Washington – Former U.S. President Barack Obama warned then President-elect Donald Trump in November against hiring retired Gen. Michael Flynn as White House national security adviser, according to a former Obama aide.
Obama delivered the warning during the first Oval Office meeting between the Democratic president and his Republican successor on Nov. 10, the aide said on condition of anonymity.
The warning, first reported by NBC News, came up during a discussion of White House personnel.
The nature of Obama’s misgivings about Flynn were not clear.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Flynn has emerged as a central figure in probes into allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Moscow.
A former U.S. deputy attorney general, Sally Yates, is expected to tell a Senate Judiciary subcommittee later Monday that she had warned the White House after Trump took office that Flynn had not told the truth about conversations he had held with the Russian ambassador to Washington.
Trump fired Flynn, a retired general, in February for failing to disclose talks with Ambassador Sergei Kislyak about U.S. sanctions on Moscow and then misleading Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations.