text: WASHINGTON — Just days into his new position as President Trump’s national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn found himself in a meeting that any White House official would dread. Face to face with F.B.I. agents, he was grilled about a phone call he had had with Russia’s ambassador. 
   
   What exactly Mr. Flynn said has not been disclosed, but current and former government officials said on Tuesday that investigators had come away believing that he was not entirely forthcoming. Soon after, the acting attorney general decided to notify the White House, setting in motion a chain of events that cost Mr. Flynn his job and thrust Mr. Trump’s fledgling administration into a fresh crisis. 
   
   Mr. Flynn’s rise and fall followed familiar patterns in Washington, where ambitious figures secure positions of great authority only to lose them in a blizzard of contradictions, recriminations and scandal. But rarely has an official at such a high level risen and fallen in such a dizzyingly short time, in this case just 24 days after Mr. Flynn arrived in the West Wing to take his corner office. 
   
   Given his short stay at the top, Mr. Flynn’s case might be quickly forgotten as an isolated episode if it did not raise other questions, particularly about what the president knew and when. Even more broadly, it underscores lingering uncertainty about the relationship between the Trump administration and Vladimir V. Putin’s Russia, a subject of great interest given American intelligence reports of Moscow’s intervention in last year’s elections in the United States. ||||| Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said the media helped force Michael Flynn out of his post as President Trump’s national security adviser. 
   
   “We have a political assassination that’s taken place here,�? he said on his radio show Tuesday while discussing Flynn’s resignation the day before. "The media’s going to try as hard they can not to let go of this, because now they’ve got their scalp." 
   
   “They think they have blood in the water, they’ve got a scalp and they think they can get another and then another and then another and then another until finally they get Trump.�? 
   
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   Limbaugh said extensive news coverage of Flynn’s past phone conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak is the latest evidence the media will constantly impede the Trump administration. 
   
   “They have become the full-fledged resistance to Trump and they have decided that that’s going to be their modus operandi for the next four years,�? he said. "They’re not gonna do the news. They have now mobilized and made it official, they’re even talking about it, some of them are, on [the] cable networks." 
   
   “I mean, they disguise the words they use, but the impact is clear that they are going to do everything they can to get Trump out of Washington and out of the White House and out of office.�? 
   
   Flynn resigned late Monday amid reports he misled senior White House officials about his discussions with Kislyak before Trump entered office. 
   
   The retired Army lieutenant general blamed the “fast pace of events�? for why he “inadvertently�? gave “incomplete information�? to Vice President Mike Pence Michael (Mike) Richard PenceQueen Elizabeth offers condolences to Hurricane Harvey victims Trump proclaims Sunday 'National Day of Prayer' for Harvey victims Pence goes hands-on clearing debris in Texas MORE and others about the talks. He said just before resigning that he spoke with the ambassador specifically about the 35 Russian officials that were expelled from the U.S. as part of the Obama administration's sanctions but that "no lines were crossed." 
   
   Reports emerged last week that Flynn and Kislyak discussed sanctions against Russia during a series of phone calls in December. 
   
   Pence had previously denied Flynn and Kislyak ever spoke about sanctions. 
   
   White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday Trump asked for Flynn’s resignation once the president’s faith in his adviser “eroded�? following the reports. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Is losing a top job in 24 days a record? 
   
   Leading members of the US Republican Party have joined calls for a wide investigation into the former national security adviser's links with Russia. 
   
   Michael Flynn quit on Monday over claims he discussed US sanctions with Russia before Donald Trump took office. 
   
   On Tuesday, a White House spokesman said Mr Trump knew weeks ago there were problems with the Russia phone calls. 
   
   But calls for an independent investigation have encountered a cold response from some senior Republicans. 
   
   The development came as the New York Times reported that phone records and intercepted calls show members of Mr Trump's presidential campaign, as well as other Trump associates, "had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election". 
   
   However, officials spoken to by the newspaper said they had not yet seen evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia on the hacking of the Democratic National Committee or to influence the election. 
   
   As well as an FBI investigation, both the Senate and House intelligence committees are already examining Russian involvement in the election. It is not yet clear whether the latest claims will be included in their scope. 
   
   Why Mr Flynn resigned 
   
   He stood down over allegations he discussed US sanctions with a Russian envoy in December, before Mr Trump took office. 
   
