It's a good bet that plenty of people in the Trump administration and the GOP leadership had a hard time sleeping after the Wall Street Journal broke the news Thursday night that Michael Flynn was willing to testify if Congress and the Justice Department grant him immunity from prosecution.
Flynn stepped down from his brief White House post as national security adviser last month after it was revealed that he discussed U.S. sanctions with Russia's ambassador before President Trump took office and that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about those conversations. It has since been learned that Flynn had done lobbying work for the Turkish government - all without registering as a foreign agent until he did so retroactively last month. Additionally he reportedly was paid by Russia TV - a Russian state-sponsored propaganda source - for a speech he gave before the election.
"Gen. Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit," his lawyer Robert Kelner told the Wall Street Journal.
Flynn is one of at least three members of the Trump campaign or administration who has now been linked with Russia, and if Flynn is willing to trade his testimony for immunity, it likely means that the Russia/Trump connections scandal is knocking on the door of the Oval Office.
Jeremy Bash, a former CIA and Defense Department chief of staff in the Obama administration, says this could mean "criminal liability" from the 2016 presidential election scandals could extend "all the way to the top."
"For the Justice Department to agree to give somebody like him immunity, it means they want him to turn and testify against someone higher up in the food chain," Bash told Brian Williams of MSNBC on Thursday night. "Who is higher up in the food chain, higher than the national security adviser? There's really only one person. And so this shows that the jeopardy of criminal liability actually extends all the way to the top."
And, no - if true, it's not like Watergate. Watergate did not involve treason with an aggressive foreign enemy. Richard Nixon was a crook, but he would not have colluded with Russia to win either an election or a profit.
What's more, the Trump White House continues to make itself look guilty through efforts to dismiss or scuttle various aspects of the several probes in progress. The president falsely tweets that former President Barrack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower. Three White House officials - according to recent news reports - show classified reports supposedly containing some form of "incidental" intelligence collection as proof of that claim to the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee (which is investigating the Russia ties). The chairman doesn't share it with the committee, but instead with the White House. The House committee's investigation is now sidelined amid ethics questions.
It's just another day in Trump chaos.
Profilers and pundits have long said chaos is Trump's business management style, just as it was his campaigning style. It is not hyperbole: Look at Trump's senior strategist, Steve Bannon, who came into office vowing to "deconstruct the administrative state."
But chaos is not a good way to run our country. Americans need leaders who provide stability and confidence. We expect chaos from enemies - like Russia and ISIS - but not from our president.
And there's the frightening question of whether that chaos is fed by Trump's deliberate effort to confuse and divide or whether it's fed by his mercurial personality and insecurity.
Former FBI agent Clint Watts, who has a counter-terrorism background, this week gave a congressional committee numerous examples of Russian-pushed fake news that Trump and his associates spouted time and again - sometimes before the propaganda made its way to the Internet or to the news.
"Why would you look to the Russians for propaganda to go after your American opponent?" Watts asked rhetorically on the "Morning Joe" news program. "That's crazy. Especially for a Republican. Just look at that Twitter feed that has Real Donald Trump on it. If you look at the accounts these very small fringe outlets that are pushing these conspiracy theories directly at the president, I think you'll see where a lot of that influence comes from. They know they can get into his decision cycle with any conspiracy that he'll bite on. So if they put out a conspiracy theory that is very personal to his ego you've got the potential that he'll fall for [it.] We've seen it happen before."
Think about it: We are just over two months into this new Trump presidency, still weeks away from marking his first 100 days, and his former national security adviser is asking Congress and the FBI for immunity.
Bash summed up his fear of this White House and our broken Congress Thursday night on MSNBC.
"When I think about checks and balances, when I think about the Congress being a check on the executive branch, the image I have in my head of the White House is a runaway train. The brakes are out, and you pull your last best hope: the emergency brake - the great Congress of the United States - and the handle literally breaks off in your hand. That is how much trouble we're in," he said.