So at this point, here's my theory:
Flynn is one of the relatively few direct links between Russia and far right extremists in America. For the past several years, while the far right has been gaining in strength, Russia given mostly indirect aid; tracking people's Facebook habits, helping conservative stories trend, etc. For the most part, the public faces of the alt-right are probably not aware that Russia has been helping them.
But there is a select group of people on the right who do know. These are the "people who need to know," if you will. Flynn is among them. I suspect that Carter Page and Paul Manafort are among them as well. There are probably several others not in the Trump administration (e.g., Roger Stone, Maria Butina) who definitely fall into that group. POSSIBLY Steve Bannon and Seb Gorka---I think think those two might just be useful idiots though.
For a while, the "people who need to know" flew under the radar. But during the 2016 election, many of them became involved with Trump's campaign, both because of personal ambition and probably necessity. Now that they are part of the White House, they have been exposed. And they are vicariously dragging down every other Republican around them who saw the warning signs during the 2016 campaign and chose to ignore them
This latter category is much broader than the "people who need to know." I think it encompasses Paul Ryan, Mike Pence, Kevin McCarthy, and probably Donald Trump. I don't think any of these people are devious enough or intelligent enough to knowingly act as Russian agents. With Donald Trump in particular, there is no way an idiot like that was directly groomed to be a Manchurian Candidate. I think it's much more likely that this group of people saw warning signs of Russian interference and just chose to brush them off half-jokingly. And why not? They were getting gifts and winning votes and shyt. I also don't think there's any blackmail on any of them. There doesn't need to be. They just followed along because they're dumb American politicians. Same thing with Trump's business ties. I don't think he was ever directly approached about anything. The oligarchs just sort of buttered him up and he played along.
But now that one of the "people who need to know" is going down (Flynn), he's going to name-drop all of the unsuspecting idiots first. He won't snitch on Carter Page. He won't snitch on Paul Manafort. At least not until he has to---he'll play all of those cards last. But before he does, he'll bury all of the Tea Party babies who chose to follow the Russians straight off a cliff; they're the ones who are truly expendable.
Trump firing Flynn was an attempt to distance himself from the Russian influence once things became a bit more obvious. Appointing one of the "people who need to know" to head the NSC was a mistake. But culling Flynn from the herd made him vulnerable, so Trump needed Comey on his side to make sure he didn't pursue Flynn. Comey refused and Trump had to double down on his mistake by firing Comey. And here we are today.
Unless you kill a girl in your office...
