EDITORIAL: Flynn’s out, but the moles are not

Michael Flynn is gone as the president’s official national security adviser, and now the important back story moves to the front. What is this curious episode really all about? Nothing is ever as it seems in Washington.

Mr. Flynn learned the hard way the ancient rule that so many high government officials learned before him, that a misdemeanor can become a felony when embraced by a lie — “it’s not the crime, but the cover-up.” When Mr. Flynn was accused of improper conversations with the Russian ambassador about what Russia could expect from the new president, Mr. Flynn assured Vice President Mike Pence that it wasn’t so. But it was, as he now concedes.

That’s bad enough, but more bad is coming. The Washington Free Beacon, a reliable internet news site, reports that the crucial back story is that Mr. Flynn’s abrupt resignation Monday night was “the culmination of a secret, months-long campaign by former Obama administration confidantes to handicap President Donald Trump’s national-security apparatus and preserve the nuclear deal with Iran.” Read more here: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/feb/14/editorial-flynns-out-but-the-moles-are-not/