Mr. Harvey, the administration’s senior Middle East adviser, was dismissed in July after clashes with NSC staffers. He is now senior adviser to the chairman of the House’s Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

“It’s sad to see The Wall Street Journal attacking Republicans for promoting a policy, long supported by both Republican and Democratic administrations, of advocating overseas for American nuclear power,” said Jack Langer, a committee spokesman.

Among other things, the committee is investigating Mr. Flynn.