package to help shore up affordable care act. i want to know if the house of representatives is part of the deal. >> a great question. i'm going to bring up -- this is just out. an op ed from billy bush in "the new york times." he said, of course, he said it, that infamous quote on that "access hollywood" tape. that does it for us. join us next week from 7:00 to 9:00 eastern. coming up next, headliners, michael flynn. stick around, check it out. good night from washington. president trump's former national security adviser michael flynn has just pleaded guilty to a charge of lying to the fbi. >> michael flynn at one time donald trump's most loyal foreign policy adviser now pledging full cooperation with the president's antagonist, special counsel robert mueller. >> it may change the calculus for the president. >> he has information about president trump. he has information about the former campaign manager, paul manafort.

maybe about jared kushner and donald trump junior. >> a former lieutenant general. >> i thought to myself, this is the best intel officer i ever met. >> who could implicate his commander in chief in the russia investigation. >> you joined donald trump in these intelligence briefings. you didn't learn from any of these briefings that it was russia? >> those issues did not come up. that's the extent of what i can talk about. >> this is the first time that this investigation has gone into the white house. >> from insurgent battlefield to political mine field, the complicated journey of michael flynn. >> he goes from the pinnacle of helping defeat our enemies. now he is mired in this political maelstrom that we don't know how it's going to end. ♪

>> former national security adviser pleading guilty in a washington courtroom to giving false statement to the fbi. michael flynn delivers a bombshell that could move the russia investigation into dangerous territory for the president. for those who know him, michael flynn is a complex man. >> ferociously intelligent. very confident guy. very blunt in his manner. >> he is not tricky. what can i say to him that will make him happy, that will make him like me? he just says what he thinks. >> he had to be successful enough so that that outweighed the part of his personality. >> for my life, for my adult life, it's been about what's

best for this country. >> as a three star lieutenant general during the war on terror, he is considered to be one of the greatest intelligence officers of his generation. >> he transformed american military intelligence. so that when we went into battle against al qaeda in iraq and taliban in afghanistan, we won. >> but he was a key player in transforming them into the way they attacked the network of al qaeda. it wasn't about going after one big fish and then next big fish. it was how they connected. >> again flynn revolutionized intelligence in the field environment. i mean, he saved thousands of lives. with what he did. >> despite flynn's military successes, most people are familiar with him through his relationship with one man.

>> general flynn, who is a phenomenal man. we love our general flynn. we want tough and we want smart. he is both. >> they had a lot of the same beliefs. i'm sure mike flynn realized early on that trump shares my opinion. >> russia, if you are listening, i hope you are able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. >> at the 2016 republican national convention, michael flynn delivers an impassioned speech in support of trump. >> with donald trump in the white house, we will make america great again. we do not need a reckless president who believes she is above the law. >> flynn's support pays off when donald trump is elected president. >> the trump transition team pushed back hard over reports the cia concluded that russia

actually intervened in the u.s. presidential election to help trump win. >> amidst evidence that russia tampered with the election -- >> it was a threat to our democracy. that's a big deal. here were a set of allegations the trump campaign was involved in the effort with working with the russians and the russians were sort of trying to hurt hillary clinton and help donald trump. >> there's a continuing drum beat of questions about michael flynn and the russians. >> michael flynn discussed sanctions with russian envoy before trump took office. >> several phone calls to russia's ambassador to the united states. >> considering flynn's remarkable service to the country, it all begs the question, how did a military hero end up in one of the biggest national security scandals in american history? >> the answers to these questions are going to be a part of mike flynn's legacy. >> long before he plays a central role in the trump

russian affair, michael thomas flynn mastered the art of standing out in a crowd. he is born in 1958, the sixth of sergeant first class charles and helen flynn's growing family. >> he is a real small town rhode island kind. a big family man. very close to the members of his family. he was one of nine children in a one bathroom house. >> the all american flynnie as he is known to his friends has a dark side. >> mike got into trouble when he was a kid. we would have called him a juvenile delinquent when he was a teenager. >> in fact, the self-described nasty tough kid hell bent on breaking rules is arrested. flynn reflects on this period of his life in the audio book narration of his best seller "the field of fight." >> this misguided mind set and some serious and unlawful activity be me and two of my co-hoodlum teenage friends would eventually lead to my arrest.

