(Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

Late Monday evening several news agencies reported that President Trump’s national security advisor Michael Flynn has resigned amid allegations that he discussed sanctions in a phone call with Russia’s ambassador prior to Trump taking office. While Flynn, Vice President Pence, and other members of the administration had previously denied that the phone call took place, recent reports made clear that Flynn had spoken to the Russian ambassador shortly after the Obama Administration announced new sanctions in retaliation to Russian interference in our election.

In light of Flynn’s conversation with the Russian ambassador, new questions are raised about whether their discussion explains ambassador Sergey Kislyak’s inconsistent response to the sanctions — first promising retaliation before the Kremlin announced that they would not respond in kind. Flynn had briefly maintained that he “forgot” the conversation took place, and the Trump Administration has consistently denied that sanctions were discussed at all.

Flynn’s resignation marks a significant line of demarcation in the larger ongoing Russia problem for the Trump Administration, as the first ‘casualty’ of the scandal his departure will likely lead to far more new questions regarding the nature of Trump’s relationship with Russia prior to taking office.

While Trump refused to release his tax returns throughout the campaign, a first for a Presidential candidate since Nixon, in 2008 his son Donald Trump Jr. made a couple of revealing comments to investors in Moscow, saying “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets” and “We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia. There’s indeed a lot of money coming for new-builds and resale reflecting a trend in the Russian economy and, of course, the weak dollar versus the ruble.”

Additionally, the still unverified yet partially corroborated Steele dossier alleges that Trump would receive a 19% stake in Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft in exchange for lifting the Obama Administration’s 2014 sanctions. While the public still lacks any insight into Trump’s finances and the sanctions have yet to be lifted, 19.5% of Rosneft has been sold through a variety of complex financial mechanisms so as to obfuscate the final recipients, an ex-KGB and FSB agent accused of helping compile the dossier turned up dead, and Steele himself went ‘underground’ a while ago.

Flynn’s resignation is likely to focus the public’s attention back on the Trump Administration’s relationship to Russia, as well as the ongoing investigations in both chambers of Congress. With Trump’s approval ratings already dipping to historic lows for a new President, the fallout from the resignation will only pile on to the rapidly growing out-of-control mountain of scandal under which his Administration is quickly becoming buried.