“Before the evidence is in”? Really? Let me explain something. Flynn and Papadopoulos have plead guilty. Their guilty pleas stipulate to certain self incriminating facts (the legal term is “statements against an interest”). If they are lying in those stipulations they lose the protections afforded them by their plea agreements.
In Papadopoulos’ case these stipulations include that over a long period of time during the campaign he engaged in numerous contacts with high level Russian government officials to get email dirt on Hillary Clinton. He also stipulates that he kept his bosses in the Trump Campaign fully informed of his activities and that they encouraged him to do so. Your claim he was “acting on his own” is perhaps best characterized as a flat out lie. His confession shows he acted with the knowledge and encouragement of the highest elements of the Trump Campaign. These are extensive contacts the Trump Campaign and Trump himself have repeatedly denied.
Likewise Flynn’s stipulations make absolutely clear that he was not any kind of “lone wolf” in his contacts with Russians (that he lied about to the FBI). He made those contacts in coordination with the Trump Transition Team, specifically including Jared Kushner. He’s not the only one who lied about those contacts, so did many others on the Trump transition team including Kushner. Flynn is just the only one we know (so far) to have lied to the FBI (though Kushner was also interviewed).
What’s more, all this means that when Flynn was repeatedly publicly lying about these December 2016 contacts, everyone on the Trump team (including Trump) knew he was lying. There was no big surprise here as Trump is trying to spin it. This was an entire corrupt administration pushing this lie on the American public. We know that. The evidence of it is out in Flynn’s confession. Flynn made the mistake of telling the administration’s party line lie to the FBI and (unknown to him) the FBI had the tapes to prove the lie. The obvious good reason for the lie that you feign so eludes you is that it was the line his bosses were using to.
We also know that Trump Jr., had that June 2016 meeting with Russians. We’ve seen the emails clearly stating that the purpose of the meeting was to collude with Russians to get dirt on Hillary Clinton. That evidence too is out, we’ve seen the emails.
As to your final question, contrary to your claim I don’t know “none of this is criminal” and neither do you. With two convictions it is quite clear at least some of it is criminal. I also know that Special Prosecutors only investigate criminal matter, and he’s investigating. I also know the FBI investigates only criminal matters, and it was investigating before the Special Prosecutor was.
I also know Trump has engaged in a systematic campaign to obstruct these investigations, and to intimidate the investigators and witnesses. And I know that such obstructionist efforts are also crimes.
