WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s embattled national security adviser Michael Flynn resigned following reports he misled Vice President Mike Pence and other officials about his contacts with Russia. His departure upends Trump’s senior team after less than a month in office.
In a resignation letter, Flynn said he gave Vice President Mike Pence and others “incomplete information” about his calls with Russia’s ambassador to the US. The vice president, apparently relying on information from Flynn, initially said the national security adviser had not discussed sanctions with the Russian envoy, though Flynn later conceded the issue may have come up.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin on Tuesday insisted that Flynn’s resignation was Washington’s internal affair.
“This is the internal business of the Americans, it is the internal business of President Trump’s administration. This is not our business,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Trump named retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg as the acting national security adviser. Kellogg had previously been appointed the National Security Council chief of staff and advised Trump during the campaign.
Trump is also considering former CIA Director David Petraeus and Vice Admiral Robert Harward, a US Navy SEAL, for the post, according to a senior administration official.
The Trump team’s account of Flynn’s discussions with the Russian envoy changed repeatedly over several weeks, including the number of contacts, the dates of those contacts and ultimately, the content of the conversations. Late last month, the Justice Department warned the White House that Flynn could be in a compromised position as a result of the contradictions between the public depictions of the calls and what intelligence officials knew to be true based on recordings of the conversations, which were picked up as part of routine monitoring of foreign officials’ communications in the US.
A US official said that Flynn was in frequent contact with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak on the day the Obama administration slapped sanctions on Russia for election-related hacking, as well as at other times during the transition.
An administration official and two people with knowledge of the situation confirmed the Justice Department warnings on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. It was unclear when Trump and Pence learned about the Justice Department outreach.
The Washington Post was the first to report the communication between former acting attorney general Sally Yates, a holdover from the Obama administration, and the Trump White House.
The Post also first reported last week that Flynn had indeed spoken about sanctions with the Russian ambassador. Trump never voiced public support for Flynn after that initial report and continued to keep his national security adviser close.
But White House officials sent contradictory messages about Flynn’s status. Counselor Kellyanne Conway said Trump had “full confidence” in Flynn, while press secretary Sean Spicer said the president was “evaluating the situation” and consulting with Pence about his conversations with the national security adviser.
Asked whether the president had been aware that Flynn might have planned to discuss sanctions with the Russian envoy, Spicer said, “No, absolutely not.”
The Kremlin had confirmed that Flynn was in contact with Kislyak but denied that they talked about lifting sanctions.
On Tuesday, Russian lawmakers mounted a fierce defense of Flynn.