   The conversations took place about the time that then-President Barack Obama was imposing retaliatory measures on Russia following reports it attempted to sway the US election in Mr Trump's favour. 
   
   Mr Flynn could have broken a law - known as the Logan Act - by conducting US diplomacy as a private citizen, before he was appointed as national security adviser. 
   
   More on the Flynn scandal 
   
   The retired army lieutenant-general initially denied having discussed sanctions with Ambassador Sergei Kislyak. Vice-President Mike Pence publicly denied the allegations on his behalf. 
   
   The White House admitted it had been warned about the contacts on 26 January but President Trump initially concluded Mr Flynn had not broken any law. 
   
   Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption White House press secretary Sean Spicer: "What this came down to, was a matter of trust" 
   
   White House lawyers then conducted a review and questioned Mr Flynn before reaching the same conclusion as Mr Trump, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said, but the trust had gone. 
   
   "In the end, it was misleading the vice-president that made the situation unsustainable," White House Counsellor Kellyanne Conway said on Tuesday. 
   
   Mr Flynn was also reportedly questioned by FBI agents in his first days as national security adviser, according to US media. 
   
   What Mr Flynn says 
   
   In an interview conducted with the conservative website The Daily Caller on Monday, but published only on Tuesday, Mr Flynn said he "crossed no lines" in his conversation with the ambassador. 
   
   He said he discussed the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats over alleged hacking ahead of the election, but "it wasn't about sanctions". 
   
   He said he was concerned that the apparently classified information had been leaked. "In some of these cases, you're talking about stuff that's taken off of a classified system and given to a reporter," he said. "That's a crime." 
   
   However, in his resignation letter, Mr Flynn said "the fast pace of events" during the presidential transition meant that he had "inadvertently briefed the vice-president elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian ambassador". 
   
   How are Republicans reacting? 
   
   Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Kellyanne Conway said Gen Flynn either "misled" or "could not completely recall" his conversation 
   
   In his first public comments about the controversy, President Trump tweeted on Tuesday: "The real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington? Will these leaks be happening as I deal on N Korea etc?" 
   
   US House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes told reporters on Tuesday he wanted to examine the leaks, and said the FBI should explain why Mr Flynn's conversation had been recorded. 
   
   But the Senate's second-ranking Republican,John Cornyn, and other Republican senators have called for an investigation into Mr Trump's connections with Russian officials. 
   
   Republican John McCain, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Mr Flynn's resignation was a "troubling indication of the dysfunction of the current national security apparatus", which raised questions about Mr Trump's intentions towards Russia. 
   
   Meanwhile, the Senate's most senior Republican, Mitch McConnell, said the intelligence committee was already looking into Russian influence on the election, indicating there was no need for a new investigative panel. 
   
   And Russia? 
   
   Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would not be commenting on the resignation. 
   
   "This is the internal affair of the Americans, the internal affair of the Trump administration," he added. "It's nothing to do with us." 
   
   Image copyright AP Image caption Mr Flynn was pictured dining with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in December 2015 
   
   What will America's allies think? - by BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus 
   
   Gen Flynn's resignation comes just as senior US officials are mounting a major effort to reassure uncertain allies in Europe about the Trump administration's intentions. 
   
   The new US Defence Secretary General James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Vice-President Mike Pence are all in Europe over the coming days. Gen Mattis is in the vanguard - he meets his Nato counterparts in Brussels on Wednesday. 
   
   There will be few tears shed within the alliance over Gen Flynn. His was widely seen as a bizarre and destabilising appointment. 
   
   But his demise and the rumbling row over team Trump's contacts with Russia continues to cause unease at Nato where many governments wonder at the Trump administration's resolve in standing up to what they see as a new assertiveness from Moscow. 
   
   Many key US officials are still to be appointed and the continuing chaos at the heart of the Trump administration is a cause for concern among Nato countries whatever reassurance the heavyweight US diplomatic trio may bring. 
   
   Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The US public has "serious questions" about US-Russia ties, says congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi 
   
   What happens next? 
   
   Democrat Adam Schiff, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has said Mr Flynn's departure will not end questions about contacts between Trump's campaign and Russia. But there are various ways that these questions could be answered. 
   
   Two Democratic members of the House of Representatives have demanded a classified briefing to Congress on Michael Flynn by the justice department and FBI. 
   
   Several House Democrats had already called on Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz to launch an investigation into Mr Flynn's ties to Russia. 
   
