WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump was aware for about two weeks that his national security adviser Michael Flynn had misled White House officials and Vice President Mike Pence, White House spokesman Sean Spicer acknowledged Tuesday.
Flynn was forced to resign Monday night.
In January, White House Counsel Don McGahn briefed Trump that Flynn had discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, despite Flynn's claims to the contrary. Spicer said the Trump briefing was held "immediately" after McGahn was informed about the discrepancy by the Department of Justice.
Sally Yates, the acting attorney general at the time, and a senior career national security official at the Justice Department informed McGahn at his office about their concerns on Jan. 26, according to a person familiar with the briefing. Spicer said the president and a small group of senior aides were briefed by McGahn about Flynn that same day.
[DOCUMENT: Read Michael Flynn's resignation letter]
Pence spokesman Marc Lotter said Pence became aware that he had received "incomplete information" from Flynn only after a Washington Post article last week. Pence learned about the Justice Department warnings to the White House around the same time.
Trump officials said Tuesday that Flynn's error was not that he discussed U.S. economic sanctions with the Russian ambassador before the president's inauguration -- a potential violation of a rarely enforced law -- but that he misled Pence and other senior Trump aides about the nature of the conversations.
Flynn's telephone conversations with Russia's ambassador to the U.S. had already drawn the attention of law enforcement officials. He was interviewed by the FBI only days into his new job.
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It was not immediately known what questions the FBI asked Flynn or what Flynn told law enforcement officials.
"We've been reviewing and evaluating this issue with respect to Gen. Flynn on a daily basis for a few weeks, trying to ascertain the truth," Spicer said Tuesday.
His comments appear to contradict the impression given by Trump on Friday aboard Air Force One that he was not familiar with a Washington Post report that Flynn had not told the truth about the Russian ambassador calls.
"I don't know about that. I haven't seen it. What report is that? I haven't seen that. I'll look into that," Trump told reporters on the plane.
The White House counsel's office conducted a "review" of the legal concerns and determined that "there was not a legal issue but rather a trust issue," Spicer said. "The president was very concerned that Gen. Flynn had misled the vice president and others. The president must have complete and unwavering trust of the person in that position."
Spicer emphasized that the White House review concluded that Flynn did not create a legal problem by discussing sanctions with the Russian ambassador, despite a law that prohibits private citizens from conducting U.S. diplomacy. He said Flynn was not discussing the matter at the president's behest.
Spicer said "the evolving and eroding level of trust as a result of a series of other issues is what led the president to ask for Gen. Flynn's resignation." He added that the president had an "instinctive" belief that Flynn had not broken any laws, which was later "confirmed" after an inquiry led by the White House counsel's office.
Spicer's comment that Trump had asked for Flynn's resignation contradicted earlier accounts by White House officials on the matter. Senior officials told reporters Monday night that Flynn offered his resignation voluntarily. And White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said on the Today show Tuesday morning that Flynn "had resigned" and was not forced to quit.
"The president is very loyal. He's a very loyal person," Conway said. "And by nighttime, Mike Flynn had decided it was best to resign. He knew he became a lightning rod, and he made that decision."
Contributing factors
On Tuesday, Spicer repeatedly said Trump was not concerned about the nature of the conversations that Flynn had with the Russian ambassador but rather about the lack of trust that created an "unsustainable" situation.
"The president has no problem with the fact that he acted in accord with what his job was supposed to be," Spicer said.
National security officials had monitored the calls of the Russian ambassador as part of routine surveillance of foreign officials in the U.S. Spicer declined to say whether the president would declassify and release transcripts of Flynn's call with Kislyak.
"It is inappropriate for me to comment on those at this time," Spicer said. "It is not an issue that has come up."
Spicer said other "questionable incidents" had contributed to Flynn's firing. According to one person with knowledge of the matter, those incidents included Flynn seeking a security clearance for his son during the presidential transition.
Trump initially thought Flynn could survive the controversy, according to a person with direct knowledge of the president's views, but the Post's reporting in recent days made the situation untenable.
As early as last week, Trump and his aides began making contingency plans for Flynn's dismissal, a senior administration official said. While the president was said to be upset with Flynn, he also expressed anger with other aides for "losing control" of the story and making his young administration look bad.
In the weeks after Trump's inauguration, McGahn, along with Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and strategist Steve Bannon, questioned Flynn multiple times, a White House official said. Top aides also reviewed transcripts of Flynn's contacts with the ambassador, according to a person with knowledge of the review process.
At the same time, the official said Trump aides began taking steps to put some distance between the president and Flynn. CIA Director Mike Pompeo and retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, a top Flynn aide, started taking part in Trump's daily security briefings.
The officials and others with knowledge of the situation were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and requested anonymity.
Before he resigned late Monday, Flynn spoke with an investigative news nonprofit affiliated with The Daily Caller website. He said "there were no lines crossed" when he spoke with Kislyak, adding that the two spoke briefly about the Russian diplomats expelled by President Barack Obama as part of the previous administration's response to Moscow's interference in the U.S. presidential election.
