agent with lobbying ties to turkey. joining me now is cnn correspondent jessica snyder. jessica, it appears the white house continues to distance itself from general flynn. just hours after vice-president mike pence said that the president made the right decision to fire flynn, what more can you tell us? >> yeah, the white house, jim, taking a hands off approach here. in fact, spokesman sean spicer specifically stating this afternoon the president didn't know general michael flynn as the head of his company was acting as a foreign agent, but a source does tell me that white house counsel did know both before the inauguration and right when he was named national security advisor. in fact, democrat elijah cummings on the house oversight committee sent a letter to vp pence on november 18 after the election raising issues of conflicts of interest even though pence now saying he was just made aware this week. of course, the potential problem here is that members of flynn's consulting company secured meetings with turkish officials in mid september at the height of the campaign and secured a