*Politics* Have We Discussed Lt. Gen Flynn?

Scrutiny over handling of classified information

At the Republican National Convention, amid shouts of "lock her up" from the audience, Flynn delivered a fiery speech condemning Hillary Clinton's handling of emails on her private server.

"I have called on Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race because she put our nation's security at extremely high risk with her careless use of a private email server," Flynn said.

But Flynn's own record with classified information has been called into question during his military career. On at least two occasions, his handling of classified information came under scrutiny by the US military.

Two former government officials with direct knowledge of the issue tell CNN that while Flynn oversaw intelligence in Afghanistan, he shared classified information with Pakistan on terror networks responsible for killing American troops. The intelligence, the sources say, came from another agency. Flynn wasn't supposed to share it. They say he was trying to convince Pakistan to stop sheltering terrorists.

Asked by email about the allegation, Flynn told CNN, "It is not true ... not even close." Flynn declined to comment further for this story.

In separate incident, the two officials with whom CNN spoke said Flynn did not follow established security procedures when he shared classified intelligence with allies.

In an August interview with The Washington Post, Flynn has acknowledged the incident.

"The investigation on me was for sharing intelligence with the Brits and Australians in combat, and I'm proud of that one," he told the paper. "That was substantiated because I actually did it."

Flynn says he had permission to share the classified information. In both cases, sources say the retired general was informally reprimanded but never charged with wrongdoing.

And in 2010, while still a serving senior officer, he published an article criticizing the state of US intelligence operations in Afghanistan. CNN has learned the CIA was so furious at Flynn for publicly disclosing shortfalls that the agency complained to the Pentagon, which had signed off on the article.