It begins

Here we go.

President Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to the F.B.I. about conversations with the Russian ambassador last December during the presidential transition, bringing the special counsel’s investigation into the president’s inner circle.

Mr. Flynn, who appeared in federal court in Washington, acknowledged that he was cooperating with the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, into Russian interference in the 2016 election. His plea agreement suggests that Mr. Flynn provided information to prosecutors, which may help advance the inquiry.

Benjamin Wittes will need a whole set of baby cannons for this boom.

Mr. Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements to F.B.I. agents about two discussions with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey I. Kislyak. Lying to the F.B.I. carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.

In one of the conversations described in court documents, the men discussed an upcoming United Nations Security Council vote on whether to condemn Israel’s building of settlements. At the time, the Obama administration was preparing to allow a Security Council vote on the matter.

Jesus.

One: you wouldn’t forget that. If you were Flynn it wouldn’t just slip your mind that you had chatted with the Russian ambassador about a UN vote on Israel’s activities.

Two: the Trumpers weren’t in office yet. Obama was still president. Trumpists weren’t supposed to be meddling with policy in someone else’s administration.

But after accepting Mr. Flynn’s resignation, the president repeatedly said he thought Mr. Flynn was “a very good person” who had been treated poorly. The day after Mr. Flynn resigned, Mr. Trump told the F.B.I. director at the time, James B. Comey, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” according to a memo Mr. Comey wrote describing that meeting.

In a news conference on Feb. 15, two days after Mr. Flynn’s resignation, the president blamed the media.

“General Flynn is a wonderful man. I think he has been treated very, very unfairly by the media, as I call it, the fake media in many cases,” Mr. Trump said. “And I think it is really a sad thing that he was treated so badly.”

This is the guy who is supposed to be so concerned about national security that he absolutely has to retweet Britain First videos that blame random Muslims for everything.

Like Mr. Trump, Mr. Flynn was a brash, outspoken critic of former President Barack Obama, asserting that Shariah, or Islamic law, was spreading in the United States under his watch — a claim that was repeatedly debunked — and saying that the United States is in a “world war” with Islamist militants.

Investigators working for the special counsel have questioned witnesses about Mr. Flynn’s dealings with the Turkish government and whether he was secretly paid by Turkish officials during the campaign. After he left the White House, Mr. Flynn disclosed that the Turkish government had paid him more than $500,000 to represent its interests in a dispute with the United States.

Creeping Sharia! Turkey v the US!

Confused, isn’t he.

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