A Missing Piece Falls Into Place in the Saga of Michael Flynn

A whistleblower claims that then-National-Security Adviser Michael Flynn promised that sanctions on Russia would be “ripped up,” enabling a business project for which he’d worked to move forward, according to Representative Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.

The claim comes from a dated Wednesday and first , which published it. If the anonymous whistleblower’s account is true, it offers the strongest evidence that the Trump administration hoped to immediately end sanctions levied in the waning days of the Obama administration. It would also represent the missing link between some essential parts of the Flynn saga and Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the election. The account might explain why Flynn lied to FBI agents, telling them he had not discussed the sanctions with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and it helps to clarify the role of a bizarre scheme to build nuclear reactors