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Cue up that classic political throwback to the '70s: "What did you know and when did you know it?" That's the question that will dominate several ongoing congressional inquiries into Russian interference in the 2016 election and the Trump camp's ties to Russia. It's also the question that may indeed be the president's undoing. Fingers crossed for the sake of our nation—and the globe.
Just after Michael Flynn resigned as national security advisor because his clandestine conversations with a Russian official had been intercepted (smart!), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, had a few follow-up questions, writes Shane Harris.
“Flynn’s departure does not end questions over his contacts with the Russians, which have been alleged to have begun well before Dec. 29,” when the two men are known to have spoken, Mr. Schiff said. Dec. 29 also is the date then-President Barack Obama imposed new sanctions against Moscow for interfering in the 2016 U.S. election.
The House Intelligence Committee is conducting one of three congressional probes, and more are possible. Mr. Schiff and others said a key question is whether Mr. Flynn “was acting on the instructions of the president or any other officials, or with their knowledge.” [...]
Seventeen Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah), the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, calling on him to begin an investigation, including into Mr. Flynn’s financial ties to any other foreign sources, “or step aside and allow the committee to vote on conducting basic oversight going forward.”
The letter was a more formal prompt than the one hundreds of Chaffetz's angry constituents hurled at him during a town hall last week: "Do your job!" they chanted repeatedly as Chaffetz claimed he had no grounds on which to investigate his dear leader.
But even if Chaffetz manages to turn a blind eye to the atrocities unfolding in front of him, you still have the Intelligence Committees in both the House and the Senate conducting inquiries, as well as independent investigations into Russian hacking by GOP Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham. Just guessing neither of those two would shed a single tear if Trump's whole operation went down in a sea of flames.
There's also plenty of material to work with.
Three people who have advised Mr. Trump are currently being investigated for their own Russia ties, officials have said, including Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s one-time campaign chairman; Roger Stone, a former adviser; and Carter Page, whom Mr. Trump named last year as one of his foreign-policy advisers. All have repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
Flynn is now the in. He is very potentially the beginning of the unraveling and a clear hook for investigators to hang their hat on. We may end up owing him a debt of gratitude for being as daft as he was at hiding his own international breaches.