Pence kept in the dark by Trump over Flynn concerns -- until he read about it in the paper

The Trump administration kept Vice President Mike Pence in the dark about the Justice Department’s concerns regarding former national security advisor Mike Flynn for a full 15 days after the president was made aware of such concerns, NBC News reports.

The DOJ's concerns stemmed from Flynn’s Dec. 29 conversation with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, which took place on the same day Barack Obama’s administration unveiled sanctions against Russia in retaliation for the country’s election-related hacking. Flynn categorically denied discussing sanctions with the Russian ambassador; last Thursday, several heavily-sourced reports confirmed that the pair did, in fact, discuss sanctions.

Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that former acting Attorney General Sally Yates—who was later fired by Donald Trump—warned the Trump White House on Jan. 26 that Flynn misled officials about the nature of his phone call and could potentially be open to blackmailing by the Russian government. Flynn resigned several hours after that report was published.

Pence wasn’t informed about the Justice Department’s concerns regarding Flynn until last Thursday, Feb. 9—the same day the heavily-sourced reports regarding the contents of Flynn’s phone call with Kislyak were published. According to Washington Post reporter Ashley Parker, Pence found out through the Washington Post that he’d been misled by the former national security advisor.