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‘You are fired’! 24 days in and National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is gone; President Trump says he sacked his security chief over lies about Russian ties, Whitehouse and GOP give conflicting accounts departure

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Trump President Trump SACKED National Sec Adviser, Michael Flynn on Monday, just 24 days into the administration
White House sent mixed messages on Monday and Tuesday about Flynn’s status and whether he chose to resign or was fired
President’s press sec Sean Spicer says Trump demanded Flynn’s resignation over Russia lie leading to an ‘eroding level of trust’
FBI revealed to have interviewed Sec Adviser and White House hints at MORE ‘questionable instances’
Kellaynne Conway said Flynn resigned, he realized he’d become a distraction and Trump, accepted because Flynn misled the vice president 
Resignation comes on heels of  a report that Justice Dept warned  Trump administration last month about Flynn’s contacts with Russia 
Security Adviser was vulnerable to blackmail, after lying to the vice president Spence that he did not talk to Russia about the lifting sanctions
After Flynn admitted he lied, Trump could no longer ‘trust’ him
Kellyanne Conway and Michael Flynn3.pngNational Security Adviser Michael  Flynn[center], seen here with Kellyann Conway [left] got himself fired after just 24 days in office because he was caught with his hands in the Russian cookie jar
President Donald Trump demanded his national security adviser’s resignation last night after concluding that an ‘eroding level of trust’ had made it impossible to leave him in the sensitive position.
A report late on Tuesday afternoon said that Michael Flynn had come under scrutiny from the FBI and was interviewed in the first days of the Trump administration.
If he did not tell investigators the truth, the New York Times said, he could be charged with a felony.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said at a news conference, before the report came out, that Trump had been reviewing and evaluating allegations against Flynn for weeks. The situation reached ‘critical mass’ last night, he said.
‘That is why the president decided to ask for his resignation, and he got it.’
Spicer cited Flynn’s misleading statements to Vice President Mike Pence about a call he had with the Russian ambassador to the United States – ‘and a series of other questionable instances’ that he did not describe.
Michael Flynn and Donald Trump.png
Nat. Sec. Adviser Michael Flynn [center], in Florida with Trump last week was fired three weeks into the Trump administration for Lying about ties with Russia
Who vetted the retired general before he became close with the then presidential candidate?
 Kellyanne Conway1.png
Unsettling spin; Presidential spokesperson Kellyanne Conway said the departure of Flynn was a  mutual decisionby the parties

Departing from the essence of Sean Spicer’s statement of a firing, presidential spokesperson Kellyanne Conway this morning said, the departure of Flynn was a  mutual decision by the parties. A clearly flustered Spicer spoke about Trump’s erosion of trust in General Flynn.
Meanwhile the Whitehouse deflected all questions on the nature of Flynn’s FBI interview to the Department of Justice and the National Security Council, contrary to the former Sec Adviser’s statement in an interview on Monday with the Daily Caller News Foundation that he was not under investigation by the federal agency, however.

It came up as he insisted to the non-profit news outlet that he hadn’t done anything wrong.
‘If I did, believe me, the FBI would be down my throat, my clearances would be pulled. There were no lines crossed,’ he said in the interview that hit the internet around the same time as the Times’ report.
Having dismissed concerns earlier in the day that Flynn’s calls with Sergey Kislyak were problematic, Spicer maintained that the retired general was dismissed when Trump decided he couldn’t rely on him: “‘There was nothing wrong or inappropriate about those discussions. It purely came down to a matter of trust. That’s it,” Spicer told the media.
The Department of Justice notified the White House’s legal counsel Don McGhan he said, on Jan. 26, that Flynn may have lied when he said that he did not discuss sanctions with Kislyak.McGhan immediately told the president and some of his advisers.
After a thorough review Spicer said, ‘Flynn was cleared of any violations’.
‘We got to a point not based on a legal issue but based on a trust issue where the level of trust between the president and General Flynn had eroded to the point where he felt he had to make a change,’ the president’s press secretary said.
According to Sean Spicer, Flynn was not fired at that time because the Justice Department hadn’t launched a probe and could not say with certainty that the Trump official had lied.
‘The evolving and eroding level of trust as a result of this situation and a series of other questionable instances is what led the president to ask for General Flynn’s resignation,’ Spicer told reporters during his Tuesday briefing.
He declined to say what those ‘issues’ were or what became the tipping point that caused the president to fire his national security adviser, after barely three weeks, on Monday night.
michael-flynn3Former national Security Adviser Michael Flynn, cut adrift mid-sentence, Monday night by the Trump adminstration after FBI allegedly caught him lying about his contact with Russia
Flynn himself has not spoken out since. He talked to the DCNF on Monday, he said, because the president encouraged him to defend himself.
The retired three-star general had no idea at that time that he was headed for the chopping block.
‘He [President ] expressed confidence,’ Flynn is quoted as saying to the DNCF. ‘That’s when he told me that we need to go out and talk more. So I’m going to do that.’
The interview was conducted ‘just hours before his resignation,’ DNCF’s Richard Polluck stated. Trump forced Flynn out that same Monday night after coming to the determination that his ‘trust’ in Flynn had been eroded.
Donald Trump3.jpg
Trump ‘fired’ Flynn night after coming to the determination that his ‘trust’ in Flynn had been eroded

