White House: Trump Was Told About Flynn Russia Conversations Weeks Ago
White House Press Secretary on Tuesday confirmed that Donald Trump has been aware of Michael Flynn’s lies regarding his conversations with the Russian ambassador for “weeks.”
Trump asked Flynn to resign on Monday night after a Washington Post report was released confirming that former acting Attorney General Susan Yates had informed the White House that Flynn had potentially been compromised.
According to the Washington Post, “Trump was briefed by White House Counsel Don McGahn that Flynn had discussed U.S. sanctions with the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, despite his claims to the contrary ‘immediately’ after McGahn was informed about the discrepancy by the Department of Justice, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday.”
Spicer confirmed during the press conference, “We’ve been reviewing and evaluating this issue with respect to General Flynn on a daily basis for a few weeks, trying to ascertain the truth.”
The revelation from Spicer raises the question that people have been asking since the announcement of Flynn’s resignation – if the news that the Justice Department had informed the White House about Flynn’s potential compromise by the Russians not come out, would Trump have kept Flynn as his National Security Adviser?
And the comments by Spicer contradict the what Donald Trump said on Friday aboard Air Force One when he told reporters that he was not familiar with the report that revealed that Flynn had not told the truth about the 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 said.
The Washington Post also noted that “Spicer’s account of the event that led to Flynn’s resignation adds to the confusion among White House officials on that issue. Senior officials told reporters on 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.”
