The American public deserves to know the answers to at least the first five of these questions, and will then make a judgment on the sixth:
1. Why didn’t Trump act sooner to fire Flynn? He knew about Flynn’s contact with the Russian ambassador at least since January, when then-acting attorney general Sally Yates notified the White House that Flynn had “put himself in a compromising position” with his phone call to the Russian ambassador.
2. What, if anything, did Trump authorize Michael Flynn to tell the Russians before the inauguration?
3. What other contacts did Flynn and other Trump aides have with Russia before the election? U.S. intelligence reports show that Flynn was in touch with Russian ambassador Kislyak during the 2016 campaign, and that communications between the two continued after Nov. 8. The Russian ambassador has even confirmed having contacts with Flynn before and after the election, though he declined to say what was discussed.
4. Did Flynn or other Trump aides know of or cooperate with Russia in interfering in the 2016 election on Trump’s behalf?
5. If so, did Trump know about or encourage such cooperation?
These questions won’t go away. The FBI and the Senate Intelligence Community are investigating. Hopefully, investigative reporters are also on the case. Eventually, the truth will come out. As Richard Nixon learned, coverups in Washington just make things worse.
Which leads inevitably to the last question:
6. If Trump knew or encouraged, will he be impeached?
Value judgments and my personal opinion aside - I am unclear on whether laws were violated, or only protocol, if in fact Trump knew...?
I believe there is a few issues at hand here:
1. There's a long standing custom that there is only one President at a time. So no one should have been speaking with the Russia on behalf of what the next president would do, until #Obama's term officially came to an end. But Trump already ignored this tradition in other matters.
2. I think the bigger issue is that #Flynn not only lied to the American people but also to #Trump and #Pence. Trump isn't going to want to have someone around whom he can't trust. And Americans don't' want someone with a credibility problem in that position of power (we already have enough of that in Washington)!