>> the judge said to him, you know, you got a choice to make. you can have a life or you can have jail. >> the choice that michael flynn makes will not only set the course for his future, it will also play a role in america's. coming up -- >> in special operations, petraeus and the senior staff and flynn in intelligence, these guys are like jedi knights in training. now i'm turning into. i text in full sentences. i refer to every child as chief. this hat was free. what am i supposed to do, not wear it? next thing you know, i'm telling strangers defense wins championships. -well, it does. -right? why is the door open? are we trying to air condition the whole neighborhood? at least i bundled home and auto on an internet website, progressive.com. progressive can't save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto. i mean, why would i replace this? it's not broken. what bad knee?u'll ask i mean, why would i replace this? what throbbing head? advil makes pain a distant memory

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life around. >> it's a very good marriage. she's terrific. very smart, very lively, very creative. >> he enters the army as an intelligence officer specializing in electronic warfare. in the early 1980s, ronald reagan is president. the cold war is still raging between the united states and the soviet union. a communist cue on grenada prompts a 1983 american invasion on the pretext of rescuing medical students. >> it may have been one of the last gasps of the proxy war between the united states and the soviet union. >> it is a combat zone. second lieutenant michael flynn is determined to deploy there, with or without orders. >> you just saw this thing going on. couldn't bear being left out. showed up at the airplane, climbed on the first available plane and flew to grenada. >> he could have sabotaged his career but for his commanding

officer as he recalls in the narration of his best seller "the field of fight." >> he could have relieved me on the spot. blessedly, he looked again and saw something he liked. had it not been for his patience and vision, and extraordinary leadership under some difficult pressure, i'd probably be renting surfboards at second beach in middletown, rhode island. >> on the island, flynn leads a platoon engaged in electronic warfare, tapping into enemy communication systems and providing intelligence for army, navy and air force operations. >> the technology that was in use back then was literally maps on paper with pins. >> the intel community at grenada along with our ability to do joint operations was pathetic. you can't ad hoc these things. you can't pull together marine helicopters and army ranger units and get it to operate at the last minute. a lot of lessons came out of it. >> they are lessons flynn puts

to use in the years that follow. he advanced through a series of promotions to the rank of major in 1994. soon after, he is posted to the joint readiness training center at fort polk, louisiana. >> joint readiness is elements of the military working together. this showed him the importance of cooperation with other branchs of the armed forces and what the differences were. >> fort polk is a place of strategic study which can bring your thoughts down to the tactical level. >> it's here flynn first meets two men with whom he will be associated during the wars to come. then colonel stanley mccrystal and david petraeus. >> you could imagine that. a colonel mccrystal, colonel petraeus. these guys are like jedi knights in training. >> they are the best we ever fielded, bar none. the least amount of ego and

self-serving action. the most incredible history. they have all grown up in combat operations. >> this is the level where all of these combat doctrines, how you are going to fight a future war, would have been developed. early 1990s is a very significant point. >> combat is changing. the cold war is over. a new stateless enemy is emerging. prior to flynn's arrival at fort polk, al qaeda sets off a truck bomb in the underground garage of the world trade center. flynn, mccrystal and petraeus recognize the new threat. >> mccrystal in special operations, petraeus in the senior staff, and flynn in intelligence, these are guys who can talk about their strategy and then bring them right out into the field and practice these things. >> what major michael flynn is preparing for becomes apparent as the new century dawns, placing him at the center of them.

