Washington (AFP) - A top military counsel to President Donald Trump is under scrutiny by US counterintelligence agents who have probed the new national security adviser's communications with Russian officials, the Wall Street Journal said Sunday.

Retired Gen. Michael Flynn at the inaugural parade in Washington on Friday. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson WASHINGTON — A top military counsel to President Donald Trump is under scrutiny by US counterintelligence agents who have investigated the new national security adviser's communications with Russian officials, The Wall Street Journal said Sunday.

The paper reported that Michael Flynn, a retired three-star general who was among senior White House staff members sworn in on Sunday, has come under investigation as part of a counterintelligence examination of communications between Russian government members and Trump's inner circle.

Inquiry findings and whether it was still underway remained unclear, The Journal said.

Flynn has raised eyebrows for receiving payment from the Russian broadcaster RT to join a gala celebration last year in Moscow, where he sat at a banquet table with President Vladimir Putin.

US reports have also said Flynn telephoned Moscow's ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak, several times the day before President Barack Obama unveiled punitive measures over Russia's alleged cyberattacks to influence the US election.

Trump's press secretary, Sean Spicer, has said Flynn had spoken with the envoy on Christmas Day, sending him a text to wish him a merry Christmas and happy New Year.

The national security adviser is not formally part of the cabinet but is usually one of the president's most influential counsels.

Flynn, a veteran of America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has courted controversy with extreme statements that critics say border on Islamophobia, but he has taken a more flexible line on Russia and China.