Listening to *some* of what Flynn said reminds us what was at the heart of the matter. Flynn was trying to short-circuit US retaliation for Russia interfering in the US *on behalf of Donald Trump*. His message was that Russia should avoid retaliation because that would make it...

2/ easier for Trump & Flynn to undo the sanctions once Trump was inaugurated. Just hold tight for a few weeks, he tells the Ambassador and we'll make this go away. This context is what Flynn, Trump and all their lickspittles and apologists have sought to obscure.

3/ Trump and his defenders' claim since Jan 2017 has been that it doesn't matter what Russia did or what they were trying to accomplish. Because it had nothing to do with them. Their hands were clean. In fact Trump had solicited Russian assistance and received it. He was ...

4/ eager to build on the relationship that grew out of that assistance. In these critical months of of Nov/Dec he and his aides were fairly open about this. The fact that Flynn was going to these extraordinary lengths to prevent the US from punishing Russia for ...

5/ interfering in the election tells the real story, which is that that assistance was requested by the incoming President, that it was given, that the Trump campaign at the very highest levels was collaborating with a hostile foreign power to win the US election.

6/ The fact that Flynn concealed these actions and lied to the FBI about it is a serious but relatively pedestrian crime. The issue is why he lied. And that is obvious. Because the nature of the conversations demonstrated the campaigns guilt in allying with a hostile ...

7/ foreign power to corrupt a US election.