Donald Trump's former national security advisor Michael Flynn has been charged with Making False Statements to the FBI. He has become the latest figure to be caught in the ever-widening web of the special counsel, which was appointed to look into allegations of collusion between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russian officials. Documents that were provided to the court in the case of "United States vs. Michael T Flynn" said that Michael Flynn was being charged with "willfully and knowingly making materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statements."

Is this bad for the Trump Presidency?

The statements in question are alleged to have taken place on the 24th January.

On the 29th December, Michael Flynn is accused of asking the Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak to "refrain from escalating the situation in regards to sanctions that the US imposed on Russia that day." In the charge documents, it is said that Michael Flynn denied asking Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak to do this. Flynn is also accused of telling the FBI he did not remember Sergei Kislyak telling him that the Russian government would not respond in a retaliatory manner.

Michael Flynn is the first member of Trump's cabinet to be charged in relation to the Special Counsel investigation into allegations of collusion between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russian officials. It is expected that Michael Flynn is going to plead guilty to these charges.

Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort and his long-time business partner Rick Gates were indicted last month by Mueller's Special Counsel on "financial crimes" which dated back before the Trump campaign and is not thought to implicate Donald Trump of any wrongdoing. A former peripheral campaign policy advisor George Papadopoulos was also charged with making false statements to the FBI over contacts with Russian officials.

George Papadopoulos subsequently pled guilty to this charge.

Shockwaves are reverberating around Washington following the revelation of this news, many left-wing outlets such as CNN are reporting that this news will have "major political ramifications" for the Trump campaign. Michael Flynn was fired by Donald Trump over his misleading of Vice President Mike Pence regarding statements that Michael Flynn had made to Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak, suggesting that this charge does not relate to any wrongdoing on behalf of the Trump campaign, more of wrongdoing being committed by Michael Flynn himself.

It is believed that Flynn's guilty plea is part of a plea bargain, leading some to believe that Michael Flynn may be considering co-operating with the Mueller probe. Is this bad for the President? It potentially could be, although Trump is still not implicated in any wrongdoing, this Special Counsel probe seems to be going after all those that are close to Trump in the hope of finding the slightest infraction. Maxine Waters repeated calls of "Impeach 45" in regards to Donald Trump will be expected to grow louder over the coming weeks, as will calls to appoint a Special Counsel to look into Hillary Clinton's alleged crimes. There is one thing I know for certain, American politics is about to get very interesting.