"It wasn't about sanctions. It was about the 35 guys who were thrown out," Flynn said. "It was basically, 'Look, I know this happened. We'll review everything.' I never said anything such as, 'We're going to review sanctions,' or anything like that."
Trump, who had been quiet about Flynn's standing for several days, took to Twitter on Tuesday morning and said the "real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington?" He ignored reporters' questions about Flynn during an education event Tuesday.
Call for inquiry
After Flynn stepped down Monday night, Democrats in Congress demanded the formation of an independent, bipartisan panel to examine possible links between the Trump administration and Russia, including when the president learned that Flynn had discussed U.S. sanctions with a Russian diplomat.
"The American people deserve to know the full extent of Russia's financial, personal and political grip on President Trump and what that means for our national security," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement.
"Who knew about this and when? Did the president know and when did he know it? Did others at Trump transition team authorize conversations about sanctions?" asked Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the No. 2 House Democrat. "After the White House was informed, who made the decision to allow Flynn to continue to serve despite the fact he misled the administration?"
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday that it was "highly likely" that the events leading to Flynn's departure would be added to a broader probe into Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said Flynn made the right decision to step down. But Ryan sidestepped questions about whether an inquiry is warranted.
"I'll leave it up to the administration to describe the circumstances," the Wisconsin Republican said. "I'm not going to prejudge any of the circumstances surrounding this until we have all of the information."
Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, the Republican chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said "the situation has taken care of itself" when asked by reporters if his panel would investigate Flynn's actions.
"Sounds like he did the right thing, he didn't want to be a distraction," Chaffetz said of Flynn. "And it was getting to be a distraction."
Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said he intended to ask the FBI how details from Flynn's conversation with Kislyak were disclosed to reporters.
"I'm just shocked that nobody's covering the real crime here," Nunes said. "You have an American citizen who had his phone call recorded and then leaked to the media."
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, said his panel will "continue to do aggressive oversight" in private. "We don't do that in public," he said.
But Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said Congress needs to do "whatever it takes" to resolve questions about "Russia's relationship" to the 2016 presidential election.
"This is going to go on forever if we don't address it," Corker said.
Republican Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Flynn's resignation "is a troubling indication of the dysfunction of the current national security apparatus."
"As far as national security is concerned, we don't know who's in charge, we don't know who's making the decisions," the Arizona Republican said. "Every administration I've dealt with, going back to [Ronald] Reagan, they have a process of national security decision-making and we know who's in charge, and we don't know who's doing it [under Trump]."
Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., said Flynn needed to go.
"I think the general stepping down was the right thing to do. There's concerns about his truthfulness with the vice president," he said.
Appearing on radio's The Hugh Hewitt Show, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said he doesn't know who will replace the national security official, adding, "I wish Gen. Flynn well. It's unfortunate that things ended up this way for him after such a long and distinguished career of service."
Russians dismayed
Russian lawmakers reacted with dismay and anger to Flynn's resignation, calling it a sign that Trump's administration is falling victim to "paranoia" toward the Kremlin.
Flynn's ouster shows that the Trump administration either isn't independent or suffers from "Russophobia," Konstantin Kosachyov, a member of the ruling party and chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the upper house of the Russian parliament, said Tuesday on Facebook. U.S. hawks treat a readiness for dialogue with Russia as an Orwellian "thought crime," he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment, telling reporters in a conference call Tuesday that Flynn's departure is an "internal matter" for the U.S.
Flynn was often perceived as Trump's key contact with Russia. In 2015, Flynn appeared at a gala dinner for Russia Today, a Kremlin-funded television station, and Flynn even sat next to President Vladimir Putin at the event.
The resignation is "a negative signal to Russia," which continues to be seen "as a strategic opponent by the American establishment," said Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the international affairs committee in the State Duma, parliament's lower house, according to state-owned RIA Novosti.
While Trump's rhetoric has been "constructive" toward Russia, "the coming weeks will demonstrate" whether he can establish good ties in practice, Slutsky said.
Flynn fell victim to an aggressive newspaper campaign in the U.S. fueled by "paranoia and witch-hunts," Alexei Pushkov, a member of the upper chamber Federation Council's defense and security committee, said on Twitter. The target of the campaign isn't Flynn "but relations with Russia," he said.
Information for this article was contributed by Abby Phillip and Ellen Nakashima of The Washington Post; by Richard Lardner, Alan Fram, Erica Werner, Julie Pace, Vivian Salama, Jonathan Lemire, Eric Tucker, Ken Thomas, Jill Colvin, Catherine Lucey and Nataliya Vasilyeva of The Associated Press; by Lisa Mascaro of Tribune News Service; by Ilya Arkhipov and Stepan Kravchenko of Bloomberg News; and by Frank E. Lockwood of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
A Section on 02/15/2017
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