by Jonathan Allen
WASHINGTON — It's going to get harder for President Donald Trump to distance himself politically from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe after Michael Flynn's guilty plea — and that could be bad news for his fellow Republicans at the polls.
Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI on Friday, and the White House is worried about any information he could pass along to prosecutors.
For now, the president's legal team is playing down the conviction as a contained fire — one that will burn only Flynn for his deceit — but the political fallout could impede Trump's agenda next year and further divide a Republican Party that has been riven by a high-stakes electoral civil war.
Even in the best of times, Trump has struggled to unify a fractious White House team, GOP lawmakers on the Hill, the Republican Party and the nation. That's hurt him in Congress, where a tax-cut bill is his last best gasp for a single major legislative accomplishment deep into his first year in the Oval Office.
WASHINGTON — It's going to get harder for President Donald Trump to distance himself politically from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe after Michael Flynn's guilty plea — and that could be bad news for his fellow Republicans at the polls.
Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI on Friday, and the White House is worried about any information he could pass along to prosecutors.
For now, the president's legal team is playing down the conviction as a contained fire — one that will burn only Flynn for his deceit — but the political fallout could impede Trump's agenda next year and further divide a Republican Party that has been riven by a high-stakes electoral civil war.
Even in the best of times, Trump has struggled to unify a fractious White House team, GOP lawmakers on the Hill, the Republican Party and the nation. That's hurt him in Congress, where a tax-cut bill is his last best gasp for a single major legislative accomplishment deep into his first year in the Oval Office.
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