>> it's the worst attack on america in american history. >> make no mistake, the united states will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts. >> coming up -- >> this really made him famous and rocketed him to the top of the list of people you think about when you think of intelligence officers. in the mi. hold on dad... liberty did what? yeah, liberty mutual 24-hour roadside assistance helped him to fix his flat so he could get home safely. my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. don't worry - i know what a lug wrench is, dad. is this a lug wrench? maybe? you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. your body was made for better things than rheumatiod arthritis. before you and your rheumatologist

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on my orders, the united states military has begun strikes against al qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the taliban regime in afghanistan. >> 18 months into the afghanistan war, the united states led coalition forces invade iraq. launching a second war which topples hussein's had a geregim a month. then comes the difficult part. >> we made other unbelievable errors in judgment, starting with destroy the iraqi security services. send them home with their training, with their guns, with anger that they weren't going to get a paid salary, they weren't going to have a retirement system.

>> then everybody with a gun disappeared. then 30 days later, showed back up in the middle of the night and started shooting, sniping, assassinating soldiers. at the same time, we had a terrorist group, al qaeda in iraq, spring up out of nowhere. >> new information on how al qaeda may be infiltrating iraq and establishing a staging ground for more attacks on americans. >> to evaluate how to meet and defeat this new enemy, in 2004, flynn examines strategy and operations in iraq and afghanistan with general stanley mccrystal, commander of jsoc. >> mike flynn looked at the way special operations were pursuing, capturing and killing high value targets. he thought it didn't make sense. >> he said to mccrystal, we're only doing a fraction of what we should be doing. we need much more, more intelligence, more people, more understanding. >> during the next two years, flynn undertakes the reinvention

of how american forces gather, analyze and execute intelligence in combat. >> you kill one of these guys, they are replaceable is what he realized. you have to go after the information first. if that mean trying to keep the person alive and taking more risk, he was willing to do that. >> flynn focuses jsoc operations on retrieving information from captured insurgents. he is hands on. often interrogating prisoners himself. >> he wanted to talk to the key leaders in al qaeda. he says that to do good intelligence against this enemy, you have to be able to get inside his head. so you have to see what does the world look like from inside the head of a terrorist. >> this was critical. that is another component of intelligence, which is the human aspect, the human terrain of understanding your opposition. general flynn did that very, very well. >> flynn tackles the turnaround

time it takes to analyze intel and put it to use. >> he set up a system where they were analyzing it instantaneously. it might be a telephone number or e-mail that would lead them to the next house and to the next house. they would repeat that process. they were doing in some cases dozens of raids per night and rolling up whole networks of insurgents in a devastating effective way. >> within two years, flynn and mccrystal completely transformed jsoc and fuse it with every aspect of the american global security system. >> they put together the other pieces. army, navy, air force people totally out of sight, who could execute rapidly. they had direct access to the president of the united states, secretary of defense, the secretary of state. they were totally integrated with the cia. general mccrystal and general flynn created a counter terrorist organization that were the most dangerous people on the face of the earth.

>> in june 2006, jsoc gets intel on the most wanted jihadist in iraq. >> this was the head of al qaeda in iraq. he was carrying out the attacks that were so horrific that al qaeda was criticizing him, killing our muslims, killing women and children. he was really public enemy number one for the u.s. at the time. jsoc and mike flynn caught up to him. >> he is dead. the terrorist responsible for horrific acts of violence from beheadings to car bombings was killed by u.s. military forces in an air attack on a safe house near baghdad. >> that was a great achievement of mike flynn in iraq. >> the addition of thousands of troops during the bush administration's 2007 surge helped bring more areas of iraq under control. within a year, al qaeda in iraq is crippled. >> mccrystal and flynn tackled the problem. they are credited with turning

around the situation in iraq. sglt foll >> the following year, mccrystal takes control of the nato force in afghanistan. flynn joins him there. >> afghanistan is a completely different dynamic. it is literally a semi-medieval place in which tribal politics and street level retail behaviors dominate everything. these are the people who ' alexander the great had trouble with. >> the hard part was getting a group who are they, where are they bad guys. >> for a war in its eighth year, it appears to flynn that american forces are disadvantaged. >> we weren't winning. the taliban was persisting. we were not progressing towards an afghanistan that could stand on its own. >> flynn feels fault lies with washington, not just kabul.

