Donald Trump is facing mounting pressure to explain his ties with Russia after it emerged that he knew weeks ago his national security adviser had misled officials about secret communications with Russian officials but did not fire him.
The retired general Michael Flynn was forced to quit on Monday night after reports that he could be vulnerable to blackmail by Moscow.
Democrats demanded an independent investigation into Flynn’s phone calls with the Russian ambassador, what Trump knew about them and when. A senior Republican promised to examine the matter “exhaustively”, but others in the party were reluctant.
Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, told reporters how the resignation had happened: “The evolving and eroding level of trust as a result of this situation and a series of other questionable incidents is what led the president to ask Gen Flynn for his resignation.”
He added: “There’s nothing that the general did that was a violation of any sort. What this came down to was a matter of trust.”
Flynn stepped down after just 24 days when it emerged that he had discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador to Washington before Trump took office, then misled vice-president Mike Pence and others about the conversations. FBI agents interviewed Flynn soon after the inauguration, the New York Times reported.
White House officials were reeling from the scandal less than a month after Trump became president amid reports of disarray and dysfunction. They also faced questions over why they had not acted more than two weeks ago when first warned by the Department of Justice that the retired general might be vulnerable to Russian blackmail.
Spicer claimed that Trump was first made aware that Flynn had potentially misled the vice-president on 26 January and that the White House legal counsel, Donald McGahn, had been investigating the situation since in what Spicer called “a very deliberative process”, determining within several days that Flynn had not broken the law. Until 13 February, Flynn continued to have access to top-level information.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, called for an investigation into the “potential criminal violations” surrounding the communications between Flynn and Russia. “The White House knew for weeks that Gen Flynn misled the vice-president and that his discussion about sanctions with the Russian government could potentially compromise our national security because he was subject to blackmail,” Schumer said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“And yet they let him stay on for weeks present at – and participating in – the highest level of national security discussions until those reports were made public.”
Spicer flatly denied that Trump had asked Flynn to bring up the issue of sanctions in his conversations with Ambassador Sergei Kislyak. Asked whether the president had been aware that Flynn might have planned to discuss sanctions with the Russian envoy, the press secretary replied: “No, absolutely not.”
Spicer, in contradiction to statements made by the senior White House aide Kellyanne Conway earlier on Tuesday, insisted that Trump had asked for Flynn’s resignation and that it was not the national security adviser’s decision. “The level of trust between the president and Gen Flynn had eroded that it had to make a change.”
In contrast, Conway said on NBC’s Today show on Tuesday morning: “Mike Flynn had decided it was best to resign. He knew he had become a lightning rod and he made that decision.”
Intelligence agencies concluded that Russian computer hackers interfered in last year’s presidential election with the intention of hurting Hillary Clinton, and therefore helping Trump. The US president has repeatedly declined to criticise the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
Spicer insisted that Trump had been “incredibly tough” on Russia. However, he only pointed to comments made by the UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, to back up that assertion. The press secretary, as well as the newly confirmed treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, did not go into detail about whether the sanctions discussed by Flynn, which were imposed after Russia was determined to have hacked during the 2016 election, would be lifted. “The existing policies are in place,” said Mnuchin.
Spicer declined to say whether the White House would cooperate with a congressional inquiry. Earlier Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, had called for a wide-ranging investigation. “The truth and consequences of the Russia connection: 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,” she said.
“Flynn’s resignation is a reflection of the poor judgment of President Trump and demands answers to the grave questions over the president’s involvement. By what authority did Flynn act and to whom did he report?”
The Democratic demand for an inquiry threw down the gauntlet to Republicans, who control the House and Senate but have an often difficult relationship with Trump.
Roy Blunt, a Republican member of the Senate intelligence committee, pledged to investigate the Flynn issue “exhaustively”.
“I think everybody needs that investigation to happen,” Blunt, a senator from Missouri, said on Tuesday in a local radio interview. “And the Senate intelligence committee … has been given the principal responsibility to look into this, and I think that we should look into it exhaustively so that at the end of this process, nobody wonders whether there was a stone left unturned, and shouldn’t reach conclusions before you have the information that you need to have to make those conclusions.”
