President Donald Trump was not aware his former national security adviser had worked to further the interests of the government of Turkey before appointing him, the White House says.
The comment comes two days after Michael Flynn and his firm, Flynn Intel Group Inc, filed paperwork with the Justice Department formally identifying him as a foreign agent and acknowledging his work for a company owned by a Turkish businessman could have aided Ankara.
Asked on Thursay whether Trump knew about Flynn's work before he appointed him as national security adviser, press secretary Sean Spicer said: "I don't believe that that was known."
Flynn and his company filed the registration paperwork describing $US530,000 ($A705,900) worth of lobbying before election day for Inovo BV, a Dutch-based company owned by Turkish businessman Ekim Alptekin.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Alptekin said Flynn did so after pressure from Justice Department officials.
The filing this week was the retired US Army lieutenant-general's first acknowledgement his consulting business furthered the interests of a foreign government while he was working as a top adviser to Trump's presidential campaign.
Trump sacked Flynn as national security adviser in February for misleading Vice-President Mike Pence and other administration officials about his contacts with Russia's ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak.
