A Republican operative was working to obtain Hillary Clinton's emails for years, and reportedly consulted with former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to do it.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that a veteran Republican activist, Peter Smith, met with Flynn back in 2015 as a part of his long-term effort to get his hands on Clinton's emails. Smith apparently thought that Flynn's connections would help him get in touch with hackers who had access to the emails.

The two initiated a "business relationship" in November 2015, an email from Smith's former associate revealed. Before Flynn joined President Trump's campaign as a top adviser, and long before he resigned and pleaded guilty on charges of lying to the FBI, he was having conversations with a Russian ambassador, which Smith thought would be helpful in his email mission.

Smith, who reportedly secretly raised $100,000 in his quest to purchase Clinton's stolen emails, died in 2017, but the associates' email reviewed by the Journal details that Smith spoke with Flynn "on the day he left for his trip to Moscow." Smith apparently told people in 2016 that he was using Flynn's connections in his effort to chase down the emails that hackers stole from Clinton.

His hunt for the trove of emails was "all-consuming," Smith's acquaintances say, and he was convinced that they would reveal incriminating information. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office is reportedly interested in Smith's actions and relationship with Flynn as a part of its probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Read more at The Wall Street Journal. Summer Meza