   More on Trump's first 100 days: ||||| (CNN) The White House struggled Tuesday to answer an avalanche of questions over national security adviser Michael Flynn's resignation. 
   
   Flynn was asked to quit Monday after it became public that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about whether he had discussed US sanctions during pre-inauguration phone calls with the Kremlin's man in Washington, Sergey Kislyak. 
   
   In new developments Tuesday, it emerged that President Donald Trump was told on January 26 -- more than two weeks ago -- that the Justice Department had concerns about Flynn's conduct. 
   
   Pence did not find out he had been misled until February 9, according to two administration officials. 
   
   "It's not that he was being left out. It was a legal review," one source said. 
   
   When Pence began his inquiry based on Washington Post reporting , "the timeline moved fast," the source said. 
   
   A subsequent review by White House counsel Donald McGahn found that he had not broken the law in his conversations with the Russian envoy. If Flynn discussed detailed policy with the Russian envoy, he could have theoretically infringed the Logan Act that prevents private citizens negotiating with foreign governments over their disputes with the United States. 
   
   JUST WATCHED Paul Ryan: Trump right to ask Flynn to resign Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Paul Ryan: Trump right to ask Flynn to resign 00:56 
   
   Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said Flynn's resignation was precipitated not by misconduct but by a gradual erosion of the President's confidence in him, including over a "series of other questionable instances." 
   
   "The level of trust between the President and Gen. Flynn had eroded to the point where he felt he had to make a change," Spicer told reporters Tuesday during his daily briefing. "The President was very concerned that Gen. Flynn had misled the vice president and others." 
   
   A senior administration official later told CNN the other "questionable instances" included Flynn's request for a security clearance for his son during the transition. He requested the clearance without telling Pence, who at the time was in charge of the transition. 
   
   Trump's growing skepticism about Flynn, however, did not prevent the national security adviser from spending the weekend before his ouster with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. 
   
   Spicer's attempts to put out the firestorm are unlikely to end the saga, not least because several prominent Republicans on Tuesday joined Democrats in calling for congressional probes into Trump's ties to Moscow, an explosive issue given allegations by the US intelligence community that the Kremlin intervened in the presidential election to help him. 
   
   Tuesday's developments also left key questions in the intrigue unanswered -- including why it took Trump more than two weeks to push Flynn out after he learned that his national security adviser had not told the truth to Pence. 
   
   Flynn was eventually asked to resign on a dramatic day of confusion and conflicting messages from the West Wing, hours after the publication of a Washington Post report that revealed the Justice Department's warning to the White House counsel's office. 
   
   Adding to the drama, a White House official said on Tuesday afternoon that the FBI, which is already investigating alleged contacts between Trump surrogates and Russian officials and intermediaries, interviewed Flynn in the early days of the administration about the calls to the Russian ambassador. 
   
   The cloud of suspicion still lingering over the White House due to the Flynn affair comes as the new administration is embroiled in multiple controversies and internal staff are infighting as it struggles to find its feet. 
   
   It also thrusts Trump's relationship and admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin back in the spotlight. 
   
   Many Washington power players have been astonished by the President's frequent defenses of the Russian leader and determination to improve relations with the Kremlin, despite Moscow's turn to Cold War-style confrontational policies in recent years. 
   
   Those questions are prompting Republican senators to get more aggressive in searching for answers, despite some resistance to a wider probe in the House. 
   
   Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said it was "highly likely" that the chamber's intelligence committee would look at allegations that Flynn spoke about sanctions with Kislyak. 
   
   JUST WATCHED Graham vows fight to last breath for sanctions Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Graham vows fight to last breath for sanctions 01:58 
   
   Sens. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican, Roy Blunt and Lindsey Graham also called for an investigation. 
   
   "I think Congress needs to be informed of what actually Gen. Flynn said to the Russian ambassador about lifting sanctions," Graham told CNN's Kate Bolduan on "At This Hour." 
   
   "And I want to know, 'Did General Flynn do this by himself or was he directed by somebody to do it?' " the South Carolina Republican added. 
   
   Democrats on Capitol Hill already smell blood, and are demanding congressional probes. 
   
   "Let's be clear -- right now, there are way more questions than answers on President Trump's relationship with Russia," Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, told reporters. 
   
   Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee said, "The American people deserve to know at whose direction Gen. Flynn was acting when he made these calls, and why the White House waited until these reports were public to take action." 
   
