Adam Schiff is calling for the head of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, after reports surfaced that the ex-general discussed American sanctions against Russia with that country’s ambassador in the month before President Donald Trump was inaugurated.

“If he did so, and then he and other Administration officials misled the American people, his conduct would be all the more pernicious, and he should no longer serve in this Administration or any other,” the California representative said on Friday, responding to the revelations in the Washington Post. He added that Flynn’s alleged conduct “raised questions of legality and fitness for office.”

In the interregnum between the election and the new leader’s inauguration, former President Barack Obama punished the Russians for their interference in the campaign by imposing more sanctions on the country. According to the accusations, Flynn might have conspired with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, to weaken the former president’s last round of sanctions.

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Trump White House officials have denied that Flynn discussed sanctions, though it acknowledged conversation between him and the ambassador. Flynn has been seen as pro-Russian, having attended a ritzy event in Moscow two years ago honoring the Kremlin’s Russia Today news service, a propaganda arm that he equated in a speech to American networks like CNN.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

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