The White House on Tuesday defended the hiring of Mike Flynn as national security adviser despite revelations that he was paid by foreign governments prior to accepting the post and described requests that the administration produce additional Flynn documents as “ridiculous.”
Responding to aggressive questioning during the daily press briefing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer attempted to absolve President Trump of responsibility for hiring Flynn, who he has since fired, without a more thorough vetting that might have discovered the foreign payments. Spicer painted the congressional investigation into the matter as an issue unrelated to the administration.
The House Government and Oversight Reform Committee, led by Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, is asking the White House for documents related to Flynn’s short stint as national security advisor. The Trump administration declined to provide them. But Spicer essentially said that Flynn’s personnel documents weren’t the purview of the West Wing in the first place, even though he was among Trump’s top White House aides.
“To ask the White House to produce documents that were not in the possession of the White House is ridiculous,” Spicer said.
“I don’t know what he filled out or what he did or did not do,” Spicer added, regarding whether the White House knew that Flynn did not properly disclose the foreign payments. “That all happened out — he filled that form out prior to coming here and so it would be up to the committee and other authorities to look into that.”
Spicer faced fresh questions about Flynn because the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee contends that Flynn did not follow the law governing the process by which retired military work for foreign governments, including Russia.
Trump fired Flynn three weeks into his tenure because the retired Army general mislead administration officials about his contacts with Russian officials during the transition period.
