The White House(WASHINGTON) — The “evolving and eroding” relationship between former national security adviser Michael Flynn and President Trump prompted the president to ask for his resignation, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday.

“There’s nothing that the general did that was a violation of any sort,” Spicer said. “What this came down to was a matter of trust.”

Spicer said the president “was immediately informed” of the situation on Jan. 26 when the White House was notified of the nature of the calls between Flynn and the Russian ambassador to the United States.

“When the president heard the information as presented by White House counsel, he instinctively thought General Flynn did not do anything wrong and the White House counsel’s review corroborated that,” Spicer said.

Spicer repeatedly said that nothing Flynn said in his calls with the ambassador was illegal, adding that “the president had no problem with the fact that he [Flynn] acted in accord to what his job was to be doing.”

But Flynn’s relationship with Trump “had eroded to the point where he felt he had to make a change,” said Spicer, pointing to an unspecified “series of questionable instances.”

Flynn offered his resignation Monday night. Tuesday’s news conference is the first since Flynn resigned. He wrote in his resignation letter that he “inadvertently briefed the Vice President-elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian Ambassador.”

Flynn had previously confirmed that he had spoken to the ambassador, but denied that the topic of sanctions the United States had imposed on Russia for its suspected interference in the 2016 election were broached. It has now been publicly disclosed that such a conversation did take place.

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