In my opinion there was a secondary objective to all this.
To drive a wedge between Trump and Russia !
We FINALLY had a leader who was willing to make REAL peace with Russia... and the military industrial complex and others couldn’t allow that!
By pushing this fake story, they pushed Trump to continue to treat Russia with mistrust out of fear that reaching out to them in friendship might be seen as proof of Russian help in his election.
I agree with you on that.
They weren’t trying to drive a wedge, they were trying to protect Russia’s pal, Iran... because it’s Kerry’s pal, too.
All of this is about Iran.
Flynn was taken out because of his position on Iran. He wrote a book on combatting Iran [and Russia.]