"[W]hy did Flynn lie? People who lie to the FBI generally do so because, if they told the truth, they would be admitting to a crime."

"But the two conversations that Flynn falsely denied having were not criminal. He may have believed they were criminal but, if he did, he was wrong," writes Alan Dershowitz, who explains why the things lied about were not criminal. I understand that.

But I don't think Dershowitz explains why Flynn lied. Maybe Flynn didn't understand that the things he denied were not criminal, or maybe he didn't want to have to fight for the proposition that these things were not criminal. It seemed like the easier path (when he didn't know he'd been wiretapped). Or maybe Flynn wanted to deflect political damage, since anything having to do with the Russians would be exploited as reinforcing arguments that Trump's victory was illegitimate.

Dershowitz jumps to the question why did Mueller only charge Flynn with lying. The idea seems to be that's all Mueller has: a crime unrelated to any "possible crimes committed by current White House incumbents."

ADDED: I thought I'd try watching the Sunday morning talk shows, and the first thing I saw, as I clicked on one of my 5 recordings, was "FLYNN FLIPS." But Flynn got charged with something that is really a crime and he chose to plead guilty. How is that "flipping"? I appreciate the poetry of the double "FL," but you don't know that he's "flipped" unless you know that the guilty plea involved some sort of bargain to testify or gather more evidence against somebody else. But if there's no crime that he's lied about — and he wasn't charged with any crime other than lying — then what's the "flip"? It's a garbage headline. Embarrassing. They're showing that they're slavering over imagined crimes. That's not journalism.