   But the President and some House Republicans pushed back, trying to focus attention on the source of disclosures about Flynn's contacts with Russia that appear to have emerged from intelligence surveillance of the Russian Embassy. 
   
   "The real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington? Will these leaks be happening as I deal on N.Korea etc?" Trump tweeted in his first public reaction to Flynn's departure. 
   
   The real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington? Will these leaks be happening as I deal on N.Korea etc? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2017 
   
   House intelligence committee Chairman Devin Nunes said the focus of any investigation should be how news of Flynn's calls leaked out. 
   
   Democrats and some Republicans are also asking whether Trump instructed Flynn to talk to the Russian ambassador last year about sanctions imposed by the Obama administration to punish alleged Russian interference in the presidential election. 
   
   Russia did not respond in its normally aggressive way to the expulsion of alleged agents from its diplomatic posts in the US and the closure of several compounds allegedly used for espionage activities, leading to suspicion that it believed that the Trump administration would act in a way more conducive to Moscow's position. 
   
   But Spicer insisted Trump had given no instructions to Flynn to talk about sanctions with Russia. 
   
   "Absolutely not, no, no, no," Spicer said. 
   
   Correction: In an earlier version of the story, a reference to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's comments should have made clear he was talking about allegations surrounding Michael Flynn. ||||| Speaking to reporters, Feb. 14, White House press secretary discussed the events leading up to the resignation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn from the Trump administration. Here are some key moments from that briefing. (Reuters) 
   
   Vice President Pence first learned that former national security adviser Michael Flynn had misled him about the nature of his contact with a Russian official on Feb. 9, a full two weeks after other White House officials were briefed on the matter, an aide to Pence said on Tuesday. 
   
   The timing indicates that Pence would have become aware of the controversy around the same time that a Washington Post report was published, detailing the degree to which Flynn had been in contact with the Russian ambassador to the United States on the issue of sanctions, Pence spokesman Marc Lotter said. 
   
   “What I would tell you is that the vice president became aware of incomplete information that he had received on Feb. 9, last Thursday night, based on media accounts,” Lotter said. “He did an inquiry based on those media accounts.” 
   
   In a January television interview, Pence said that Flynn had told him the issue of sanctions did not come up in his conversations with the Russian ambassador. 
   
   The revelation adds a new layer to the confusion within the White House as it seeks to explain why it took more than two weeks for Flynn to resign his post, even though senior officials, including the president, were aware that he had not told Pence the truth. 
   
   President Trump had been aware for “weeks” that Flynn had misled Pence and other officials, but did not act until Monday night, forcing the national security adviser to resign, the White House said on Tuesday. 
   
   White House counsel Don McGahn told Trump in a briefing late last month that Flynn, despite his claims to the contrary, had discussed U.S. sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said. Trump was briefed “immediately” after the Justice Department informed McGahn about the discrepancy, Spicer told reporters Tuesday. 
   
   Sally Q. Yates, the acting attorney general at the time, and a senior career national security official at the Justice Department had informed McGahn at his office about their concerns on Jan. 26, according to a person familiar with the briefing. Spicer said the president and a small group of senior aides were briefed by McGahn about Flynn that same day. 
   
   “We've been reviewing and evaluating this issue with respect to General Flynn on a daily basis for a few weeks, trying to ascertain the truth,” Spicer said. 
   
   [Justice Department warned White House that Flynn could be vulnerable to Russian blackmail, officials say] 
   
   The comments contrast with the impression Trump gave Friday aboard Air Force One that he was not familiar with a Washington Post report that revealed that Flynn had not told the truth about the calls. 
   
   “I don't know about that. I haven't seen it. What report is that? I haven't seen that. I'll look into that,” Trump told reporters on the plane. 
   
   Spicer said Tuesday that Trump was responding only to a question about The Post report and was not speaking about the overall issue of Flynn's contact with the Russian ambassador. 
   
   The White House Counsel's Office conducted a “review” of the legal issues and determined that “there was not a legal issue but rather a trust issue,” Spicer said. “The president was very concerned that General Flynn had misled the vice president and others. The president must have complete and unwavering trust of the person in that position.” 
   
   At the start of the daily White House briefing, Feb. 14, press secretary Sean Spicer spoke about the resignation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn. (Reuters) 
   
   [Michael Flynn resigns as national security adviser] 
   
   Spicer said that “the evolving and eroding level of trust as a result of a series of other issues is what led the president to ask for General Flynn's resignation.” He added that the president had an “instinctive” belief that Flynn had not broken any laws, which was later “confirmed” by an inquiry led by the White House Counsel's Office. 
   
