Sean Spicer said Monday that President Donald Trump was “evaluating the situation” around Michael Flynn minutes after Kellyanne Conway said Flynn had the "full confidence of the president." | Getty 5 times Trump’s team contradicted itself about Flynn’s Russia talks

Michael Flynn’s brief tenure as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser ended abruptly Monday amid reports that he discussed the Obama administration's sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador before Trump took office — and then misled his colleagues about it.

But Flynn’s ouster hasn’t made questions go away about what the Trump administration knew about his conduct — and about how that compares with what Trump’s staff told the public.


And in a few instances, the team hasn’t managed to keep its story straight. Here are five examples of instances where members of Trump’s team have made claims that were later contradicted — by new information, by colleagues or even by Flynn himself.

Conway: Flynn had Trump’s “full confidence” on Monday

Spicer: Trump’s been monitoring Flynn’s misstatements for weeks

On Monday afternoon, Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway said unequivocally that Trump stood fully behind his national security adviser: “General Flynn does enjoy the full confidence of the president,” she told MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki.

Minutes later, Spicer told reporters that Trump was “evaluating the situation” around Flynn.

That seemed to contradict Conway’s testimony, but it remained possible that Trump had changed his thinking between Conway’s last contact with the president and Spicer’s statement.

But at Tuesday’s press briefing, Spicer told reporters that Trump had known that Flynn had misled Pence about his contact with Russia for weeks and suggested that Trump had been scrutinizing his adviser for about as long.

“We've been reviewing and evaluating this issue with respect to General Flynn on a daily basis for a few weeks, trying to ascertain the truth,” Spicer said. “We got to a point not based on a legal issue but based on a trust issue with the level of trust between the president and General Flynn had eroded to the point where he felt he had to make a change.”

Conway: Flynn volunteered his resignation

Spicer: Trump demanded it

Conway went on NBC’s “Today Show” on Tuesday morning and characterized Flynn’s resignation as his own decision, not the president’s. “Mike Flynn had decided it was best to resign. He knew he had become a lightning rod and he made that decision,” Conway told anchor Matt Lauer.

She added that she was delivering that message with Trump’s blessing: “I spoke with the president this morning. He asked me to speak on his behalf and to reiterate that Mike Flynn had resigned.”

Just a few hours later during the daily White House briefing, Spicer’s opening statement directly contradicted her. Spicer made clear that Trump had asked Flynn to resign, citing the president’s loss of trust in him as an adviser.

“We’ve been reviewing and evaluating this issue with respect to General Flynn on a daily basis for a few weeks trying to ascertain the truth,” Spicer told reporters. “We got to a point not based on a legal issue but based on a trust issue where the level of trust between the president and General Flynn had eroded to the point where he felt he had to make a change.”

“The president must have complete and unwavering trust for the person in that position,” he added. “The evolving and eroding level of trust as a result of this situation in a series of other questionable instances is what led the president to ask for General Flynn’s resignation.”

He later repeated, for good measure: “That's why the president decided to ask for his resignation, and he got it.”

Flynn: I didn’t talk sanctions with the Russian ambassador

Flynn: I don’t remember if I talked sanctions with the Russian ambassador

On Feb. 8, according to the Washington Post , Flynn said “no,” twice, after he was asked if he had ever discussed the sanctions with Russia’s ambassador, Sergey Kislyak.

The next day, Flynn backtracked through his spokesman, who said Flynn had “indicated that while he had no recollection of discussing sanctions, he couldn’t be certain that the topic never came up.”

Flynn: I don’t remember if I talked sanctions with the Russian ambassador

Flynn: We discussed the diplomats Obama expelled (but that doesn’t count)

Flynn has since contradicted himself further on this. Despite claiming that he couldn’t recall if the sanctions came up in his conversations with the Russian ambassador, he suggested otherwise in an interview on Monday with The Daily Caller, a conservative news website.

In an interview hours before Flynn offered his resignation, he told the Daily Caller he’d talked to the ambassador about one of the actions the Obama administration took against Russia in response to the country’s alleged interference in the election — expelling 35 Russian diplomats from the United States.

In the same breath, Flynn also claimed that this does not qualify as discussing the sanctions.

“Flynn said there was a brief discussion of the 35 Russian diplomats who were being expelled by Obama in retaliation for Moscow’s alleged interference in the 2016 campaign,” the Daily Caller reported.

“It wasn’t about sanctions. It was about the 35 guys who were thrown out,” Flynn said, according to the website. “So that’s what it turned out to be. It was basically, ‘Look, I know this happened. We’ll review everything.’ I never said anything such as, ‘We’re going to review sanctions,’ or anything like that.”

Pence: Flynn and Russia didn’t discuss the diplomat expulsions

Flynn: Yes, we did

Of course, Flynn’s comment to the Daily Caller brings us back to the initial problem: He misled Pence about his contact with Russia.

In January, Pence went on television to defend the scrutiny surrounding Flynn’s call with Kislyak and deny that it covered anything related to the Russia sanctions. He told CBS , “They did not discuss anything having to do with the United States’ decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia.”

Flynn has now openly acknowledged that they did.

The White House did respond to a request for comment.