Flynn spoke to Ambassador Sergey I Kislyak on the very day that President Barack Obama imposed new sanctions on Russian Federation.
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Pence’s briefing happened the same day The Post published a story citing senior United States officials who told the newspaper Flynn indeed discussed USA sanctions in phone calls with Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, contradicting Flynn’s earlier public denials. The sanctions were meant to punish Russian Federation for meddling in the 2016 election. The context is grave for the Trump administration.
Meanwhile, House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, said Tuesday that his panel will not investigate the circumstances leading up to Flynn’s resignation on Monday (13 February). Spicer said they would discuss the next steps about implementing Trump’s travel ban, which has been halted in court.
“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”, he said.
He said members of the intelligence community want to reignite the Cold War between the United States and Russian Federation so the military, industrial and intelligence “axis” can “cash in”.
The White House official, pushing back against the idea that Flynn spoke about sanctions, raised questions about the uproar surrounding Flynn and poked holes in the criticism coming from the general’s detractors. The telephone consultations presumably took place a month prior to the inauguration of President Donald Trump.
Spicer insisted that they “got to a point not based on a legal issue, but a trust issue”, an effort to dismiss concerns that Flynn’s conversations with a Russian representative may have violated the law – as well as wonderment at why Trump didn’t act sooner to dismiss him.
The White House counsel then conducted an extensive review and questioned Mr Flynn on multiple occasions before arriving at the same conclusion as Mr Trump, he added.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has more ambitious investigatory visions than timetable-free poking around by a Republican-led Senate committee. The leaks that took down Flynn are more evidence of the president’s already strained relationship with the intelligence community.
Check out both Fox News clips below.
That, I do believe, is a big story that should be reported.
President Donald Trump asked for the resignation of national security adviser Michael T. Flynn because he had lost trust in the retired three-star general, the White House said Tuesday. “Our natl security is at stake”.
But some Republicans did not seem as anxious to brush the issue aside.
“And I tell you there’s a marching band and Chowder Society out there. I haven’t seen it”, he said. Earlier this year, intelligence agencies briefed House members about the Russian hack of the Democratic party apparatus.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a longtime Russian Federation critic, said Congress needed to know what Mr Flynn discussed with the ambassador and why.
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“These alleged contacts and any others the Trump campaign may have had with the Kremlin are the subject of the House Intelligence Committee’s ongoing investigation”, he said in a statement.
