President Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to the F.B.I. about conversations with the Russian ambassador last December, becoming the first senior White House official to cut a cooperation deal in the special counsel’s wide-ranging inquiry into election interference.
Mr. Flynn’s discussions with Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, were part of a coordinated effort by Mr. Trump’s aides to create foreign policy before they were in power, documents released as part of Mr. Flynn’s plea agreement show. Their efforts undermined the existing policy of President Barack Obama and flouted a warning from a senior Obama administration official to stop meddling in foreign affairs before the inauguration.
But there's more.
According to Bloomberg, Flynn called Kislyak because Jared Kushner ordered him to do it. The guilty plea is not related to the 2016 campaign, though, but Flynn is said to be ready to implicate top Trump campaign officials as part of his cooperation with Mueller.
ABC News reported Friday that Flynn is prepared to tell Mueller's team that Trump had instructed him to make contact with Russia during the campaign itself. If those contacts involved the emails the U.S. intelligence community charges Russia stole from leading Democrats, then Mueller will have uncovered evidence of actual collusion between the president and a foreign adversary during the election. Impeachment could then be in the cards.
As to the reason for the call, apparently Kushner was looking to halt a vote in the UN condemning Israel, so he told Flynn to ask the Russian ambassador to delay the vote.
This looks like the start of a lot of legal trouble for Trump. If Flynn reveals evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, that means impeachment or jail time for his campaign officials.
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