Congressional Democrats are now looking for answers after White House National Security Adviser Gen. Michael Flynn abruptly resigned late Monday evening.
“We were shocked and dismayed to learn this evening of reports that three weeks ago, U.S. law enforcement officials warned the White House Counsel that General Flynn had provided false information to the public about his communications with the Russian government, but that the Trump Administration apparently did nothing about it,” Reps. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking members of the Judiciary and Oversight committees, respectively, said in a joint statement.
“The reality is General Flynn was unfit to be the National Security Advisor, and should have been dismissed three weeks ago.
“Now, we in Congress need to know who authorized his actions, permitted them, and continued to let him have access to our most sensitive national security information despite knowing these risks. We need to know who else within the White House is a current and ongoing risk to our national security,” the statement continued.
Flynn resigned after reports surfaced that he lied to Vice President Mike Pence about the details of his phone call with the Russian ambassador in December.
The former general said in his resignation letter that it was because of the “fast pace of events” that led him to “inadvertently [brief] the Vice President Elect and others with incomplete information” about his conversation with the Russian ambassador.
“Democrats believe that this new disclosure warrants a full classified briefing by all relevant agencies, including the Department of Justice and the FBI, as soon as possible and certainly before Thursday, February 16. We are communicating this request to the Department of Justice and FBI this evening,” the committee Democrats said.