   But the scrutiny of Flynn's contacts with Russian officials promises to continue despite his resignation. 
   
   In the first days of the new Trump administration, FBI agents interviewed Flynn about his communications with Kislyak, according to current and former officials. 
   
   The interview, which was first reported by the New York Times, could expose Flynn to possible charges if he denied to the agents, as he had earlier to Pence and other incoming Trump officials, that he had discussed with Kislyak sanctions imposed by the Obama administration for what it said was Russia’s interference in the November elections. 
   
   Lying to the FBI is a felony offense, and the agents were presumably in possession of a transcript of Flynn’s conversation with Kislyak when they questioned him. 
   
   In an interview with the Daily Caller, which he granted before his resignation, Flynn said he did not discuss anything inappropriate with the Russian ambassador. “If I did, believe me, the FBI would be down my throat, my clearances would be pulled,” he said. “There were no lines crossed.” 
   
   Flynn told the Daily Caller: “It wasn’t about sanctions. It was about the 35 guys who were thrown out.” He was referring to the expulsion by the Obama administration of 35 Russians it said were intelligence operatives using diplomatic cover. 
   
   “It was basically, ‘Look, I know this happened. We’ll review everything.’ I never said anything such as, ‘We’re going to review sanctions,’ or anything like that,” Flynn said. 
   
   For Obama officials at the time, even the promise to review the expulsions would have raised a red flag. 
   
   The White House has offered conflicting accounts over the past day about whether Flynn's decision to resign was his own or done at the request of the president, adding to the confusion over how the administration viewed Flynn's actions. Senior officials told reporters Monday night that Flynn offered his resignation voluntarily. And White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said on the “Today” show Tuesday morning that Flynn “had resigned” and was not forced to quit. 
   
   “The president is very loyal. He’s a very loyal person,” Conway said. “And by nighttime, Mike Flynn had decided it was best to resign. He knew he became a lightning rod, and he made that decision.” 
   
   Spicer, however, said repeatedly at Tuesday's briefing that Trump asked Flynn to leave. 
   
   Spicer also said that Trump was not concerned with the nature of the conversations that Flynn had with the Russian ambassador but that the lack of trust created an “unsustainable” situation. “The president has no problem with the fact that he acted in accord with what his job was supposed to be,” Spicer said. 
   
   National security officials monitored the calls of the Russian ambassador as part of routine surveillance of foreign officials in the United States. Spicer declined to say whether the president would declassify and release transcripts of Flynn's call with Kislyak. 
   
   “It is inappropriate for me to comment on those at this time,” Spicer said. “It is not an issue that has come up.” 
   
   Ashley Parker contributed to this report. ||||| Legal experts said it is highly unlikely Michael Flynn would ever be prosecuted for violating the Logan Act, a 218-year-old criminal law prohibiting private individuals from embarking on negotiations with foreign governments. | Getty Flynn’s statements to FBI under scrutiny 
   
   Just-ousted National Security Adviser Mike Flynn could be in legal trouble if his statements to the FBI about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. turn out to be inaccurate, lawyers said Tuesday. 
   
   While Flynn has acknowledged “inadvertently” giving “incomplete information” to Vice President-elect Mike Pence, he has been less clear about what account of the episode he gave to the FBI. 
   
   Story Continued Below 
   
   In an interview shortly before Flynn was asked to resign Monday, the retired general said nothing about his late December contact with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak verged into the improper. 
   
   “If I did, believe me, the FBI would be down my throat, my clearances would be pulled. There were no lines crossed,” Flynn told the Daily Caller. 
   
   Legal experts said it is highly unlikely Flynn would ever be prosecuted for violating the Logan Act, a 218-year-old criminal law prohibiting private individuals from embarking on negotiations with foreign governments. No one has ever faced such a charge. 
   
   However, Flynn did have a legal obligation to be truthful with the FBI about any contacts with the Russians. 
   
   “He is at serious risk of being prosecuted if he told the FBI what he told the Vice President,” said former Obama White House ethics lawyer Norm Eisen, now with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. 
   
