• Former National Security Advisor Gen. Michael Flynn is reportedly willing to testify that President Donald Trump and Trump transition officials directed him to make contact with Russians during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
• Flynn has pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI, a felony that is believed to be part of a deal to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Flynn pleads guilty to lying on Russia, cooperates with U.S. probe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia, and he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors delving into the actions of President Donald Trump’s inner circle before he took office.

The dramatic turn of events also raised new questions about whether Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had a role in those Russia contacts.

Flynn was the first member of Trump’s administration to plead guilty to a crime uncovered by special counsel Robert Mueller’s wide-ranging investigation into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. election and potential collusion by Trump aides.

Under a plea bargain deal, Flynn admitted in a Washington court that he lied when asked by FBI investigators about his conversations last December with Russia’s then-ambassador, Sergei Kislyak, just weeks before Trump took office.

They also said a “very senior member” of Trump’s transition team had told Flynn to contact the Russians.

Sources told Reuters that the “very senior” official was Kushner, a key member of Trump’s transition team and now the president’s senior adviser.

Question:

Now that the positive impact of the US tax reform is over, will the issue of Donald Trump contact with the Russians badly affect the global share markets particularly KLSE?

Answer by Yahoo Finance:

Not much rattles financial markets these days. But Michael Flynn’s guilty plea did, with stocks falling abruptly on news that President Donald Trump’s short-lived national security adviser admitted lying to the FBI, and may now provide new evidence of improprieties on Trump’s presidential campaign, and perhaps even at the White House after Trump took office.

This is the worst news Trump has received during his tenure so far, and it revives the prospect of a constitutional crisis that could involve Trump firing special prosecutor Robert Mueller. If that happens, it would be the gravest political scandal since Watergate in the early 1970s, with pressure mounting on Congress to impeach and convict the president. And if that actually happened, Vice President Mike Pence would replace Trump, becoming the 46th president of the United States.

Share markets are all about anticipating the future, and the prospects now include a new degree of political turmoil unprecedented even for the turbulent Trump administration.

If allegations of illegal activity involving contacts with Russian interests during the 2016 campaign get closer to Trump and his family, and Trump reacts by firing Mueller, it will undoubtedly unnerve markets. “The initial impact of that hypothetical would be a fairly significant hard stop on the psychology behind the rally we’ve seen in US equities,” says Peter Kenney, senior market strategist for Global Markets Advisory Group. “Investors have really grown to know what to expect from Trump.”