Report: Michael Flynn Skipped Trump's Ethics Pledge

Mike Flynn — ousted as President Donald Trump's national security adviser after it was revealed he lied about contacts with the Russian government — never signed a mandatory ethics pledge before assuming the job, The Daily Beast reports.

The pledge, banning federal appointees from lobbying former colleagues for five years after leaving the administration and on behalf of foreign governments for life, specifies workers are "contractually committed" to its terms "upon signing."

Flynn's spokesman Price Floyd told The Daily Beast:

"Gen. Flynn never had the opportunity to sign Trump's ethics pledge, but he plans to abide by its terms."

But his failure to sign the pledge "removes legal barriers to future foreign agent lobbying and advocacy work involving former White House colleagues," the news website's Lachlan Markay writes.

Flynn, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general, lobbied on behalf of a company linked to the Turkish government last year.

But he only "notified the Justice Department's foreign agent division months after the work took place, and after he had resigned from his White House post," according to Markay.

• WSJ: Flynn Was Paid More Than $50,000 by Russian Companies
• Dems Call for Close of Data Collecting Loophole Post-Flynn