   “Just because you’re not going to charge him with the Logan Act, there’s certainly nothing to preclude you from going forward under 1001,” said former federal prosecutor Peter Zeidenberg, referring to a U.S. criminal code felony provision prohibiting making knowing and willful false statements “in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States.” 
   
   A genuinely faulty memory is a valid defense to a false statement charge, but Zeidenberg said it’s hard to see how Flynn could have been mistaken under these circumstances. 
   
   “How did his memory go from I didn’t talk to the Russians about sanctions to I don’t remember if I talked to the Russians about the sanctions,” the ex-prosecutor said. “These interview are very close in time to the event, not a year and a half later….It’s not the type of thing that you would forget.” 
   
   White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday that White House counsel Don McGahn explored Flynn’s actions and concluded there was no law broken. 
   
   “We had to review whether there was a legal issue, which the White House Counsel concluded there was not,” said Spicer, carefully avoiding any mention of whether McGahn looked at whether any crimes may have been committed. 
   
   Of course, any decision about criminal charges is ultimately made by the Justice Department, not the White House. Spicer said that when acting Attorney General Sally Yates visited McGahn on Jan. 26, she was simply alerting the White House to intelligence about Flynn, not disclosing any investigation. 
   
   “She said, we wanted to give you a head's up that there may be information, okay? She could not confirm there was an investigation,” Spicer said. 
   
   A lawyer who handles security clearance background check disputes for government employees, Mark Zaid, said most misstatements in that context don’t lead to a criminal charge. 
   
   “I’d say 98 out of 100 times, nothing ever happens, not criminally. Maybe there’s an administrative matter with the clearance, but every once in a while the government gets all worked up and all of a sudden somebody gets prosecuted for lying” in a background check, said Zaid. 
   
   One puzzling aspect of Flynn’s case is that as a former Defense Intelligence Agency director and veteran intelligence officer it seems likely he would be aware that conversations with foreign ambassadors of countries seen as hostile to the U.S. are routinely recorded. 
   
   “As a former DIA director, he would know that ambassadors are under surveillance, so presumably he would not say something so stupid that it would get him into trouble,” said Zaid, who is handling Freedom of Information lawsuits for some POLITICO reporters. 
   
   Still, people sometimes act in ways that don’t seem logical in retrospect, Zeidenberg noted. 
   
   “He may not be thinking at that moment that there may be a transcript somewhere that may cross me up. It seems kind of dumb but maybe he didn’t think through the ramifications or implications of what he was saying,” said Zeidenberg, now with law firm Arent Fox. 
   
   False statement charges typically tend to be brought with other more substantive charges, although that is not always the case. Sometimes the false-statement charge is filed as part of a plea bargain that avoids a trial on other, more serious claims. 
   
   That’s what happened last year with Marine Gen. James Cartwright, former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He pled guilty to a single false-statement felony charge after getting caught up in an investigation into leaks about U.S. use of the Stuxnet virus to impede Iran’s nuclear program. 
   
   Prosecutors said they agreed to the plea bargain in order to avoid a contested public trial on an Espionage Act charge of transmitting classified information to journalists. President Barack Obama pardoned Cartwright before he was sentenced. 
   
   A special prosecutor investigating the leak of a CIA operative’s identity turned to the false-statement statute and similar laws to indict Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis Libby, even though Libby was never charged with leaking. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison after a jury convicted him on four felony counts. President George W. Bush commuted the prison term, but never granted a pardon. 
   
   The FBI has a record of aggressively pursuing false statements by potential appointees for senior jobs, at least in some instances. 
   
   In 1997, former Clinton administration Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros was indicted in 18 felony counts, including false-statement and obstruction charges, stemming from statements he made to the FBI about payments to a mistress. During an FBI background inquiry, Cisneros acknowledged some payments to the mistress, but understated them and said they had ceased when they had not. 
   
   On the eve of trial in 1999, the independent counsel handling the case and Cisneros entered a plea deal where he pled guilty to a single misdemeanor false statement count. He paid a $10,000 fine, but later received a pardon from Clinton. 
   
   The prosecution was widely criticized as excessive, but FBI officials said it was critical to preserve the integrity of the FBI’s background check process. 
   
   Zeidenberg said he wouldn’t predict a prosecution of Flynn, but he cautioned against ruling it out. 
   
   “I could see a case like that brought by the U.S. Attorney’s office in D.C.,” the ex-prosecutor said. “I wouldn’t presume one way or another, but I wouldn’t assume they would never prosecute a case like that.” 
   
