WASHINGTON, (MILLAT/APP/AFP): The White House battled Tuesday
to insulate Donald Trump from a scandal over his top aide’s contacts with Russia, as it emerged that the president was aware of the problem for weeks before acting.
With calls for an independent investigation gathering pace, the White
House admitted that Trump was told three weeks ago that national security advisor Michael Flynn may have misled colleagues about his Kremlin contacts.
The retired three-star general and former head of US defense
intelligence initially denied discussing sanctions strategy with Russia’s ambassador Sergey Kislyak before taking office.
That may have breached US law on negotiating with foreign powers, and
at minimum was a significant break with the norm that incoming administrations accept the US has “one government at a time.”
Flynn was asked to resign on Monday, after what the White House said
were weeks of internal investigation that turned up no evidence of wrongdoing but “eroded” trust.