According to a report from NBC News, Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn was scheming during the inauguration ceremony.
Flynn was seated literally feet away from Trump on the dais in front of the capital building when he texted a former business partner to say that sanctions on Russia would be "ripped up," allowing them to move forward on the foreign business deals Flynn was lobbying for as a foreign agent.
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump was just 11 minutes into his presidency when his choice for national security adviser, Michael Flynn, texted a former business partner to say an ambitious U.S. collaboration with Russia to build nuclear reactors in the Middle East was "good to go," according to a new whistleblower account.
As Trump delivered his inaugural address, says the unnamed whistleblower, Flynn directed Alex Copson, managing director of ACU Strategic Partners, to inform their business partners "to put things in place."
The whistleblower also says that Flynn assured Copson that U.S. sanctions on Russia that could block the nuclear project would be "ripped up" once Trump was inside the White House.
Special prosecutor Robert Mueller has been in possession of this information from the beginning, according to the report, so we should assume it factored into Flynn's plea agreement.
A whisteblower reportedly shared Flynn's text messages with Representative Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, who then presented it to Mueller. Mueller asked Cummings to sit on the information, but that directive was lifted after Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
We still don't know exactly what Flynn gave up in exchange for facing lesser charges, but we know it involves someone higher up the Trump food chain than himself. The only people higher than Flynn in the Trump hierarchy are Mike Pence, Trump's family members including Jared Kushner, and Trump himself.
Flynn was closer to Trump than almost anyone. You may recall that Flynn even accompanied Trump to his classified intelligence briefings when he was still a candidate. Flynn's purpose for attending was to vet the information presented to Trump because neither he or Trump trusted it. We now know Flynn was employed as a foreign agent the whole time.
I feel like that has largely disappeared down the memory hole and we don't spend enough time considering how insane and treacherous it is.