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(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 time line 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.
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.
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.
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