Trump says Flynn is a 'great man' who was treated 'very unfairly'
Video report by ITV News Washington Correspondent Robert Moore
Donald Trump has described his former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn as "a great man" who was "treated very, very unfairly".
Mr Flynn resigned after allegedly misleading Vice President Mike Pence and other US officials about his contacts with Russia.
He spoke with ambassador Sergey Kislyak multiple times in December, just after the Obama administration introduced new sanctions on Russia.
Mr Flynn initially claimed they did not discuss sanctions, but several intelligence sources spoke to The Washington Post and claimed that he suggested that sanctions would be lifted once Mr Trump was in office.
Mr Trump was reportedly informed about the issue just six days into his presidency, but did not oust Mr Flynn until late on Monday night.
In a joint press conference with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr Trump hit back at allegations against Mr Flynn.
He said: "General Flynn is a wonderful man, I think he has been treated very very unfairly by the media, as I call it the fake media in many cases, and I think it's really a sad thing that he was treated so badly.
"Things are being leaked...people are trying to cover up for a terrible loss that the Democrats had under Hillary Clinton, I think it's very, very unfair what's happened to General Flynn."
He had earlier derided as "non-sense" (sic) claims that there are Russian connections within his team.