NOTE TO EDS: WILL UPDATE THIS PACKAGE THROUGHOUT THE DAY....WATCH FOR UPDATES.
President Trump has expressed frustration at continuing leaks from inside his White House, saying they contributed to the resignation of his National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
Lt. Gen. Flynn had to leave his post after conceding that he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence and other top officials about the nature of his communications with the Russian Ambassador to the United States.
But his departure from the White House has led one top Republican in the US Senate to demand an "exhaustive" investigation into the President's connections with Russia.
Our Washington Correspondent Simon Marks says the latest developments seem to be spinning out of President Trump's control.
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If you want to know how fast things are moving in Washington you can set your speedometer via Senator Roy Blunt.
A Republican from Missouri he was on television worldwide less than a month ago…..presiding over President Trump's inauguration on Capitol Hill
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Fast forward 3-and-a-half weeks, and this was Senator Blunt on St. Louis radio station KTRS…a Republican member of the Senate Intelligence Committee calling for what he called an "exhaustive" inquiry into President Trump's ties to Russia.
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Propelling the Senator's call….the fall from grace of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
It would be tempting to call it a rapid demise….but it was not.
Long after it was clear he was unfit for office and had lied to senior officials including Vice President Mike Pence about a series of pre-inauguration phone calls with the Russian Ambassador, he was finally shown the door on Monday night.
And that left the President's top advisers, including Kellyanne Conway, scrambling to explain why he had been kept in top level government meetings long after it was known he was susceptible to Russian blackmail.
She was challenged on NBC's Today program by host Matt Lauer.
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That non-answer means the questions are only mounting here for President Trump.
What did he know about Michael Flynn's phone calls to the Russian Ambassador?
Did he instruct the man who would become his National Security Adviser to discuss the timetable for diluting US sanctions against Moscow….a conversation that, at the time it occurred, would have been illegal.
And more generally, why is President Trump so beguiled by Russia if - as he's claimed - a 35-page dossier detailing compromising materials the Kremlin is alleged to have gathered on him is "fake news".
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Former US Ambassador to Russia Mike McFaul says Michael Flynn sat next to Vladimir Putin at a dinner celebrating the 10th anniversary of Russian propaganda TV channel RT.
He wants to know what the top Trump associate knew about Russia's hacking of the Democratic Party's computer servers.
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But this is now a story about more than just Michael Flynn's contacts with the Russians.
Why was he kept by President Trump's side long after it became apparent that he was a national security risk?
And - in that most classic of Washington questions - what did the President know, and when did he know it?
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