Official: Flynn not ‘certain’ on sanctions talk with Russia

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump’s national security adviser addressed U.S. sanctions against Russia in his conversations with the country’s ambassador while President Barack Obama was still in office, a new report said, contradicting previous claims that the issue was not discussed.

A Trump administration official told The Associated Press that Michael Flynn “can’t be certain” that sanctions did not come up in his discussions with the Russian ambassador. The official said Flynn has “no recollection” of discussing the sanctions, but left open the possibility that the issue did come up when he spoke with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the transition.

The Kremlin denied Friday that Flynn and Kislyak discussed the sanctions before Trump took office.

But the Washington Post, citing several current and former U.S. officials, reported late Thursday that Flynn made explicit references to election-related sanctions imposed by the Obama administration in his conversations with Kislyak.

Members of the Trump administration have maintained that Flynn had spoken to the ambassador during the transition period to wish him a Merry Christmas and offer condolences after a deadly Russian plane crash.

One of the calls took place on Dec. 29, the day the Obama administration hit Moscow with sanctions in response to a U.S. intelligence assessment that the Russian government had interfered in the U.S. presidential election with the goal of helping Trump.

The Post report also raises questions about assertions made by Vice President Mike Pence staunchly denying that Flynn’s contact with the Russian ambassador had anything to do with sanctions.

“It was strictly coincidental that they had a conversation” as new sanctions were announced, Pence said in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” last month.