Flynn quits under fire
National security adviser accused of misleading the White House
WASHINGTON — Michael Flynn, the national security adviser, resigned on Monday night after it was revealed that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other top White House officials about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States.
Flynn, who served in the job for less than a month, said he had given “incomplete information” about a telephone call he had with the ambassador in late December about American sanctions against Russia, weeks before Trump’s inauguration. Flynn previously had denied that he had any substantive conversations with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and Pence repeated that claim on television earlier this month.
But on Monday, a former administration official said the Justice Department last month warned the White House that Flynn had not been fully forthright about his conversations with the ambassador. As a result, the Justice Department feared that Flynn could be vulnerable to blackmail by Moscow.
In his resignation letter, which the White House emailed to reporters, Flynn said he had held numerous calls with foreign officials
during the transition. “Unfortunately, because of the fast pace of events, I inadvertently briefed the vice president-elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian ambassador,” he wrote. “I have sincerely apologized to the President and the Vice President, and they have accepted my apology.”
The White House said in the statement that it was replacing Flynn with retired Lt. General Joseph Keith Kellogg Jr., a Vietnam War veteran, as acting national security adviser.
Flynn was an early and ardent supporter of Trump’s candidacy, and in his resignation he sought to praise the president. “In just three weeks,” Mr. Flynn said, the new president “has reoriented American foreign policy in fundamental ways to restore America’s leadership position in the world.”
But in doing so, he inadvertently illustrated the brevity of his tumultuous run at the National Security Council, and the chaos that has gripped the White House in the first weeks of the Trump administration — and created a sense of uncertainty around the world.
Officials said Pence has told others in the White House that he believes Flynn lied to him by saying he had not discussed the topic of sanctions on a call with the Russian ambassador in late December. Even the mere discussion of policy — and the apparent attempt to assuage the concerns of an American adversary before Trump took office — represents a remarkable breach of protocol.
The FBI has been examining Flynn’s phone calls as he has come under growing questions about his interactions with Russian officials and his management of the National Security Council. The blackmail risk envisioned by the Justice Department would stem directly from Flynn’s attempt to cover his tracks with his bosses. The Russians knew what had been said on the call; thus, if they wanted Flynn to do something, they could threaten to expose the lie if he refused.
Alleged Russian payment
In addition, the Army has been investigating whether Flynn received money from the Russian government during a trip he took to Moscow in 2015, according to two defense officials. Such a payment might violate the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which prohibits former military officers from receiving money from a foreign government without consent from Congress.
The defense officials said there was no record that Flynn, a retired three-star Army general, filed the required paperwork for the trip.
Earlier Monday, Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, told reporters that “the president is evaluating the situation.” Spicer said Trump would be talking to Pence and others about Flynn’s future.
In a sign of the internal confusion over Flynn’s status, the statement from Spicer came shortly after the president’s counselor, Kellyanne Conway, said in an interview on MSNBC that Flynn had the “full confidence of the president.”
Trump ignored questions about Flynn’s fate that were shouted at him by reporters during an Oval Office swearing-in ceremony on Monday night for newly confirmed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
The White House has examined a transcript of a wiretapped conversation that Flynn had with the Russian ambassador, according to administration officials. Flynn originally told Pence and others that the call was limited to small talk and holiday pleasantries.
But the conversation, according to officials who have seen the transcript of the wiretap, also included a discussion about sanctions imposed on Russia after intelligence agencies determined that Vladimir Putin’s government tried to interfere with the 2016 election on Trump’s behalf. Still, current and former administration officials familiar with the call said the transcript was ambiguous enough that Trump could justify both firing or retaining Flynn.
Trump, however, has become increasingly concerned about the continued fallout over Flynn’s behavior, according to people familiar with his thinking, and has told aides that the media storm around Flynn would damage the president’s image on national security issues.
Flynn’s concealment of the call’s content, combined with questions about his management of his agency and reports of a demoralized staff, put him in a precarious position less than a month into Trump’s presidency.
Pence was incensed
Few members of Trump’s team were more skeptical of Flynn than the vice president, numerous administration officials said. Pence, who used the false information provided by Flynn to defend him in a series of television appearances, was incensed at Flynn’s lack of contrition for repeatedly embarrassing him by withholding the information, according to three administration officials familiar with the situation.
Flynn and Pence have spoken twice in the past few days about the matter, but administration officials said that rather than fully apologize and accept responsibility, the national security adviser blamed his faulty memory — which irked the typically slow-to-anger Pence.
The slight was compounded by an episode late last year when Pence went on television to deny that Flynn’s son, who had posted conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton on social media, had been given a security clearance by the transition team. The younger Flynn had, indeed, been given such a clearance, even though his father had told Pence’s team that he had not.
Officials said classified information did not appear to have been discussed during the conversation between Flynn and the ambassador, which would have been a crime.
The call was captured on a routine wiretap of diplomats’ calls, the officials said.
But current Trump administration officials and former Obama administration officials said that Flynn did appear to be reassuring the ambassador that Trump would adopt a more accommodating tone on Russia once in office.
During his 2015 trip to Moscow, Flynn was paid to attend the anniversary celebration of Russia Today, a television network controlled by the Kremlin. At the banquet, he sat next to Putin.
Flynn had notified the Defense Intelligence Agency, which he once led, that he was taking the trip. He received a security briefing from agency officials before he left, which is customary for former top agency officials when they travel overseas.
Still, some senior agency officials were surprised when footage of the banquet appeared on RT, and believed that Flynn should have been more forthcoming with the agency about the nature of his trip to Russia.
The next month, the agency’s director, Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, sent a memo to agency staff members saying agency officials should not provide briefings to former agency leaders during the presidential campaign.
James Kudla, an agency spokesman, said the memo was not directly the result of Flynn’s trip to Russia, but rather an effort by General Stewart to ensure that the agency was not becoming enmeshed in politics.