Obama warned Trump about hiring Flynn, sources say

By Jim Acosta and Jeremy Diamond, CNN
Updated 12:14 PM ET, Mon May 8, 2017

Then-President Barack Obama warned President-elect Donald Trump in November against hiring retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as his national security adviser, former Obama administration officials confirmed to CNN.
Obama warned Trump about Flynn during their Oval Office meeting on November 10, days after Trump was elected president.
Obama's concerns, which he relayed to Trump, were not related to the firing of Flynn from the Defense Intelligence Agency but rather in the course of the investigation into Russian interference into the 2016 election.

"Flynn's name kept popping up," according to a senior Obama administration source.

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Trump did not heed Obama's counsel on Flynn, bringing aboard the former military intelligence officer who supported Trump during his campaign as his national security adviser. Trump fired Flynn 24 days later when news broke of Flynn's conversations with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak.
News of the warning comes as former acting Attorney General Sally Yates is set to testify before Congress on Monday about the concerns she expressed to Trump administration officials about Flynn's contacts with Russian officials, namely with Kislyak.

Yates, in her role as acting attorney general, warned White House counsel Don McGahn on January 26 that Flynn was lying when he denied -- both publicly and privately -- that he discussed US sanctions on Russia with Kislyak. It wasn't until weeks later that Trump asked for Flynn's resignation, only after news surfaced that Flynn had misled Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Kislyak.

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