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President Trumps long national nightmare the ongoing scandal over Russias meddling into the campaign for the White House may have grown worse last night with the revelation that former National Security Adviser and Gen. Mike Flynn has a story he very much wants to tell, according to his lawyer.

Trump has been facing incoming from all sides ever since the now seemingly ancient high point of his presidency, his speech to a joint session of Congress.

His approval ratings have dipped to an all-time low for first-year presidents, 35 percent, according to Gallup. He was dealt a major legislative blow last week when Republicans failed to pass a replacement plan for Obamacare.

Yesterday, Trump engaged in a Twitter battle against some of his most loyal Republican supporters during the campaign, the House Freedom Caucus members.

And now Flynn, another one of his key campaign backers, has come forward seeking immunity in exchange for his story, though neither Flynn nor his attorney are revealing whether his story will help or hurt the president.

But for Trump, the black cloud of the Russia probe continues to hang over the White House with no signs of breaking anytime soon. There have been no smoking guns, but a lot of unanswered questions that have provided a steady drip of bad news and unwelcome distractions from Trumps agenda for his first 100 days seen as a defining period in any presidency.

The prospect of a once-loyal Trump foot soldier turned rogue if indeed Flynn has information that could damage Trump will dominate 24-hour cable news coverage and overtake everything else happening in Washington.

But Flynns testimony could also turn out to be more bust than bombshell, just like Trumps tax returns unearthed on MSNBC by Rachel Maddow earlier this month. It may simply be a bid by Flynn to save himself.

Trump also has the proven track record of being able to somehow emerge from shocking scandals, including his Access Hollywood tape and controversial comments and tweets during the campaign.

But for now, Flynns eagerness to step forward only ensures there will be more media attention, public intrigue and Washington drama for a president who campaigned on cleaning up Beltway corruption.

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Ex-NSA aide's tale a headache for Donald Trump - Boston Herald

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Mission: NSA is the leading source for community, education and entrepreneurial business knowledge needed to be successful in the speaking profession.

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Former National Security Director Gen. Keith Alexander told members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in a Thursday afternoon hearing on Russian meddling in the 2016 election cycle that he believes the country indeed interfered.

Thats one area where experts in the hearing on Russian interference and seemingly, members on both sides of the aisle were in agreement. Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, the intelligence committees vice chairman, asked the witnesses if they had any doubt that Russians interfered in the 2016 election cycle.

I believe they were involved, Gen. Alexander said.

Fellow witnesses Kevin Mandia, chief executive officer of cybersecurity company FireEye, and Thomas Rid, professor at the Department of War Studies at Kings College in London, answered along similar lines. Mandia said it absolutely stretches credulity to think they were not involved. Rid said Russia seized an opportunity in 2016 when the U.S. was extremely polarized, politically speaking.

The more polarized a society, the more vulnerable it is, Rid said.

Democrats for monthshave called for a Capitol Hill probe into any Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, but the Republican-controlled intelligence committees are just now beginning to hold public hearings.

Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio revealed in the hearing that would-be hackers with IP addresses in Russia attempted to sabotage his former presidential campaign staff as recently as Wednesday, giving weight to cybersecurity experts remarks in a hearing earlier Thursdayon the same topic that Russia isnt done intervening in U.S. politics.

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The Senate Intelligence Committee will hear from experts on Russian interference in the 2016 election. CBS News' Jeff Pegues reports from Washing...

The afternoon hearing came on the heels of a New York Times report that a pair of White House officials helped provide Rep. Devin Nunes, a California Republican and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, with intelligence reports showing President Donald Trump and his associates were included in foreign surveillance sweeps by American spy agencies. Some critics fear Nunes is too close to Mr. Trump to handle investigations into any Russian interference into the presidential election.

During an earlier hearing on the same subject Thursday, cybersecurityexperts told the Senate panelthat Russia had every ability to create fake social media accounts by mimicking profiles of voters in key election states and precincts in the 2016 election, and use a mix of bots and real people to push propaganda from state-controlled media outlets like Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik.

Mandia said its tough to differentiate between bots and humans as bots become smarter, and the U.S. cant fight Russia with cyber tactics alone.

It just feels like were in a glass house throwing rocks at a mud hut, he said.

FBI Director James Comey revealed last week the FBI is investigating any possible ties between President Donald Trump and Russia.

Heres our live-blog from earlier, below.

4:03 p.m. The hearing is adjourned.

4:01 p.m. Guccifer 2.0 is definitely not just one human being, Rid said, because of the differences in writing, but he said he is confident Guccifer 2.0 is an agent of the Russian government.

3:57 p.m. Rid said Congress may be more susceptible to hacking than others, as ethics rules sometimes require members to have multiple devices, and thus, they have more to secure.

3:41 p.m.Mandia said merely fighting Russia with cyber-on-cyber warfare wont work.

It just feels like were in a glass house throwing rocks at a mud hud, he said.

3:34 p.m. West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin asked about the extent of Russias ability to meddle the 2016 election.

Could they have drastically changed the outcome of the election? Manchin said.

I have no idea, Mandia responded.

3:29 p.m.: Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford asked witnesses if mysterious hacker Guccifer 2.0 is definitely linked to Russia.

I think its remarkably consistent, Mandia said.

3:10 p.m. New Mexico Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich said members of his family and staff have also been victims of phishing attempts to sabotage their personal information.

