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Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn resigns amid Russia scandal

Xeni Jardin

He’s out. Trump national security adviser Michael T. Flynn resigned Monday night after revelations he misled VP Mike Pence and other senior White House officials about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the United States.

Before his resignation letter was released, the Washington Post reported that the administration had been warned for weeks that Flynn was considered a potential Russia blackmail risk.

The White House says tonight that the acting national security adviser (in other words, not his replacement, but a temporary person to fill the post) will be retired Lt. General Joseph Keith Kellogg, Jr., a Vietnam War veteran.

From the New York Times report tonight:

Mr. Flynn, who served in the job for less than a month, said he had given “incomplete information” to about a telephone call he had with the ambassador in late December about American sanctions against Russia, weeks before Mr. Trump’s inauguration. Mr. Flynn previously had denied that he had any substantive conversations with Ambassador Sergey I. Kislyak, and Mr. Pence repeated that claim in television as recently as earlier this month.

But on Monday, a former administration official said the Justice Department last month warned the White House that Mr. Flynn had not been fully forthright about his conversations with the ambassador. As a result, the Justice Department feared that Mr. Flynn could be vulnerable to blackmail by Moscow.

In his resignation letter, which the White House emailed to reporters, Mr. 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.”

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