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President Trump on Friday faulted former President Obamas administration for authorizing a security clearance for Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser.

But just remember, he was approved by the Obama administration at the highest level, Trumptold Fox News.

And when they say we didnt vet, well, Obama I guess didnt vet, because he was approved at the highest level of security by the Obama administration, Trump added.

Trump added he respects Flynns past military service and has sympathy for the retired Army lieutenant general.

I do feelbadlyfor him, he said. He served the country. He was a [lieutenant] general."

Flynn, who was forced out of Trump's White House after misleading officials about his conversation with the Russian ambassador, received a five-year renewal of his security clearance in January 2016.

The House Oversight Committee this week said Flynnmay have broken the lawby taking payments from Russia and Turkey without approval from the military and State Department.

Flynn was reportedly warned against taking such payments when he retired in 2014.

According to Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee,Flynn applied to renew his security clearance using a Form SF-86 in January 2016, a month after he traveled to Moscow to give a paid speech.

Cummings said the committee had seen "no evidence" that Flynn disclosed that payment on the form or that he sought permission before taking the payment. He noted that knowingly falsifying or concealing a material fact on an SF-86 is a felony.

Flynn was fired as Obama's Defense Intelligence Agency chief in the spring of 2014 after less than two years leading the agency.

He was ousted after clashing with top Obama national security officials, including intelligence director James Clapper.

Flynn blamed his firing on his strong views on fighting Islamic extremist groups.

He later reemerged as close adviser to Trump, even getting a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention.

Trump named Flynn his national security adviser after winning the White House, but he was forced to resign just a few weeks into the administration.

Flynn has offered to testify before the House and Senate intelligence committees that are investigating Russian meddling in the election in return for immunity from prosecution.

The committees have so far not taken him up on the offer.

Updated at 2:25 p.m.

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Trump blames Obama for vetting of Flynn - The Hill

New York Times

Obama Accepts $400000 Fee for a Speech New York Times Out of office for about three months, Mr. Obama has begun the process of cashing in. In February, he and his wife, Michelle, each signed book deals worth tens of millions of dollars. And Mr. Obama's spokesman confirmed last week that he is beginning ... Obama to be paid $400000 for Cantor Fitzgerald speechCNBC 4 reasons Obama's $400000 Wall Street speech is a bad ideaWashington Post Barack Obama Is Said to Earn $400000 for an Upcoming SpeechFortune Slate Magazine -Fox News Insider -BBC News -Fox Business all 81 news articles »

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Obama Accepts $400000 Fee for a Speech - New York Times

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai speaks during an internet regulation event at the Newseum on April 26, 2017 in Washington. Eric Thayer / Getty Images

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The internet is now regulated under Title II, which was created in the 1930s to regulate the Ma Bell telephone monopoly. By applying these rules to internet service providers, the FCC has more authority to regulate the behavior of internet service providers, including helping to control what consumers are charged and ensuring there is no paid prioritization online, which would create so-called fast and slow lanes.

Among the four basic points are not blocking websites for certain users, no throttling (creating a fast and slow lane), fostering more transparency between consumers and ISPs, and finally, no paid prioritization to move to the front of the line.

That all may sound great, but Pai says it's not working. He wants to go back to the internet rules instituted in 1996 under President Clinton and a Republican Congress.

"The internet is the greatest free market success in history," Pai said. However, he believes the "heavy-handed" net neutrality rules were never needed, aren't helping people as intended, and are in fact doing the reverse.

He said the rules have led to reduced investment, which he said has cost 75,000 to 100,000 jobs such as laying cable and digging trenches to help bring high-speed internet access to rural and low income areas.

The current framework, he said, is actually "widening the digital divide," because companies are avoiding rural and low-income areas because it may seem like it's "not worth the time and money to deploy there."

As a result, he said, this also reduces competition.

"There is no question that the easiest path would be to do nothing," he said. "When we are saddled with FCC rules that will deny many Americans high speed access and jobs, doing nothing is nothing doing."

"We need rules that focusing growth and infrastructure investment," he said. "We are going to deliver."

The FCC will vote at a May 18 meeting whether to formally consider Pai's proposal. That will likely pass, at which point the commission will seek public comment.

Another vote, which could happen before the end of the year, would then decide whether Pai's proposal would take effect. But for now, you won't see any immediate changes.

"This will be the beginning of the discussion, not the end," Pai said.

NBC News is owned by Comcast, the nation's largest internet service provider.

Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said in a statement, "We fully support reversal of Title II classification. We continue to strongly support a free and open internet and the preservation of modern, strong, and legally enforceable net neutrality protections."

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FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Unveils Plan to Kill Obama-Era Net Neutrality Rules - NBCNews.com

New York Times

How a Mural of Michelle Obama Became a Lesson on Exploitation New York Times Last Friday, the artist and urban planner Chris Devins completed a mural in Chicago of the former first lady Michelle Obama. The project was funded in part by a GoFundMe campaign that collected more than $11,000. The purpose of this mural is to give ... Man Behind Michelle Obama Mural Flap Says He'll Pay Artist For Her WorkDNAinfo Mural of Michelle Obama in Chicago Neighborhood Sparks Plagiarism DebateKTLA Chicago Urban Planner Gets Called Out For Not Crediting Artist Behind Michelle Obama PictureEssence.com all 9 news articles »

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How a Mural of Michelle Obama Became a Lesson on Exploitation - New York Times

Sizable minorities of Americans think that President Trumps campaign colluded with the Russians to help him win the 2016 election and that President Barack Obama spied on the Trump campaign, according to a new Washington-Post ABC News poll.