Blunt suggested his committee would soon call upon Flynn to testify before Congress. “I would think that we should talk to Gen Flynn very soon and that should answer a lot of questions,” he said.
“What did he know? What did he do? And is there any reason to believe that anybody knew that and didn’t take the kind of action they should have taken?”
Fellow Republican John McCain, chairman of the Senate armed services committee, described it as a “troubling indication of the dysfunction of the current national security apparatus” in a complex global environment.
McCain added: “Gen Flynn’s resignation also raises further questions about the Trump administration’s intentions toward Putin’s Russia, including statements by the president suggesting moral equivalence between the United States and Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine, annexation of Crimea, threats to our Nato allies, and attempted interference in American elections.”
The party was split, however, with some playing the allegations down. Paul Ryan, the House speaker and most senior Republican on Capitol Hill, said that Trump had “made the right decision” in seeking Flynn’s resignation.
“You cannot have a national security adviser misleading the vice-president and others,” Ryan said at a press conference.
“As soon as this person lost the president’s trust, the president asked for his resignation … It was the right thing to do.”
Jason Chaffetz, the Republican chairman of the House oversight committee, said he would not pursue an investigation into Flynn’s contacts with Russia. “That situation is taking care of itself,” Chaffetz told reporters on Capitol Hill. “I know that the [House intelligence committee] was looking into the hacking issue previously, so I think he did the right thing by stepping out.”
The Republican-led House oversight committee did, however, investigate Hillary Clinton’s handling of the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack even as the Senate and House intelligence committees conducted their own inquiries.
Devin Nunes, chairman of the House intelligence committee and a longtime ally of Flynn, said he had no plans to investigate his communications with Russia, adding he was more concerned with the leaks surrounding the former national security adviser.
Flynn’s departure deepened concerns over a chaotic start for the Trump White House and the national security council (NSC) in particular, as well as allegations of ties with Russia that continue to haunt the president.
The Democratic congressmen John Conyers Jr of Michigan and Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the ranking members of the judiciary and oversight committees, called for a classified briefing for Congress regarding Flynn’s actions.
“We were shocked and dismayed to learn this evening of reports that three weeks ago, US law enforcement officials warned the White House counsel that Gen Flynn had provided false information to the public about his communications with the Russian government, but that the Trump administration apparently did nothing about it,” the two said in a statement.
Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser to Barack Obama, drew attention to the resignation last year of Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, who also had links to Russia. He tweeted: “When campaign chairman and NSA both resign over Russia ties there is more. Manafort and Flynn had nothing in common except Russia and Trump.”
Ben Cardin, ranking Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, described Russia’s election meddling as “a political Pearl Harbor” and said he had filed a bill to set up a 9/11-style commission to investigate it.
Trump named retired Lt Gen Keith Kellogg as the acting national security adviser. Kellogg had previously been appointed the NSC chief of staff and advised Trump during the campaign. Trump is also reportedly considering the former CIA director David Petraeus and Vice Adm Robert Harward, a navy Seal, for the post.
The Kremlin had confirmed that Flynn was in contact with Kislyak but denied that they talked about lifting sanctions. On Tuesday, Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, said in a post on Facebook that firing a national security adviser for his contacts with Russia is “not just paranoia but something even worse”.
Kosachev also expressed frustration at the Trump administration: “Either Trump hasn’t found the necessary independence and he’s been driven into a corner … or Russophobia has permeated the new administration from top to bottom.”
The president broke his silence with a tweet that attempted to deflect attention: “The real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington? Will these leaks be happening as I deal on N.Korea etc?”
Flynn was often an angry, outspoken warmup act for Trump at his election campaign rallies. At last year’s Republican national convention in Cleveland, he encouraged members to chant “Lock her up!”, in reference to Hillary Clinton.
- This article was amended on 14 February to accurately reflect Roy Blunt’s role on the Senate intelligence committee.
