Michael Flynn pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to the FBI about his contact with Russians, in the biggest sign that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation is moving into a critical phase.Flynn, Trump’s short-lived national security adviser, appears to have flipped on the Trump administration: He’s now cooperating with Mueller’s investigators. He pleaded guilty to one charge — lying to the FBI about his interactions with Kremlin officials — seemingly in exchange for Mueller’s dropping more serious charges. As the charging documents state, these are not “all the facts known,” just “sufficient facts” to prove the one offense to which Flynn agreed to plead guilty.He’ll likely be testifying down the line about interactions between more senior Trump administration officials about their interactions with the Russians.Here’s everything that you need to know about the whirlwind of new Russia news:The charges are about two interactions that Flynn had with Russians that he later lied about to the FBI. The first is that he asked the Russian Ambassador to delay the vote on or defeat a pending United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements. The Russian government opposed the resolution.Flynn lied to the F.B.I., too, about asking the Russian Ambassador not to escalate the diplomatic situation between the U.S. and Russia after the U.S. expelled Russian diplomats following the revelation that Russia meddled in the election. Russian President Vladimir Putin, with knowledge that the Trump administration would be softer on Russia, didn’t expel U.S. diplomats, a move Trump praised.Continue reading on VICE NEWS.
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