The White House broke its silence on National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s future on Monday, saying President Trump is “evaluating the situation.”
“He is speaking to Vice President Pence relative to the conversation the vice president had with Gen. Flynn and also speaking to various other people about what he considers the single most important subject there is: our national security,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said.
Flynn privately apologized to Pence, who went on national TV last month to forcefully deny allegations that Flynn had discussed sanctions imposed by former President Barack Obama with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak before Trump was inaugurated as president, while Flynn was still a private citizen.
That would have been illegal.
Pence said Flynn personally assured him he didn’t discuss sanctions during the January phone call with Kislyak. But it turned out that sanctions may have come up in the conversation, Flynn conceded.
Earlier Monday, top Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said the former general has the “full confidence” of the president.
“Yes, Gen. Flynn does enjoy the full confidence of the president,” Conway told MSNBC.
Trump has been unusually tight-lipped about Flynn’s status since the Washington Post reported last week that “senior US officials” described Flynn’s comments as “inappropriate and potentially illegal.”
His contact with the Russian ambassador before Trump was sworn in could violate the Logan Act, which bans unauthorized US citizens from “communicating with a foreign government.”
Talking to reporters last Friday on Air Force One, Trump shrugged off questions about Flynn, saying he hadn’t seen the reports about the general talking sanctions with the Russian envoy, but said he would “look into that.”
Flynn sat in the front row of Trump’s news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday.
During interviews on the Sunday news shows, White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller dodged questions about whether Trump had confidence in Flynn.
“That’s the question that I think you should ask the president,” he said on NBC.
Several Democratic lawmakers have said Flynn’s security clearance should be revoked until an investigation into his contact with Kislyak is completed.