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Donald Trump and Michael Flynn.
President Donald Trump's previous comments about his former national security adviser Mike Flynn are being scrutinized Tuesday night after multiple news outlets reported that Trump asked FBI Director James Comey to drop the Flynn investigation before Comey was fired on May 9."I hope you can let this go," Trump was alleged to have said to Comey, according to one of Comey's memos cited by The New York Times.
Flynn was forced out of the Trump administration for misleading Vice President Mike Pence and other officials about discussions he had with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Those discussions included the matter of US sanctions against Russia, and were held prior to Trump's inauguration.
Former deputy attorney general Sally Yates warned the White House that Flynn's phone calls with the ambassador were liable to make Flynn vulnerable to Russian blackmail.
Since then, Trump has defended his longtime surrogate even after learning of his deception. This wouldn't be the first time Trump has been placed in an awkward position of defending the adviser he fired - the same one under federal scrutiny - and at the center of the recent string of scandals from the White House.
Here are several times Trump has defended former national security adviser Michael Flynn: