What did the White House know, who knew it, and when did they know it?

It’s clear that Flynn was not forthcoming with Vice President Mike Pence, as he acknowledged in his resignation letter: “Unfortunately, because of the fast pace of events, I inadvertently briefed the Vice President Elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian Ambassador.” The question is how long that was clear. The Washington Post broke the story that Flynn had discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. prior to inauguration, contrary to his statements. But the Post now reports that then-Acting Attorney General Sally Yates informed the White House counsel, Don McGahn, in January that Flynn was not telling the whole truth about his phone calls, warning that he was vulnerable to Russian blackmail. She also discussed it with FBI Director James Comey, who was initially resistant to informing the White House but later came around, the Post says. (Yates, an Obama appointee, was later fired for announcing the Justice Department would not carry out Trump’s executive order on immigration.)

McGahn has not commented on the report, but if it’s true, that means a high-ranking White House staffer was aware of Flynn’s duplicity long before the public learned of it, late last week. Who, then, did McGahn inform? Did Chief of Staff Reince Priebus know? How about presidential aides Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner, and Kellyanne Conway? Did Trump know? (When asked on Friday, Trump claimed to be unaware of the Post report in which Flynn admitted he may have misled Pence.) Did Pence? If not, why did McGahn not see fit to inform them? If so, what actions did the others take? As late as Monday afternoon, top Trump aides were saying that Flynn had Trump’s full confidence, and hours later, he was out.

Why was Flynn finally pushed, and who goes next?

Much analysis of the White House has adopted the lens of two competing teams—an establishment squad, centered around Priebus, and an insurgent platoon, led by Bannon. Flynn was close to Bannon, but Politico and the Times report that Bannon wanted to fire Flynn as early as Friday, and eventually asked for his resignation. (Bannon’s old outlet, Breitbart, however, blames “establishment forces” for Flynn’s ouster.) The president, meanwhile, was happy to wait and see if Flynn could survive, reports Phil Rucker of The Washington Post. One interesting takeaway is that it was the Bannon team that pushed out one of its own when he became a liability. It’s also somewhat surprising that even when it became clear that Flynn has misled Pence, and allowed him to mislead the American people, he had a chance to survive—a sign of Trump’s reluctance to fire aides, and a curious statement about Pence’s position in the scheme of things.