Previous reports had already raised questions about Flynn mixing government and private work on behalf of the plan. Politico reported he had continued to push the idea during the Trump transition, between when he was named national-security adviser in November and the Inauguration, without disclosing his role. The Wall Street Journal reported that he instructed National Security Council members to meet with “Marshall Plan” staff, too. Congressional Democrats had charged that he failed to make required disclosures when he took the trip.

Yet it was unclear how all of this connected to Flynn’s other legal troubles, including his contacts with Russian officials on behalf of the Trump administration. Nor was it clear why Flynn—a seasoned intelligence agent who ought to have suspected that intelligence intercepts would contradict him—was so foolish as to lie to FBI agents about his conversations. If Flynn were working to protect his business interests, it might explain his lie.

The whistleblower told Cummings, who described him as “authentic, credible, and reliable,” that he ran into Alex Copson, a business partner of Flynn’s, on Inauguration Day. Copson told the whistleblower it was the best day of his life, and that Flynn had just texted him saying the plan was “good to go.” Copson allegedly railed against Obama, whose sanctions he blamed for imperiling the nuclear deal, but told the whistleblower that “Mike has been putting everything in place for us” and was seeing to it that the sanctions were promptly eliminated. If that is true, it could represent straightforward corruption—a top national-security official altering national policy in order to aid his own business interests. (An attorney for ACU, Copson’s employer, said in a statement that “no member of ACU received any communication in any form from General Flynn,” during the campaign or after.)

While Trump had argued during the campaign for improved relations with Moscow, it’s unclear what motivation other members of the administration might have had for immediately trashing the sanctions. In any case, it didn’t happen. On January 24, the FBI interviewed Flynn. Two days later, acting Attorney General Sally Yates informed Don McGahn of the interview and likely told him Flynn was lying. On February 13, after The Washington Post reported that Flynn had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Kisylak, Flynn was forced out—even though the White House had known about his lie for more than two weeks. Under political pressure, Trump did not withdraw the sanctions, and in July, over Trump’s objections, Congress overwhelmingly passed a bill to keep the measures in place.

Cummings wrote that the whistleblower contacted him in June 2017, but that Cummings was reluctant to make his account public, both to protect the whistleblower, and also because Mueller’s office had asked Cummings to wait until it had finished certain investigative steps. Cummings wrote he had now received the signoff.