What did Trump know?

It will all come down to the big question: what did Donald Trump know when he first dealt with James Comey about the Russia collusion affair? The argument has been endessly debated in the Washington papers. But I don't think anyone has really focused on whether Trump himself ordered Mike Flynn, his former national security adviser, to lie to the FBI. A brief recap: in his weekend Tweeting, Trump said Flynn had had to be sacked because he had lied to Mike Pence, the Vice-President, AND (my capitals) to the FBI over the question of whether he raised the issue of sanctions against Moscow when he went to see the then Russian ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak. Trump's explanation until now had always been that Flynn had to go because he lied to Mike Pence, as a result of which the vice-president went on TV and denied that Flynn had talked about sanctions in his chat with Ambassador Kislyak. So.....Trump is now saying that he knew Flynn had lied to the FBI about the contents of his meeting with the Russian. All the US papers are suggesting that if he knew Flynn had lied to the FBI why did he ask Comey, then the FBI director, to be lenient to his national security adviser and stop investigating him? And is that a prima facie case of obstruction of justice by the president? I think that argument is dubious, especially as the president disputes Comey's accusation that he told him to stop investigating the Russia collusion allegations. Much more interesting is this: did Trump himself order Flynn to cover up the fact that he raised sanctions with Kislyak when he was questioned by the FBI? Or to put it another way: did the president order Flynn to lie to the FBI? Now that, in my view, would be far more dangerous for Trump than whether his seemingly casual request to Comey to be nice to Flynn is tantamount to an obstruction of justice. There are even some lawyers in Washington who are saying that the president has the constitutional right to obstruct justice if he believes the FBI are going down the wrong path. Well, that's lawyer talk but it does demonstrate there are ambiguities here. But for a president to instruct a senior official to lie to the FBI!!! That's a different legal ball game altogether. We don't know if that happened. But if it did, then Flynn, now cooperating with Robert Mueller's investigation, is likely to mention it - or may have already mentioned it - to save his bacon. Mueller, being a thoroughbred investigator, will want more corroboration. But if Flynn WAS told to lie, then the likelihood is that other members of the Trump administration were either involved or knew about it. The finger has already been pointed at Jared Kushner, the son-in-law and adviser to Trump. Or is it possible that Flynn just acted on his own and, unauthorised, told Kislyak that Trump, when president, would get all those nasty sanctions lifted in return for a cosy relationship with Vladimir Putin? I find it difficult to believe that Flynn would even raise the issue unless someone had told him to do so. And that would have given Flynn confidence when he lied to the FBI!!