3:07 p.m.Sen. John Cornyn, the Senate majority whip from Texas, asked Gen. Alexander how important the somewhat-controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is, given that its coming up for reauthorization in Congress. The law is controversial because it allows for physical and electronic surveillance measures.

I think thats the most important program thats out there, especially in counterterrorism, Gen. Alexander said.

2:40 p.m.Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said he will not address claims that he was the target of a Russian cyberattack, but said members of his former campaign staff were targeted both during the campaign, and as recently as Wednesday. Wednesdays attempt, which came from an IP in Russia, failed, he said.

2:31 p.m.Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, the committees vice chairman, asked if any of the witnesses had any doubt that Russians interfered in the 2016 election cycle.

You cant always connect the dots, Mandia said, but added, It absolutely stretches credulity to think they were not involved.

I believe they were involved, Gen. Alexander said.

I believe they were involved as well, Rid added.

Warner next asked if it was possible for the Russians to target voters at the precinct level with a network of bots.

Possible to target precinct levels with a botnet network for specific precincts?

Alexander: I think its technically possible, Gen. Alexander said, adding he couldnt confirm how much that happened.

2:24 p.m. Russia seized an opportunity in 2016 when the U.S. was very polarized politically, said Thomas Rid, a professor at the Department of War Studies at Kings College in London.

The more polarized a society, the more vulnerable it is, Thomas Rid said.

Russian intelligence operations by 2015 began combining the tools of hacking and leaking, targeting defense and diplomatic entities, Rid said.

Russia likes to use unwitting agents, Rid said, adding that Wikileaks, Twitter and over-eager journalists contributed to Russias efforts in 2016.

2:18 p.m.Retired Gen. Keith Alexander, former director of the National Security Agency, said the U.S. needs to determine Russias motives for interfering in elections or politics.

Whats Russia trying to do, and why are they trying to do it? he said.

Gen. Alexander said the U.S. cant shy away from or ignore Russia.

I believe we have to engage and confront, he said.

2:14p.m. Witness and cybersecurity expert Kevin Mandia said Russians began changing their rules of engagement for cyber warfare in August or September 2014. Also in 2014, a group they attributed to the Russian government began compromising organizations and leaking data, something experts hadnt seen before, he said.

It is our view that the United States is going to continue to see these things happen, Mandia said.

Mandia said the U.S. needs to know who is behind the hacking, which requires international cooperation. Only then can the U.S. determine a proportional response, he said.

2:06 p.m.Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr opens the hearing.

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Former NSA director says Russia was involved in 2016 election - CBS News

The nature of cyberthreats aimed at both the U.S. government and private American companies calls for a dramatic shift in how the larger cybersecurity community shares information about hackers and collectively responds to attacks, said Neal Ziring, technical director for the NSAs Capabilities Directorate.

While raising the awareness of what different hackers and foreign intelligence agencies are doing in cyberspace remains essential, Ziring said, its simply not enough based on the level of danger and activities occurring today.

The next and necessary step is the development of a shared, public-private framework in the U.S. that can roll out software patches and other system updates at machine speed to individual researchers, industry and the government as soon as new intelligence becomes available, according to Ziring and Thomas Donahue, director of research at the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center. They bothspoke Thursday at a cybersecurity conference in D.C.

The big thing for me is that information sharing by itself is not enough. We need to start establishing the infrastructures, the standards, the practices for shared response, Ziring said. Todays actors can be really successful because they develop this tradecraft and they get to use it over and over and over again and they advertise the investment in this tradecraft as monetizing it against lots of targets. Thats what we need to take away from them. And the only way to do that is to have a response that can be shared amongst all of us.

Zirings plan is to essentially democratize cyberthreat intelligence and make it actionable for a myriad of different U.S. partners. The market today leans on a model inwhichprivate companies acquire and sell proprietary research only to clients, keeping much of what they find accessible only to customers.

While the Homeland Security Department has helped pioneer the development of several different cyberthreat information sharing programs, a response framework like the one described by Ziring does not exist today.

With [recent cyber events] as the new normal setting for decision making, we must improve our awareness of the infrastructure and activities of our adversaries because it is poor, our ability to respond to specific incidents is way too slow and our strategic response to that kind of behavior is at best nascent and weak, said Donahue.

At the moment, a private, nonprofit organization named the Cyber Threat Alliance, or CTA , offers perhaps the closest model to what Ziring is proposing.

The CTAs move to an incorporated entity signifies the commitment by industry leaders to work together to determine the most effective methods for sharing automated, rich threat data and to make united progress in the fight against sophisticated cyber attacks, the organizations website reads.

Founded in 2014, the CTA is exclusively comprised by prominent, private sector cybersecurity firms, including Fortinet, Intel Security, Palo Alto Networks, Symantec, Check Point and Cisco, whocollectively pool threat intelligence and code-based countermeasures. Companies provide this information at-will and in good faith.

Zirings comments come nearly one month after former NSA Director Keith Alexander told senators that the U.S. government would be wise to reorganize current cybersecurity responsibilities, which are split between the FBI, Homeland Security Department, Defense Department and intelligenceagencies, into a single entity. Alexander said that this new organization would lead the efforts to develop constructive relationships with private digital security companies.

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NSA technical director: Sharing hacker information isn't enough, we ... - CyberScoop