>> his canritique is that obama does not see that war, does not see us involved in a global conflict and, therefore, is not focused on designing a strategy that will enable us to win that war. >> once again, skirting standard procedure, flynn avoids military oversight and uses a washington think tank to public fixing intel, the paper is a scathing critique of the obama administration's approach to intelligence in afghanistan. it sends a lightning bolt through the national security community. >> it was bitterly critical. he just bluntly said, look, the intelligence community does not understand key things about afghanistan, about how the tribal system works. it was remarkable. you rarely see that kind of candid analysis from somebody in the government, in a current job. >> i think he said to himself, if i try and publish this through one of the military publications, it will never see

print or it will be waters down to nothing. i was glad he did it. he took a lot of guff. >> in july, general mccrystal was replaced by general david petraeus, who brings in his own staff, including a director of intelligence. suddenly michael flynn is no longer the top intelligence officer in afghanistan. >> when he was working for stan mccrystal, he had someone above him who appreciated his unconventionality or protected him against himself. >> i remember thinking, what's going to happen to flynn? what job is he going to get? >> coming up. >> lockler leock her up. that's right. lock her up. >> it was unseemly and it made all of us in uniform extremely uncomfortable. military guys don't do that. ♪ what i got's full stock

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regarding ongoing criminal investigations at your own peril. mitch mcconnell says the government will not shut down over the daca bill. for now, back to headliners, michael flynn. is crisis becoming the norm? >> honestly, you name a place around the world and i will tell you a little bit about it. >> michael flynn shocked washington in 2010 with his scathing critique of the obama administration's afghanistan policy. two years later, it's president obama's turn. he appoints flynn director of the defense intelligence agency. >> we were surprised he got the job because he has a different

personality. wasn't sure how that would fit in in the manager role. >> the battlefield officer now overseeing a massive organization that plans, manages and executes military intelligence operations. as director of the dia, flynn is willing to butt heads with the obama administration. >> something happened during his tenure at dia which is his obsession with isis and kind of a swing to a more extreme version of anti-terrorism. he believed this was a clash of civilizations. >> mike flynn was running around town going, hey, i've just learned about this new group called isis. they're coming to get us. we're in danger. this would be badly received by the obama team. they kept telling him to shut up. stop saying that. we're trying to get out of office with a political legacy this is a win. we killed osama bin laden.

>> flynn is invited by russia in 2013 to be the first american military official to visit its foreign intelligence service. >> i think he would look at the russians, the gru, putin, and said these guys are fearful of sunni and al qaeda fighters also. i guess an enemy of my enemy is my friend. >> a really well trained intelligence officer would be thinking why. why are you inviting me here? what is the purpose of this? you have to assume that there is always a nefarious reason. >> in washington, there are growing concerns inside the dia about flynn's views. >> there came this phrase that people around him used called flynn facts, which were things he would say that didn't hold up. for example, he said that hezbollah killed more americans than al qaeda. it's not true. it's something he believed. >> i knew a special forces

sergeant major who knows him personally who was there. he started saying, some of the things that this guy thinks about the rest of the world are a little screwy. >> as flynn expresses in his book "the field of fight" he also believes the united states is opposed by an evil coalition of countries, including china, russia, north korea, syria, cuba, venezuela, bolivia, nicarag nicaragua, with iran being the central player. >> when general flynn says iran is the linchpin, he means several things. iran is the world's greatest sponsor of terrorism. also iran drives a lot of the actions of the enemy alliance. why is russia in syria today? because the iranians went and asked them. >> he views iran as part of a global islamist conspiracy that