House Speaker Paul Ryan was the first to say that Trump had asked for his national security advisor’s resignation.

‘National security is perhaps the most important function or responsibility a president has. And I think the president made the right decision,’ Ryan said of Flynn’s departure on Tuesday morning.
At a House leadership press conference the Republican told reporters, ‘You cannot have a national security adviser misleading the vice president and others. So I think the president was right to ask for his resignation. And I believe it was the right thing to do.’
That was more than anyone from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue had said at that point.
A White House press release Monday night stated that Trump had accepted Flynn’s resignation and was appointing Lt. General Joseph Keith Kellogg, Jr. to the post. It did not say that Flynn had been dismissed.
An accompanying letter from Flynn said, ‘I am tendering my resignation, honored to have served our nation and the American people in such a distinguished way.’
Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway cast it as a mutual decision on Good Morning America.
Flynn resigned because he realized he’d become a distraction for the administration, she said. ‘It became increasingly unsustainable for him.’
The president accepted the senior aide’s resignation because he ‘misled’ the vice president, Conway said. He was ‘dishonest or forgetful.’
Flynn’s letter acknowledged that he ‘inadvertently briefed the Vice President Elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian Ambassador.
‘I have sincerely apologized to the President and the Vice President, and they have accepted my apology.’
As of early Monday evening, Trump was ‘evaluating’ Flynn’s position. Conway said on GMA that Flynn’s clarification that he may he have talked about sanctions on the call after all ‘accelerated matters.’
The hysteria over Flynn reached ‘a fever pitch’ Monday night, Conway said.
 Speaking on the ouster of Michael Flynn, Speaker Ryan said: ‘President made right decision’.
 ‘The fact is the president is a very loyal person and he has a team him that serves him very admirably, and in this case information had been forthcoming for a while, but the situation had gotten to a fever pitch yesterday, later in the day.’
Ryan offered an alternative version of events at his news conference on Tuesday.
‘I think the key is that as soon as this person lost the president’s trust, the president asked for his resignation,’ he said, ‘and that was the right thing to do.’
Spicer echoed Ryan’s comments at his own news conference.
‘The president was very concerned that General Flynn had misled the vice president and others,’ Spicer said. ‘He was also very concerned in light of sensitive subjects dealt with by that position of national security advisors like China, North Korea and the Middle East, that the president must have complete and unwavering trust for the person in that position.’
VP Mike Pence and Michael Flynn.jpg Flynn seen here with Mike Pence [Left] was said to have put the Vee Pee in an untenable position with his ‘Russia lies’
Flynn, a retired military general, stepped down late on Monday night, less than a month into Trump’s administration as questions mounted over his close links with the Kremlin.
Flynn’s purported resignation came just hours after sources close to the government revealed that the Justice Department had warned the new administration that his links with the Kremlin had put him in a compromising position and left him open to blackmail. Flynn made numerous phone calls to the Russian Ambassador to the US before Trump took office, and later hinted he may have gone against diplomatic protocol by discussing the rollback of sanctions.
The VP had vouched for Flynn, without knowing the full details of the calls, and gave him his full support several days before the inauguration. Flynn has since issued a grovelling apology to Pence.
Retired General Keith Kellogg has taken over as acting national security advisor, but the administration is considering former CIA Director David Petraeus and US Navy Admiral Michelle Howard as permanent replacements.

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