Trump team denies Flynn met with Austrian far-right leader

Freedom Party head Heinz-Christian Strache claimed on Facebook he'd met with incoming national security adviser at Trump Tower

By JTA 22 December 2016, 10:41 pm
Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn in Washington, DC, Feb. 4, 2014. (Alex Wong/Getty Images via JTA)

A Donald Trump transition team spokesman denied a report that Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the president-elect’s designated national security adviser, had met with a leader of Austria’s far-right.

In a Thursday morning call with reporters, Jason Miller said Flynn had never met with Heinz-Christian Strache, who heads the Freedom Party.

“The fact of the matter is that General Flynn has never spoken with or met the Austrian politician in question and strongly disavows groups with such viewpoints,” Miller said.

Earlier this week, Strache wrote on his Facebook page that he had met with Flynn a few weeks ago at Trump Tower in New York.

Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache casts his vote in national elections at a polling station in Vienna, Austria, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2013. (AFP)

The Freedom Party, which narrowly lost in presidential elections earlier this month, was founded in 1956 by a Nazi SS officer. Its past leader, Joerg Haider, called SS veterans “decent people of good character.”

read more: