russian and was worried that flynn could be a blackmail target. reince priebus determined that flynn had denied discussing the sanctions with the russians at least ten times. priebus tracked down white house counsel don mcgahn. priebus asked mcgahn if they could get the transcripts of the conversations that flynn had had with the russian ambassador. yes, mcgahn said, of course. soon he had the highly classified transcripts of three communications between flynn and ambassador kislyak that the fbi had intercepted during routine monitoring of the russian ambassador. mcgahn and priebus were joined by vice president mike pence in the situation room to review those transcripts. pence had backed flynn's denial publicly. in all three transcripts, flynn and the ambassador discussed the sanctions. in the last call, initiated by ambassador kislyak, the ambassador thanked mike flynn for his advice on the sanctions and said the russians would follow that advice.