Now, a confidential email reviewed by BuzzFeed News shows that Flynn has played a role as a Palantir advocate since leaving government.
According to the March 2015 email, Flynn, along with retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal, acted as matchmaker for Palantir and Eastdil Secured, a real estate investment banking firm owned by Wells Fargo. Eastdil Secured had been “working on organizational and technology improvements/reforms,” said Doug Philippone, the head of Palantir’s global defense program, in the email.
“Stan McChrystal and Mike Flynn took a look at their progress and said it was unimpressive and that they [Eastdil] needed to reach out to us for help,” Philippone told colleagues in the email. Philippone said that he had just met with four project managers from Eastdil and was expecting to receive a request for a proposal.
Flynn was not hired by Eastdil for this work, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Instead, he met with the company as a guest of McChrystal’s consulting firm, McChrystal Group, which was hired by Eastdil last year, this person said. Eastdil did not end up contracting with Palantir, the person added.
At the same time, Flynn was not paid by Palantir for the recommendation, according to Rep. Hunter’s chief of staff, who said he spoke with Palantir on Wednesday after inquiries by BuzzFeed News. In April, the Washington Times quoted a statement by Hunter’s office saying that Flynn was “not on Palantir’s payroll nor has he ever been.”
A Palantir spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment, and neither did Flynn’s consulting firm, Flynn Intel Group.
McChrystal, according to the New York Times. (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/politics/donald-trump-administration.html,) is under consideration for the job of secretary of state in Trump’s cabinet. A spokesperson for the McChrystal Group declined to comment, as did a spokesperson for Thiel. Representatives for Trump did not respond to a request for comment.
Even if he does not get a job in the administration, Flynn has Trump’s ear on national security issues. He was a strong supporter of the Trump campaign, with lots of enthusiastic tweets. https://twitter.com/genflynn?lang=en,) and Trump mentioned him by name in his victory speech last week.
Palantir’s CEO, Alex Karp, on the other hand, was a supporter (https://www.buzzfeed.com/nitashatiku/silicon-valley-confronts-its-peter-thiel-problem?utm_term=.ale212aok#.dc4RpR7Kw) of Hillary Clinton.