White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump was consulting with Pence on Monday about his conversations with the national security adviser.
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He has not yet accepted Mr. Trump’s offer, and negotiations continue over the National Security Council staff Harward would be empowered to build.
Spicer said the case, which had been reviewed by the White House legal counsel, was “not as a legal issue but a trust issue”.
Republicans have joined congressional calls for an investigation into Mr Flynn’s contacts with Russian Federation.
President Donald Trump has so far been uncharacteristically silent on Flynn’s fate, fuelling speculation about whether his national security advisor can survive the latest controversy.
Recent news reports have accused Flynn of discussing U.S. -Russia sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, but Flynn previously had told Pence that sanctions did not come up in his conversations with Kislyak.
Mr. Flynn, who served in the job for less than a month, stepped down following days of reports that he had spoken to the ambassador about American sanctions against Russian Federation in late December, weeks before Mr. Trump’s inauguration.
And how in the world are the rest of the members of Team Trump supposed to know whom to believe, and when? The conversation occurred on the same day President Barack Obama announced the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats in retaliation for what USA intelligence agencies was Russian efforts to influence the outcome of the November election.
Flynn told Vice President Mike Pence (and reportedly FBI investigators) that he hadn’t talked about sanctions with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Vice Admiral Harward met with top White House officials last week and has the backing of Defence Secretary Jim Mattis. “Even after learning that this information was inaccurate, no White House officials corrected those falsehoods”.
Trump alternately claimed the media was trafficking in “fake news” and that intelligence and law enforcement officials were leaking factual information to them. “Will these leaks be happening as I deal on N Korea etc?”
Flynn has said that he can’t recall whether he discussed the economic penalties with Russia’s Washington envoy before Trump took office. Robert Reich asks: What did Trump know about his campaign’s constant contacts with Russian spies, and did he encourage the contacts?
Meanwhile, US House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes told reporters on Tuesday he wants to investigate the leaks that led to Mr Flynn’s resignation.
“They did not discuss anything having to do with the United States’ decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia”, Pence said in a televised interview with CBS News last month.
“This is the internal affair of the Americans, the internal affair of the Trump administration”, he added. “It’s nothing to do with us”.
On Jan. 15, shortly before Trump took office, Vice President Mike Pence repeatedly said on television that there were zero contacts between the campaign and Russian officials.
The FBI recently questioned Flynn about his telephone contacts with the Russian ambassador in Washington. “We must stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our friends and allies who suffer the consequences of Russian aggression and intimidation”.
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Trump named retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg as the acting national security adviser.
