Lock Him Up!! The noose tightens another notch… And can they use the Logan Act?

So another shoe has dropped in the Mueller investigation, this one the guilty plea to one count of lying to the FBI by Michael Flynn. Still, so far no publicly visible smoking gun for conspiracy, despite multiple covered up contacts and unequivocal attempts at collusion with the Russians and their affiliates, including by some of the most senior Trump campaign officials. However, it remains to be seen what evidence Flynn will be able to provide, and against whom. The speculation is that it must be pretty big to get him off the hook (so far) for multiple additional crimes, including additional lies, failing to register as a foreign agent for Turkey and failing to report payments from Russia, not to mention keeping his son from being charged. In the meantime, we are now getting confirmation that in December 2016 during the transition period Flynn, apparently under orders from Kushner and with at least the knowledge of other transition team members, attempted to influence the actions of multiple other countries. This included apparently successfully urging Russia not to retaliate for Obama’s anti-Russian sanctions related to the election meddling, as well as unsuccessfully lobbying multiple countries including Russia to delay or block the UN resolution against Israeli settlements, reportedly at the behest of the Israeli government.  Trump has publicly denied telling Flynn to do this but said that not only was Flynn just doing his job in contacting other governments during the transition, but that if he hadn’t, Trump would have told him to do so. Of course, we have no way of knowing as yet whether this is true, but it is hard to imagine that Trump was unaware of all this! The public debate surrounding these actions has centered on whether they violate the Logan Act, a 1799 law which prohibits private citizens from interfering in government negotiations related to disputes with foreign countries.  There have been compelling arguments by experts on both sides of this question. However, this law has never been successfully prosecuted, and there has been past debate over whether it it constitutional, mostly due to its vagueness and First Amendment rights.  Yet, if the transition team was not concerned about the legality of what they were doing, why did they try so hard to cover it up, as they have all of their other Russian contacts? This seems like another case of the cover up possibly being a bigger legal problem than the actions themselves!  It seems unlikely that there will be any charges brought under the Logan Act, although it looks like this will be used as leverage to uncover evidence of additional and possibly more conventional and/or serious crimes! Since Flynn was involved in all the major phases of Trump’s ascendancy to the oval office, there is a potential treasure trove of incriminating evidence. The saga/ordeal continues, and it looks like the next shoe to drop may belong to Kushner!