Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn assured a business associate that economic sanctions against Russia would be “ripped up” as one of the Trump administration’s first orders of business, The New York Times reported Wednesday. Flynn reportedly thought the repeal of sanctions would help a business project he was once worked on with Russia, according to a whistleblower, suggesting the former White House staffer had personal incentive for a closer U.S.-Russia relationship. Flynn texted Alex Copson of ACU Strategic Partners on Inauguration Day that a project to build nuclear power plants in the Middle East with Russia was “good to go.” “This is going to make a lot of very wealthy people,” Copson replied.
