Rep. Elijah Cummings, a member of the House Oversight Committee, said the security clearance of national security adviser Michael Flynn should be revoked until an investigation of his contacts with the Russian ambassador are finished.
Cummings, in an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” said what also needs determination is whether President Donald Trump asked Flynn to make the contact in the weeks before Trump’s inauguration.
“That, to me, that is the key question. And we need to find out what that answer is,” Cummings said.
Flynn has said he doesn’t remember whether he contacted the Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the time between Trump’s election and inauguration, reportedly promising the new administration would revisit sanctions against Moscow.
“General Flynn should be suspended and have his intelligence clearance revoked until the facts are known about his secret contacts with the Russians,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Saturday.
“Yes, I think that’s an appropriate action,” Cummings said when asked if he agreed.
Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., said on CNN’s “State of the Union” said Flynn was either “lying about not having discussed that [when he told Vice President Mike Pence he hadn’t] or he forgot. I don’t think you want a guy who’d forget that.”
White House policy adviser Stephen Miller said in several appearances on the Sunday morning talk shows he would not comment on the situation, saying he had no instructions from the president on the issue and did not intend to “make news.”
“My focus was on answering the policy questions that you have,” Miller said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” when asked if Trump still has confidence in Flynn. “General Flynn has served his country admirably. He is a three-star general. He’s head of the defense intelligence agency. And I look forward to having more discussions about this in the future.”
The Washington Post reported Thursday Flynn and Kislyak met privately to discuss sanctions in “the month before” Trump took office. Some senior U.S. officials called the contact “inappropriate” and possibly illegal if Flynn signaled sanctions relief.
The Kremlin on Friday denied reports Kislyak and Flynn discussed sanctions prior to the inauguration, the state news agency Tass reported. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged Flynn and Kislyak had contact but said it is his understanding “the information is not correct.”
Sanctions were imposed after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula and for attempting to interfere with the U.S. election.
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