On Election Day 2016, a curious op-ed article appeared in The Hill, under the headline: “Our ally Turkey is in crisis and needs our support.” The author — Michael Flynn, who had been director of the Defense Intelligence Agency for two years in the Obama administration — struck a remarkably positive tone toward Turkey and its controversial president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The piece also took a series of shots at Fethullah Gulen, an exiled cleric accused by Erdogan of promoting a failed July 2016 coup against the Turkish government.

The op-ed became that much more curious in March, after the author belatedly registered his consulting firm under an obscure federal statute — the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA — and disclosed that his firm had received over $530,000 from Turkish interests closely aligned with President Erdogan. The Hill, obviously embarrassed, tacked on an Editor’s Note flagging the conflict of interest, and the failure of Flynn, who had been fired in February as President Donald Trump’s national security advisor, to disclose it.

For as much as the investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller seems to be focused on potential collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign, Flynn’s March disclosure suggested that, at least in his case, his conflict of interest lay with Turkey.

Unfortunately for Flynn, things may have just gotten a lot worse. As NBC News first reported on Nov. 5, Mueller and his team are apparently investigating an alleged plot involving Flynn, his son and potentially others to forcibly and extra-legally effect the return of Gulen — currently living in rural Pennsylvania — to Turkey in exchange for millions of dollars.

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The Wall Street Journal then reported on Nov. 10 that the plot was the subject of at least two different meetings last fall, including a December meeting in New York. During that meeting, quietly transferring Gulen by private jet to a Turkish prison island, in exchange for $15 million, was apparently included in the discussion.