Pence said to base Russia remarks on what Flynn had told him

Vice President Mike Pence’s assertion in a televised interview that National Security Adviser Michael Flynn hadn’t discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with the Russian ambassador was based on what Flynn had told him, an administration official said.

The official sought to add clarity to an emerging controversy about Flynn’s contacts with the ambassador that’s raising questions about whether he crossed the line into improper activity.

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Flynn had discussed sanctions imposed by former President Barack Obama’s administration with the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, before President Donald Trump took office, contradicting past assertions by both Flynn and Pence. On Thursday, Flynn told the Post through a spokesman that “while he had no recollection of discussing sanctions, he couldn’t be certain that the topic never came up.”

While the Trump administration has acknowledged that Flynn spoke with Kislyak before Trump’s inauguration, Pence said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Jan. 15 that Flynn didn’t discuss the sanctions Obama imposed in response to Russia’s alleged hacking of Democratic Party officials during the presidential campaign.

“I talked to General Flynn about that conversation, and actually was initiated on Christmas Day, he had sent a text to the Russian ambassador to express not only Christmas wishes but sympathy for the loss of life in the airplane crash that took place,” Pence said on the show. “It was strictly coincidental that they had a conversation. They did not discuss anything having to do with the United States’ decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia.”

Pressed by the show’s host, John Dickerson, Pence added that “those conversations that happened to occur around the time that the United States took action to expel diplomats had nothing whatsoever to do with those sanctions,” and that “I don’t believe there were more conversations.”

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Friday that Flynn should resign if the Washington Post report is true.

“I don’t know how people can have confidence in his judgment and truthfulness,” Schiff said in an interview. “I don’t know how other members of the administration could — if they were unwitting of the nature of his conversation.”

Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the second-ranking House Democratic Leader, said in an emailed statement that the report raises “serious alarm bells.”

“We need a full investigation to determine what the Trump administration promised Russia and if U.S. laws were broken,” Hoyer said.