Views of both claims being investigated by Congress are colored dramatically by party affiliation and how one voted in the election between Trump and Hillary Clinton, the poll found, with Democrats far more likely to see collusion and Republicans to see spying.

Half of the public, meanwhile, says they are not confident that Congress will conduct a fair investigation into Russias role in last years election, with significant doubts crossing party lines.

Questions about Russias meddling in the election have dogged Trump since he took office in January and last month FBI Director James B. Comey told Congress his agency is conducting an investigation into possible coordination between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign.

Trump sparked a new controversy in March with accusations on Twitter that Obama had wiretapped his phones in Trump Tower in New York. Intelligence and law enforcement officials have said there is no evidence to support Trumps claim.

[Read: Full poll results]

The poll underscores the extent to which a partisan lens can affect the way Americans view the same set of facts.

Overall, nearly 4 in 10 Americans think some members of Trumps campaign helped the Russian government influence the election.

The partisan divide on the question is stark: About 6 in 10 Democrats say Russia tried to sway the election with the help of the Trump campaign, while only about 1 in 10 Republicans say that is the case.

Meanwhile, about one-third of Americans think the Obama administration intentionally spied on Trump and members of his campaign during the 2016 election.

There is a sharp partisan divide here, too: Just over half of Republicans believe there was improper surveillance, while only about 1 in 10 Democrats say that was the case.

The differences in views on both issues are even more dramatic between Americans who voted for Clinton and those who voted for Trump. Clinton voters are 68 percentage points more likely than Trump voters to say the president colluded with Russians, while Trump voters are 54 points more likely than Clinton voters to say Obama spied.

Gary Phillips, 65, a Trump supporter who lives in Conneaut, Ohio, is among those who say Obama spied on the Trump campaign.

I wouldnt put it past the Obama bunch, said Phillips, a retiree who previously managed a private lake in his state, when asked why he believes the claim.

Phillips also expressed a general disdain for Obama and said he has often been untruthful.

I wouldnt believe him if he said today was sunny or today was cloudy, Phillips said.

Meanwhile, Sam Hassan, 27, a stay-at-home mom and registered Democrat in Dracut, Mass., is convinced Trump colluded with the Russians in last years election.

I find it very ironic that he asked them to do some sort of hacking into Hillary Clintons email and then WikiLeaks leaks out all sorts of her email, Hassan said.

She was referring to a July news conference at which Trump urged Russia to help find 30,000 emails he said were missing from a private server that Clinton used as secretary of state. WikiLeaks is the organization that published thousands of hacked emails of John Podesta, Clintons campaign chairman, that were kept on a different server.

Hassan said she has no confidence in the Republican-led probes in the House and the Senate to get to the bottom of alleged meddling in the U.S. election by the Russian government.

Its Trumps people who are working on the investigation, she said. Its clear nothing is going to be found.

Both the House and Senate investigations have drawn criticism in recent weeks.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) recused himself from the Russian probe following criticism that he was too friendly with a White House he was tasked with probing. Those accusations followed a Nunes briefing of Trump at the White House on documents Nunes had not shared with others on the committee, including its ranking Democrat.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has more recently drawn flak for the pace at which it is proceeding.

The Senate Judiciary Committee announced Tuesday it would hold a public hearing next month on Russian interference that will include as witnesses Sally Yates, the former acting attorney general, and James R. Clapper Jr., the former director of national intelligence.

The Post-ABC poll found 42 percent saying they are confident Congress will conduct a fair investigation while 50 percent are not. Four in 10 Republicans say they doubt the investigations fairness, rising to 51 percent among Democrats and 58 percent among political independents.

While no conclusive evidence has emerged that Trump colluded with the Russians, the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies have stated emphatically that Russia sought to undermine the 2016 election and sway it in Trumps favor a finding most leading Republicans in Congress have accepted. Several have called for additional sanctions on Russia in retaliation.

A 56 percent majority of Americans believe the Russian government tried to influence the U.S. election, while 35 percent say it did not and 9 percent have no opinion.

More than 7 in 10 Democrats said they think there was meddling, while just over 3 in 10 Republicans said there was and 6 in 10 independents believe Russia interfered.

Among Trump voters, 28 percent say Russia attempted to influence the fall election compared with 83 percent of Clinton voters who say the same.

Among those with postgraduate degrees, 7 in 10 said Russia tried to interfere with the election, while just over half of those with a high school education or less said that was the case.

The poll also found that those who think Russia tried to influence the election are less confident in the ability of Congress to fairly investigate. Sixty-two percent of those who think Russia interfered are not confident Congress will investigate fairly. That compares to 50 percent of Americans overall.

The Post-ABC poll was conducted April 17-20 among a random national sample of 1,004 adults interviewed on cellular and landline phones. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Polling manager Scott Clement contributed to this report.

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Trump campaigns Russia ties: Whos involved

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Partisans embrace damning accusations about Trump helping Russians, Obama spying on Trump - Washington Post