   Darren Samuelsohn contributed to this report. 
   
   ||||| In the final hours before his resignation, now-former White House National Security Adviser Michael T. Flynn said he “crossed no lines” in his discussion with Russia’s ambassador, but ultimately he was most concerned about the steady stream of leaks to reporters based on classified information. 
   
   “In some of these cases, you’re talking about stuff that’s taken off of a classified system and given to a reporter. That’s a crime,” Flynn told The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group during a telephone interview from his White House office on Monday. 
   
   “You call them leaks. It’s a criminal act. This is a crime. It’s not just a wink and a nod,” Flynn said. 
   
   “Over the weekend,” Bloomberg’s Eli Lake reports, Flynn “was instructed not to speak to the press when he was in the fight for his political life. His staff was not even allowed to review the transcripts of his call to the Russian ambassador.” 
   
   On Monday morning, he spoke with TheDCNF at length, saying he was told to “go out and talk more.” 
   
   “He [President Donald Trump] expressed confidence,” Flynn told TheDCNF, just hours before his resignation. “That’s when he told me that we need to go out and talk more. So I’m going to do that.” 
   
   “I haven’t been fighting back because I’m not that kind of guy. I’m behind the scenes. I’ve always been behind the scenes. But this is ridiculous. It’s so out of control. I’ve become an international celebrity for all the wrong reasons.” 
   
   Flynn said he didn’t know where the leaks originated. “One has to wonder, ‘Are they coming out of people in the National Security Council? Are they coming out of people in the intel community? Or State? Or Defense?'” 
   
   The politicization of intelligence and the release of classified information for use against political opponents is likely to spark a fierce firestorm in Washington. 
   
   President Donald Trump tweeted early Tuesday on leaks from officials within his administration, saying, “The real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington? Will these leaks be happening as I deal on N.Korea etc?” 
   
   White House press secretary Sean Spicer said at his daily briefing on Tuesday that the president “is clearly upset” about leaks and that past leaks affected earlier administrations, including Obama’s. 
   
   “People who are entrusted with national security secrets, classified information, are leaking it out. That’s a real concern for this president,” he said. 
   
   “We have to wonder that people who work for our government, who are entrusted with classified information, decisional-based materials are leaking that information out. That, I do believe is a big story.” 
   
   Spicer did not spell out any steps Trump might take to stem the flow of leaks, however. 
   
   Before his post in the administration, Flynn was in charge of military intelligence in combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was appointed to the highest levels within military intelligence, including as director of intelligence for the U.S. Central Command. After that, he was director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). 
   
   President Barack Obama fired him as DIA director in 2014 after Flynn delivered testimony before Congress that was at odds with Obama’s contention that radical Islamic terrorism, including ISIS, was not a major threat. Since then, Obama administration officials have openly held low regard for him. 
   
   Since Trump and Flynn entered the White House, anonymous sources have given select reporters information about telephone intercepts conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA). 
   
   The classified information secretly given to reporters purportedly showed that Flynn discussed sanctions on Dec. 29, when 35 Russian diplomats were being expelled that same day by the outgoing Obama administration. 
   
   Other intelligence leaks have revealed Trump’s private discussions with heads of state soon after he became president-elect. 
   
   In a Feb. 9 story, The Washington Post cited unnamed “current and former U.S. officials” who accused Flynn of violating the law in a Dec. 29 telephone conversation with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislvak. 
   
   Flynn called the leaks of classified information against government officials “unprecedented,” and predicted those would be the focus of future congressional investigations. 
   
   “Members of Congress are very concerned because these are leaks from classified systems. The House and Senate are looking into those things, as they should,” he told TheDCNF. 
   
   The issue of government leaks is an issue for House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes. On Monday, Nunes told Bloomberg News that he views leaks about Flynn’s private conversation as part of a pattern. 
   
   “There does appear to be a well-orchestrated effort to attack Flynn and others in the administration,” said Nunes, who is a California Republican. “From the leaking of phone calls between the president and foreign leaders to what appears to be high-level [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court] information, to the leaking of American citizens being denied security clearances, it looks like a pattern.” 
   
   A Wall Street Journal editorial Tuesday asked, “Did U.S. spooks have a court order to listen to his conversations?” 
   
   Former intelligence and military officers told TheDCNF they agree Flynn was the victim of a highly orchestrated “disinformation campaign” generated by current and former intelligence officers, many with loyalties to former President Obama. 
   
