Time for a proper investigation
By John Cassidy
February 14, 2017
... In retrospect, the revelation in the Post’s report made Flynn’s departure inevitable. But the more important point to grasp, as Lizza suggests, is that the “Flynn went rogue” narrative is risible. He was always a bit player in the much larger and more consequential story of Trump’s efforts to cozy up to Putin. His resignation, far from putting an end to that story, only makes more urgent the need for a proper investigation into the President’s ties to Russia.
As recently as last Friday, speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump claimed not to have seen the reports that Flynn brought up sanctions in his conversations with Kislyak. We now know, however, that F.B.I. agents interviewed Flynn in late January, and that the Justice Department then warned the White House that Flynn’s accounts of his phone calls were misleading and could potentially open him up to blackmail by the Russians. On Monday night, the Washington Post reported that Sally Yates, then the acting attorney general (whom Trump subsequently fired for refusing to defend his anti-Muslim travel ban), and “a senior career national security official” had delivered this warning to Donald McGahn, the White House Counsel.
It’s far from clear what happened after Yates delivered this message. According to Sean Spicer, the White House spokesman, senior officials had been “reviewing and evaluating this issue on a daily basis, trying to ascertain the truth.” But what truth was there left to ascertain? If Trump regarded Flynn’s telephone diplomacy not as a rogue operation but as a faithful carrying out of his wish to curry favor with the Russians, there would be no reason to punish him. The only danger was that details of the Flynn–Kislyak conversations would leak, which would place Vice-President Mike Pence in an invidious position, as he had publicly claimed that the two men did not discuss sanctions.
One line of inquiry, then, is this one: Who knew what—and when—during the past couple of weeks? And, while the White House press corps gnaws at that bone, a much larger issue also needs to be addressed: What lies at the bottom of Trump’s Putinophilia? ...
http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/its-time-for-a-proper-investigation-of-trumps-russia-ties
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