Michael T. Flynn, the national security adviser, resigned on Monday last week after it was revealed that he had misled Vice-President Mike Pence and other top White House officials about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States Sergey I. Kislyak. Flynn, who served in the job for less than a month, said he had given “incomplete information” regarding a telephone call he had with the ambassador in late December  about American sanctions against Russia, weeks before President Trump’s inauguration. Mr Flynn previously had denied that he had any substantive conversations with Ambassador Sergey I. Kislyak, and Pence repeated that claim in television interviews as recently as this month. Meanwhile, Trump said that he asked for the resignation of Flynn because he was not happy with the way he had communicated information to Pence.

“I don’t think he did anything wrong. If anything, he did something right in talking to Russian officials,” Trump told a news conference. “The thing is, he didn’t tell our vice-president properly and then he said he didn’t remember.” On January 12, 2017, for the first time, Flynn’s talks with the Kislyak.  were reported. Reports said that if the two discussed the sanctions, this could violate an obscure law known as the Logan Act, which prohibits unauthorised citizens from dealing in disputes with foreign governments. An US intelligence official says there is no evidence of criminal wrongdoing, although he noted that it doesn’t rule out the possibility of illegal actions.