   Intelligence officials are supposed to use their expertise in psychological warfare and disinformation campaigns against enemy states, but never against an occupant of the Oval Office. 
   
   “Who pulled the NSA tapes on Mike Flynn?” asked retired Col. James Waurishuk, a 30-year intelligence officer who once served in the National Security Council. “Who compiled it? Who released it?” the retired Special Forces veteran asked in an interview with TheDCNF. 
   
   Waurishuk argued the many leaks meant the public is seeing the politicization of intelligence. “There are those in the intelligence community that are more concerned with their agendas than with national security,” he said. 
   
   “Notice how the intelligence community can leak Flynn’s conversation, but there are no leaks on Hillary Clinton and Benghazi,” he added. 
   
   Another former intelligence official, retired Col. James Williamson, told TheDCNF, “What is illegal is that Flynn has his conversations eavesdropped on. Who at NSA leaked the transcript?” 
   
   Williamson called it an “egregious overstep” by current and former intelligence officials. 
   
   Flynn insisted that he crossed no lines in his telephone conversation with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak: “If I did, believe me, the FBI would be down my throat, my clearances would be pulled. There were no lines crossed.” 
   
   Flynn said there was a brief discussion of the 35 Russian diplomats who were being expelled by Obama in retaliation for Moscow’s alleged interference in the 2016 campaign. 
   
   “It wasn’t about sanctions. It was about the 35 guys who were thrown out,” Flynn said. “So that’s what it turned out to be. It was basically, ‘Look, I know this happened. We’ll review everything.’ I never said anything such as, ‘We’re going to review sanctions,’ or anything like that.” 
   
   Flynn said he apologized to Vice President Mike Pence about his earlier contention that there were no discussions about the expulsion order, which was part of the Obama sanctions. 
   
   “For the vice president, I feel terrible. I put him in a position. He’s a man of incredible integrity. I think the world of him. He is so good for our country,” he said. “I should have said, ‘I don’t know. I can’t recall,’ which is the truth. Looking back, that’s what I should have done.” 
   
   The December conversation “was not to relieve sanctions. It was basically to say, ‘Look, we’re coming into office in a couple of weeks. Give us some time to take a look at everything.’” 
   
   Before he submitted his resignation, Flynn said the president urged him early Monday morning to speak out more frequently. 
   
   Flynn has been silent since tendering his resignation. 
   
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target: – President Trump knew that Mike Flynn had misled VP Mike Pence about his contacts with the Russian ambassador weeks before Pence was informed, it emerged Tuesday as the national security adviser's resignation continued to rock the administration. Pence spokesman Marc Lotter tells the Washington Post that the vice president "became aware of incomplete information" on Feb. 9 following a Post story on the issue. The White House, however, says Trump and other top administration officials were briefed on the Justice Department's concerns about Flynn at least two weeks earlier. "It's not that he was being left out. It was a legal review," an administration source tells CNN. In other developments: The FBI interviewed Flynn in late January after it warned the Trump administration that he could be blackmailed, the New York Times reports. If authorities determine that he lied during that interview, he could face felony charges. In an interview with the Daily Caller hours before his resignation, Flynn insisted there were "no lines crossed" in his conversation with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. "It wasn't about sanctions. It was about the 35 guys who were thrown out," Flynn said, referring to former President Obama's expulsion of Russian diplomats in December. "It was basically, 'Look, I know this happened. We'll review everything.' I never said anything such as, 'We're going to review sanctions,' or anything like that." Legal experts tell Politico that Flynn faces a real risk of prosecution if he wasn't truthful with the FBI, and claiming to have forgotten parts of the conversation probably won't work. Lawyer Mark Zaid says a puzzling aspect of the case is that, as a former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Flynn must have known that conversations with ambassadors from countries like Russia would be under surveillance. Republican senators are among those calling for a full investigation of the Flynn affair, but he still has his defenders, including Rush Limbaugh. On Tuesday, the radio host described pressure on Flynn as a "political assassination" by the media, the Hill reports. "They think they have blood in the water, they've got a scalp, and they think they can get another and then another and then another and then another until finally they get Trump," he said. The BBC reports that Pence and other top US officials will be in Europe later this week to reassure American allies—though NATO allies will apparently be untroubled by the departure of Flynn, who was seen as "a bizarre and destabilizing appointment."