There's no denying that the coronavirus pandemic has been politically difficult for President Donald Trump. His coronavirus briefings, which have since been reduced significantly, have been repeatedly shown to be misleading, if not outright dangerous for Americans. The Administration has shown time and again that the economy, rather than American lives, is their top priority. Time will show whether or not decisions made by the White House will or have already led to unnecessary deaths.

Given the heat he is facing on that front, it should be no surprise that Donald Trump pivoted this week to draw attention towards the investigation of Michael Flynn and away from the ever-growing coronavirus death toll (a number which many conservatives are doing everything in their power to bring into question).

So, who is Michael Flynn, and why do we care about him?

In short, after lying to the FBI and Vice President Mike Pence regarding his relationship and communication with Russian government officials, Flynn resigned and pleaded guilty to these felonies. He went on to cooperate with the Muller investigation. However, after a Judge on his case implied that he might face jail time, Flynn swapped lawyers and began claiming prosecutorial misconduct, halting his trial in its tracks. In response, Attorney General and Trump crony William Barr installed an outside prosecutor to oversee Flynn's case and Trump began proclaiming Flynn's innocence far and wide. This week, however, the final shoe dropped. The FBI has officially dropped its case against Flynn. This is the most recent example of political interference being carried out by Barr and Trump.

The story of how we got to this point is a bit complex and begins in the Obama-era.

Flynn served as the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency under Obama before being fired in 2014. NBC reports that this was mostly due to mismanagement and temperament issues. Later, during a 90-minute conversation between Obama and Trump just 48 hours after the 2016 election, Obama made it clear that he was "not a fan of Flynn" and warned Trump against hiring him. Little did Obama know about the extent of Flynn's alleged crimes.

Flynn has been shown to have deep and secretive ties to many Russian officials and businessmen. At a dinner celebrating the 10th birthday of the Russian TV network RT, known by the U.S. intelligence community as a "Kremlin mouthpiece", Flynn was seated next to Russian President Vladimir Putin as the guest of honor. Of the nine other people at Flynn's table, three were under U.S. sanctions for their role in the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia. Flynn was paid $45,000 to speak at the event. He failed to disclose this payment to the U.S. government despite laws requiring him to do so.

"It is not coincidence that Flynn was placed next to President Putin," former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, 2012-2014, Michael McFaul told NBC. "Flynn was considered a close Trump adviser. Why else would they want him there?"

The RT birthday gala was an event full of oligarchs and other influential people, but it is just one example of Flynn's relationship with the Russian government. Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates testified before the Senate Judiciary subcommittee regarding the reason for Flynn's firing saying officials "were concerned that the American people had been misled about the underlying conduct and what General Flynn had done." The conduct in question was discussing U.S. sanctions with the Russian officials under those sanctions without authorization.

"To state the obvious, you don't want your national security adviser compromised by the Russians," Yates said.

Flynn's most cited offense and the conduct that Yates was concerned about is a violation of the Logan Act. Simply put, Flynn had secret communications with Russia's ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, to the U.S. regarding sanctions against Russia and a UN vote after discussing the matters with Jared Kushner and KT McFarland, a Trump transition team official. This was before Trump was in office. Flynn later lied to the FBI about these conversations. After Trump entered office, Flynn resigned when it became clear he had been lying not only to the FBI, but also to Vice President Mike Pence regarding the content of the conversations.

After Flynn resigned, Trump spoke to then FBI Director James Comey about the criminal investigation into Flynn's actions.

"I want to talk about Mike Flynn," Trump said, according to Comey. "He is a good guy and has been through a lot. I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go."

Later, in a news conference, Trump told reporters "I don't think he did anything wrong; if anything, he did something right."

However, in a Tweet, the President acknowledged that Flynn had lied to the Vice President as well as the FBI. This means Trump knew Flynn had committed a felony when he asked Comey to "let it go".

"I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!"

This tweet by the President was seen as inappropriate even by members of his own party. The day after Trump tweeted about the investigation, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. spoke on CBS.

"You tweet and comment regarding ongoing criminal investigations at your own peril. I would be careful if I were you, Mr. President. I would watch this," Graham said.

Many have alleged that the President's actions in this matter amount to obstruction of justice, but his lawyer, John Dowd, told reporters that the President can't obstruct justice, ostensibly because he is justice.

"President cannot obstruct justice because he is the chief law enforcement officer under [the Constitution's Article II] and has every right to express his view of any case," Dowd said.

This claim is, of course, untrue. President's definitely can and have obstructed justice. After all, the articles of impeachment brought against Richard Nixon included obstruction of justice.

Flynn's alleged violations were committed years ago, but they are in the news again. Conservatives, including the President and Flynn himself, have begun claiming that Flynn was a victim of targeting by the FBI. These claims disregard the fact that the FBI has transcripts of Flynn's conversations with Russian officials the fact that Trump acknowledged in 2017 that Flynn had committed a felony. Flynn himself has pleaded guilty to these charges and went on to cooperate with the Mueller investigation. He now wishes to withdraw his plea.

"My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the special counsel's office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country. I accept full responsibility for my actions," Flynn said at the time of his plea in 2017.

In February, Attorney General William Barr assigned an outside prosecutor to investigate Flynn's claims of FBI mistreatment. The New York Times reports that this sort of outside scrutiny is "highly unusual" and could be construed as further political interference in the investigation and prosecution of a Trump official.

"People sometimes plead to things that turn out not to be crimes, and the Department of Justice is not persuaded that this was material to any legitimate counterintelligence investigation. So it was not a crime," Barr told CBS News.

Part of the reason Trump and his cronies have begun proclaiming Flynn's innocence is the revelation of new documents regarding the Flynn investigation. These documents lay out the FBI officials' plans for prosecuting and questioning Flynn. The President and his supporters claim it's evidence of bad behavior by "dirty cops". Again, the President has already admitted that he knew Flynn had committed a felony.

"What's our goal? Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired? If we get him to admit to breaking the Logan Act, give facts to DOJ & have them decide. Or, if he initially lies, then we present him [redacted] & he admits it, document for DOJ, & let them decide how to address it," one document read.

The impact of these notes seems to far outpace their actual content. Despite the fact that Trump and supporters are calling is a smoking gun of misconduct, legal experts disagree.

"To the extent this is being advertised as evidence of something nefarious, I certainly don't see it in that way. ... I don't know what this means and I don't know that it's important at all," former U.S. attorney and FBI congressional liaison Greg Brower told CNN.

Still, this hasn't stopped Trump from claiming that "if you look at those notes... that was total exoneration."