I have been wrestling with this too, but I don’t understand your explanation. How did he protect Pence?
This is just me questioning the public story. Pence went out publicly and said Flynn didn’t talk about sanctions, and then the spooks who wiretapped the conversation leak that supposedly yes, he did talk about them. Pence supposedly is upset he’s been made out to be a liar and blames Flynn.
Flynn says, I don’t know, I talked about a lot of things... then resigned.
My point is, on the day Obama kicked the Russians out of the US, and Trump is out publicly saying, don’t worry about it, we’ll be in the White House in a couple of weeks... and he has Flynn talking to the Russians, what else would they be talking about?
I’m sure the Russians brought it up, Flynn essentially said “we’ll talk more about that after inauguration, but we want better relations blah-blah-blah”. So, did they discuss sanctions? No. Did the subject come up? Probably, deflected, and Russians allowed to read between the lines.
So who lied? Flynn? Probably not, he had no reason to lie. He did nothing wrong. He is the national security advisor to the president-elect. The spooks who leaked the conversation but refuse to provide a transcript? Probably. And Pence? Strikes me as a bit gutless, refusing to stand by Flynn. And Trump? Wanted to change the subject, but it doesn’t work. You throw the Fishwrap a bone, they only beat the drum for more.
I have no inside knowledge other than what I see. It just doesn’t add up to me.