The controversy surrounding former national security adviser Michael Flynn just took a new twist.

The Trump team has maintained that they knew nothing of his foreign ties to Turkey and Russia, but a new report says he was vetted, though not thoroughly.

Sources told NBC News that with Flynn the process was “done very casually.”

One source said the Trump transition team was even aware of Flynn’s business ties to Turkey.

Flynn was forced to step down in early February, after it was revealed that he’d been dishonest with VP Pence about his communications with a Russian envoy. Later in the month, he registered as a foreign agent for Turkey.

On Thursday, it was revealed that the Pentagon is conducting an investigation into undisclosed speaking engagements for which Flynn, a former Army general, was paid by Russia’s state-sponsored TV network, without receiving permission from Congress.

Flynn is in deep, and none of this looks good.

Several weeks ago, Flynn offered to testify in the probe concerning Russian interference in the 2016 election, in exchange for immunity, but so far, his offer has been declined.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues to deny they were involved in vetting him, and they’ve even blamed former President Obama’s administration for poor vetting.

Flynn was director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2012 to 2014.

“Just remember,” Trump told anchor Martha MacCallum of Fox News on Friday, “he was approved by the Obama administration at the highest level. And when they say we didn’t vet, well Obama I guess didn’t vet, because he was approved at the highest level of security by the Obama administration. So when he came into our administration, for a short period of time, he came in, he was already approved by the Obama administration and he had years left on that approval.”

I don’t know if relying on somebody else’s work and not checking for yourself is a valid excuse. Trump is basically saying they put people in sensitive positions and don’t bother to check them out.

Not reassuring.