Vice President-elect Mike Pence said this morning that Michael Flynn Jr., the son of incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn, is no longer involved in the transition team efforts, despite reports that he had an official email associated with the team.
A report from CNN later in the day alleged that the transition team had sought security clearance for Flynn Jr., something for which Pence did not answer in a Tuesday afternoon interview with Jake Tapper. "Well, whatever the appropriate paperwork was to assist him in that regard, Jake, I'm sure was taking place. But that's no longer the case," Pence vaguely said. The transition team has not provided additional details as to why Flynn Jr. is no longer involved but the report went on to suggest that the order for his dismissal came from Trump himself. "All of our families want to be helpful, and four weeks to the day from Election Day, we've got a lot of work to do. But Mike Flynn Jr. is no longer associated with Gen. Flynn's efforts or the transition team, and we're focused eyes forward," Pence said.
On the daily transition call, earlier in the day, spokesman Jason Miller told reporters that Flynn Jr. was helping with “administration” and “scheduling” for his father early on in the efforts but is no longer involved. It is unclear what the timeline is on when the son. Flynn Jr. has generated controversy in recent days for sharing stories about “Pizzagate,” a fictitious conspiracy that alleges Clinton allies run a child-sex ring out of a D.C. pizza restaurant. After a gunman showed up to the restaurant Sunday attempting to “investigate” the supposed child-sex ring, Flynn Jr. insisted on Twitter that the story still hadn’t been adequately disproven, despite the fact that there is no evidence and the shooter himself said he stood down because he couldn't find anything.
—Gideon Resnick
