First charges filed in Mueller investigation

[Zanten]

Locknuts said:

Seems like Trump asked Flynn to speak with the Russians after he was elected President (December) which was Flynn's job at the time. The timing is so important that ABC news got it wrong (claimed that Trump gave the order as a candidate) which caused the stock market to drop. ABC has since made a correction:

http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/01/media/abc-news-flynn-correction/index.html

I'm not sure why Flynn felt the need to lie to Pence and the FBI but lying seems to be the only thing he's actually done wrong.

I'm not sure what all the hysteria is about. Don't get me wrong: Trump's a dick, but this is a bit silly as far as I can tell. 

I can't say for certain why Flynn lied, but there are a few guesses are to why he might have.

One has to do with the possibility that he violated the Logan Act, something that in theory prohibits unauthorized private citizens from negotiating with countries that have a dispute with the U.S., but there are a lot of uncertainties to that. The Logan Act is actually a really OLD law, and I don't believe it's ever successfully convicted anyone, in part because this kind of thing doesn't happen very often. It's also rather vague, from a legal perspective, as it was written hundreds of years ago and hasn't gotten much of an update since. Because of that, it's uncertain whether Trump- who at the time wouldn't have actually been President, as it doesn't 'kick in' until his inauguration- would have even had the ability to authorize Flynn in the first place back in December.

A somewhat more likely reason could have had to do with public perception, and what was discussed. The flip side to the whole 'Russians helped flip the election in Trump's favor' thing was a concern that, once Trump took office, he would seek to lessen or even completely lift the various sanctions placed on them. Trump, it should be noted, has obviously opposed imposing sanctions on Russia in the first place, and delayed implementing the newest set of them for as long as he could manage before finally having to sign them in. The bill that implemented these sanctions even went to the added step of limiting Trump's executive authority over them, meaning if Trump wants to change the extent of sanctions on Russia at some point in the future, he needs Congress' approval to do so. This is a matter that is ironically bipartisan, as the bill had broad support from the Republicans as well as Democrats.

So when the question arose of whether Flynn discussed sanctions with Kislyak, saying 'no' could have been meant to try and assuage the concerns of both the public and the Republicans that Trump had any plans to loosen them. (Which has obviously backfired.) Admitting that they went to the Russians to reassure them when the Obama administration added new sanctions would have also served to lend the appearance that Trump was undermining what was, at the time, still the active administration before he had even taken office.