Week ahead: Washington grapples with Flynn fallout

The coming week is sure to bring intense speculation about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s election interference, following the guilty plea of Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser.

Flynn on Friday pleaded guilty to one count of lying to FBI agents about his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the transition. He is now cooperating with the investigation.

According to court documents released last week, Flynn received direction from a “senior official” and “very senior member” of Trump’s transition team regarding his contacts with the Russian official last December. Reports Friday identified that official as Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser.

Several members of the transition are also said to have known about Flynn’s conversation with Kislyak discussing U.S. sanctions after the fact, prosecutors say.

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The special counsel in late October unveiled financial-related charges against former Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and Richard Gates. George Papadopoulos, who briefly advised the campaign on foreign policy, has also pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about his Russia-related contacts.

The Flynn developments come as Donald Trump Jr. is scheduled to meet with the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, CNN reported.

The Senate Intelligence Committee also plans to interview Trump Jr. this month. Trump’s eldest son has been scrutinized for his participation in the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer as well as his contacts with WikiLeaks during the campaign.

This week, lawmakers are also heading to a clash over legislation to renew a controversial spy program that allows the U.S. intelligence community to collect data on foreign targets outside the U.S. without a warrant.

The House Intelligence Committee passed its version of legislation that would extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) on Friday along party lines. The House Judiciary and Senate Intelligence committees each have their own versions of the legislation.

The spy program is set to expire at the end of this year, leaving lawmakers little time to negotiate.

Cybersecurity will also take center stage as the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s subcommittee on information technology holds a hearing on the oversight of IT and cybersecurity at the Department of Veterans Affairs on Thursday afternoon.

With the 2017 legislative calendar winding down, lawmakers may schedule one more hearing this year on Kaspersky Lab, the Russian-origin cybersecurity firm whose software the Department of Homeland Security says federal agencies can no longer use. 

An aide to the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, which has been holding hearings on the matter, told The Hill this week that another hearing on Kaspersky could be scheduled for mid-December but it has not yet been finalized.

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