Saunders: Gen. Mike Flynn is Trump administration’s first scalp

But if reporters are concerned about violations of the law, Trump continued, they ought to look at the federal officials who leaked his phone conversations with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. The calls are supposed to confidential, but someone leaked them. Trump added, “The same thing happened with respect from Gen. Flynn.”

You see, a Justice Department and intelligence official had notified the White House legal counsel that Flynn had not leveled with administration higher-ups about what Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and he discussed. (How did intelligence officials know what Flynn and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak discussed? They apparently stumbled onto the conversation because they tapped Russian communications.)

A trail of leaks

The Flynn revelation follows a trail of leaks and questionable stories. Most notably, there is the smarmy and discredited Buzzfeed post of a so-called dossier on Trump and his associates’ fictional ties with Russia.

The New York Times could not corroborate the same dossier and did not report on it. Yet the Times just ran a front-page story with the headline, “Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contact With Russian Intelligence.”

The sources were unnamed — “four current or former American officials” — but named four individuals, including Flynn, reportedly under investigation. Otherwise the story provided a feast of innuendo: “The officials would not disclose many details, including what was discussed on the calls, the identity of the Russian officials who participated, and how many of Mr. Trump’s advisers were talking to the Russians. It is also unclear whether the conversations had anything to do with Mr. Trump himself.”

That’s mighty thin gruel for the Gray Lady’s front page. As far as Trump is concerned, the story is part of the glut of “fake news” fabricated to credit Russian intelligence for WikiLeaks of emails from Hillary Clinton associates and thus discredit his win in the Electoral College.

Washington and the news media are divided between those who are convinced the Russians helped Trump win — which would de-legitimize his victory — and those who, as Trump was on Thursday, are convinced the Russian spin is bogus.

The news media have run many stories that hint that Putin’s Russia wanted to help Trump win. To date, however, no story has firmly established that Russia did more than make mischief.

That could change. “There’s no hard facts yet about who talked to the Russians” or what they might have said, noted Lanny Davis, former special counsel to President Clinton. Davis sees “a lot of sourcing without facts.”

But then, he added, “These kinds of stories drive out facts.”

Or they fizzle.

Either way, Flynn is out.