Understatement. Of. The. Year.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz appeared on NBC’s “Today” show to talk about the House Oversight Committee’s ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, as well as the growing mountain of suspicion, regarding Donald Trump’s campaign team.

It really does seem that every day there is something new to cause Republican lawmakers to run straight for the Tums.

The latest may be that Trump knew Michael Flynn was under investigation for his ties to Turkey (and Russia) before he brought him on to be national security adviser.

Said Chaffetz:

“You can argue that he probably shouldn’t,” the Republican congressman said on NBC’s “Today” show when asked whether Flynn ever should have been hired.

“And maybe, in retrospect, knowing what we know now, he probably shouldn’t have, but nevertheless he did hire him, and he was there for just over three weeks and then he did dismiss him.”

Yes, he did, and that is absolutely a good thing.

Again, however, the concern is that Trump may have known, and even now, some reports say he’s pining for Flynn, who was a loyal surrogate during the run up to the election.

Sources told The New York Times that Flynn told Trump aides he was under investigation.

I’d say that brings up another question: If Flynn knew he was under investigation, why did he take the position? He had to know that, if discovered, it wouldn’t go well. Not only would it not go well for him, but it would reflect badly on the administration.

Even if he didn’t know about the investigation, he knew he was working under the table for Turkey, and that he’d received payments from Russia. With his background and rank in military, he didn’t understand the rules about that before taking the job as national security adviser? Is that what we’re being asked to believe?

I don’t see where there can be more than two conclusions drawn.

Either Flynn wanted to damage Trump, or there was a real effort to get parties with loyalties to Turkey and/or Russia involved in this administration.