HuffingtonPost – The latest ominous chapter in the Russiagate scandal started to play out yesterday when it was reported that Michael Flynn, Trump’s ousted National Security Advisor, had offered to testify before Congress in exchange for a grant of immunity.
Flynn’s attorneys presented this offer with the teaser that Flynn “certainly has a story to tell.”
Indeed he does.
A month and a half ago, shortly after Flynn was fired as President Trump’s National Security Advisor, I published an article predicting that the Flynn affair had the potential to bring down Trump’s presidency (“The Flynn Affair Could Bring Down Trump’s Presidency”).
The gist of it was that Flynn’s firing could be the beginning of the end for Trump, and that the story would only get bigger in the weeks and months ahead.
Trump’s silence about whether Flynn had discussed sanctions with Russia in the midst of the election, while everybody else around Trump was loudly denying it, seemed strangely out of character.
That is, unless Trump knew he had something to hide.
Trump may not only have known about Flynn’s dangling the easing of sanctions in front of the Russians, he may have ordered it. Either way, complicity in highly improper, and possibly illegal communications with Russian agents could lead to Trump’s impeachment.
Since Trump and Flynn could be the only two people with direct knowledge of what took place between the two of them and the Russians, a lot depended on Flynn’s reaction to his ouster. It was certainly possible that he would play the good soldier and keep his mouth shut, including possibly asserting the 5th Amendment if required to testify.
But if Flynn decided to talk, he could bury Trump.
