WASHINGTON—Michael T. Flynn, the national security adviser, resigned on Monday night after it was revealed that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other top White House officials about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States.
Flynn, who served in the job for less than a month, said he had given “incomplete information” regarding a telephone call he had with the ambassador in late December about US sanctions against Russia, weeks before President Donald J. Trump’s inauguration.
Flynn previously had denied that he had any substantive conversations with Ambassador Sergey I. Kislyak, and Pence repeated that claim in television interviews as recently as this month.
But on Monday, a former administration official said the Justice Department warned the White House last month that Flynn had not been fully forthright about his conversations with the ambassador. As a result, the Justice Department feared that Flynn could be vulnerable to blackmail by Moscow.
In his resignation letter, which the White House e-mailed to reporters, Flynn said he had held numerous calls with foreign officials during the transition.
“Unfortunately, because of the fast pace of events, I inadvertently briefed the vice president-elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian ambassador,” he wrote. “I have sincerely apologized to the president and the vice president, and they have accepted my apology.”
“I am tendering my resignation, honored to have served our nation and the American people in such a distinguished way,” Flynn wrote.
The White House said in the statement that it was replacing Flynn with retired Lt. Gen. Joseph K. Kellogg Jr. of the Army, a Vietnam War veteran, as acting national security adviser.
Flynn was an early and ardent supporter of Trump’s candidacy, and in his resignation he sought to praise the president. “In just three weeks,” Flynn said, the new president “has reoriented American foreign policy in fundamental ways to restore America’s leadership position in the world.”
But in doing so, he inadvertently illustrated the brevity of his tumultuous run at the National Security Council (NSC), and the chaos that has gripped the White House in the first weeks of the Trump administration—and created a sense of uncertainty around the world.
By Monday evening, Flynn’s fortunes were rapidly shifting—his resignation came roughly seven hours after Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, said on MSNBC Trump had “full confidence” in the retired general.
And when he did step down, it happened so quickly that his resignation does not appear to have been communicated to NSC staff members, two of whom said they learned about it from news reports. Officials said Pence had told others in the White House that he believed Flynn lied to him by saying he had not discussed the topic of sanctions on a call with the Russian ambassador in late December.
Even the mere discussion of policy—and the apparent attempt to assuage the concerns of a US adversary before Trump took office—represented a remarkable breach of protocol.
The FBI has been examining Flynn’s phone calls as he came under growing questions about his interactions with Russian officials and his management of the NSC.
The blackmail risk envisioned by the Justice Department would stem directly from Flynn’s attempt to cover his tracks with his bosses. The Russians knew what had been said on the call; thus, if they wanted Flynn to do something, they could threaten to expose the lie if he refused.
The Justice Department’s warning to the White House was first reported on Monday night by The Washington Post. In addition, the Army has been investigating whether Flynn received money from the Russian government during a trip he took to Moscow in 2015, according to two defense officials. Such a payment might violate the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which prohibits former military officers from receiving money from a foreign government without consent from Congress. The defense officials said there was no record that Flynn, a retired three-star Army general, filed the required paperwork for the trip.
Earlier on Monday, Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, told reporters that “the president is evaluating the situation.” Spicer said Trump would be talking to Pence and others about Flynn’s future.
Rep. Adam B. Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement late on Monday that Flynn’s resignation would not close the question of his contact with Russian officials.
“General Flynn’s decision to step down as national security adviser was all but ordained the day he misled the country about his secret talks with the Russian ambassador,” said Schiff, noting that the matter is still under investigation by the House committee.
The White House had examined a transcript of a wiretapped conversation that Flynn had with Kislyak in December, according to administration officials. Flynn originally told Pence and others that the call was limited to small talk and holiday pleasantries.
But the conversation, according to officials who saw the transcript of the wiretap, also included a discussion about sanctions imposed on Russia after intelligence agencies determined that Putin’s government tried to interfere with the 2016 election on Trump’s behalf.
Still, current and former administration officials familiar with the call said the transcript was ambiguous enough that Trump could have justified either firing or retaining Flynn.
Trump, however, had become increasingly concerned about the continued fallout over Flynn’s behavior, according to people familiar with his thinking, and told aides that the media storm around Flynn would damage the president’s image on national security issues.
It was not clear whether Kellogg would be asked to stay on as Flynn’s permanent replacement. White House officials were discussing several potential contenders for the job, and Trump is consulting Jim Mattis, the secretary of defense and a retired four-star general.
Among the options are David H. Petraeus, former CIA director, and Thomas P. Bossert, head of Trump’s domestic security council. Petraeus, also a retired four-star general, was forced out as director of the CIA because of an affair with his biographer, to whom he passed classified information. Petraeus would not need confirmation by the Senate as national security adviser.
Petraeus is expected to be at the White House on Tuesday, said a senior administration official who was not authorized to discuss the meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Image credits: Stephen Crowley/The New York Times