According to White House officials speaking to the Free Beacon, Michael Flynn's resignation was coordinated by a group of former Obama officials and loyalists who wanted to protect the Iran Deal from its largest critic. The effort included planting stories meant to discredit Flynn, the national security advisor to President Trump.

The abrupt resignation Monday evening of White House national security adviser Michael Flynn is the culmination of a secret, months-long campaign by former Obama administration confidantes to handicap President Donald Trump's national security apparatus and preserve the nuclear deal with Iran, according to multiple sources in and out of the White House who described to the Washington Free Beacon a behind-the-scenes effort by these officials to plant a series of damaging stories about Flynn in the national media. The effort, said to include former Obama administration adviser Ben Rhodes—the architect of a separate White House effort to create what he described as a pro-Iran echo chamber—included a small task force of Obama loyalists who deluged media outlets with stories aimed at eroding Flynn's credibility, multiple sources revealed.

Flynn was one of the most vociferous critics of the Iran Deal and ridding him from Trump's administration helps the cause to keep the agreement in place, despite repeated statements by Trump that he would dismantle what he called, "the worst deal ever negotiated."

The official story of the resignation from White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer is that the relationship between Trump and Flynn began to erode after Vice President Mike Pence backed Flynn based on his word that later turned out to be untrue.

Central to the scandal was a call made between Flynn and a Russian ambassador before the election. He had told Pence that sanctions were not discussed, but now says he doesn't remember if they were discussed or not, embarrassing Pence and causing a rift between himself and Trump. Flynn apologized to Pence for the misleading statement.

But this alternate explanation from the Free Beacon means Flynn was purposely targeted because of his opposition to the Iran Deal.

"It's undeniable that the campaign to discredit Flynn was well underway before Inauguration Day, with a very troublesome and politicized series of leaks designed to undermine him," said one veteran national security adviser with close ties to the White House team. "This pattern reminds me of the lead up to the Iran deal, and probably features the same cast of characters."

The sources say that Flynn was also planning to expose details of the plan that were hidden by the Obama administration in order to get it passed.

A member of the Obama administration once said that they viewed the Iran Deal as the Obamacare of his second term, meaning it was just as important to his presidential legacy.