he likens to fascism. >> regardless of flynn's personal geopolitical views, his genius on the battlefield doesn't translate into effective management of a federal bureaucracy. >> it was going so badly at the dia. he developed so many enemies within the organization. somebody said the organization developed antibodies against flynn. eventually, this percolated to james clapper, the director of national intelligence and mike vickers, the pentagon's top intelligence official. they realized they had a problem on their hands. >> two years into his three-year term, clapper and vickers pull the plug on flynn. >> they went to flynn and said, you are going to serve your two years and then you are going to retire. he was deeply wounded by that. really bitter and upset. >> someone in the army that gets that high, they are very ambitious. they are a workaholic. the job is their entire life. now all of that is taken out from under him.

so, yeah, he was livid. >> for the first time in $33 ye years he was a civilian. >> i know he wanted to be like a lot of the people in washington that leave the military and go out and make a lot of money. >> he forms a security consulting firm, the flynn intel group. the following year begins cultivating clients and joins the ranks of former military officials on the paid speaker circuit. controversy rears its head. his appearance at the 2015 anniversary of russia today raises eyebrows. >> president obama thinks he is containing isis. >> yeah. i know he said that. i disagree with that. i disagree with that. >> he gave an interview to a russia propaganda outlet. he applauded putin's speech. it would emerge later that he

was paid, his company was paid some $45,000. >> i'm sure he would never would be disloyal to the united states for any reason. i think the optics of it were terrible and in balance it was a mistake in judgment. mostly, you are going to play a role in something the russians are trying to achieve. >> it will eventually raise questions for intelligence watchers about the russian's objective regarding flynn. >> by taking a three star general and placing him at a table with the president of russia is very much sending a message to general flynn, the psychology of which says you are important to us. your ideas matter to us. >> back in the united states, flynn takes to social media to air his increasingly extreme views about the muslim world. he authors an article stating he was fired by president obama for repeatedly calling enemy

insurgents radical islamists. >> no one i have talked to has ever heard of him complaining while he was at dia that he was in an argument with the administration over the use of the term islamic extreme im. that emerged later in his mind it became a narrative for why he was fired. >> people get fired end up hating the guy that fired them, period. i have watched that inside the army and civilian business world. it's 100% true. >> joining us now, retired u.s. army lieutenant general michael flynn. >> around the same time, the campaign for the 2016 presidential election is heating up. >> i advice a couple of the candidates. that's kind of -- >> on your knowledge. >> one stands out from the pack. >> we have a president that won't use the term radical, roroi right -- he doesn't know radical islamic terrorism.

he won't oeven talk about it. >> he saw a kindred spirit. one of donald trump's themes was the obama administration is not telling the truth. they won't utter the phrase islamic extremism and i will. >> they shared this kind of paranoid idea that there's a clash of civilizations and that there's a muslim hord that's trying to invade the country and take over america. >> during the campaign, flynn gives several speeches for trump. >> the biggest problem with donald trump is he tells the truth. >> it's the speech he gives in july 2016, at the republican national convention, that disturbs many. >> lock her up. lock her up. you guys are good. damn right. exactly right. there's nothing wrong with that. we're saying that because if

i -- a guy who knows this business. if i did a tenth -- a tenth of what she did, i would be in jail today. >> it was just a fire and brimstone kind of speech that really shocked a lot of people who thought they knew mike flynn and served with mike flynn. this was not the mike flynn that they knew. >> i have called on -- >> at that point, something slipped and he became an enemy of the administration, an enemy of secretary clinton, who by the way had been extremely supportive of jsoc and their mission. >> he really, really viscerally hated hillary clinton. and he really believed a lot of the conspiracies. >> not long after trump secures the republican nomination, wikileaks dumps thousands of e-mails stolen from the dnc. it becomes clear who originally

hacked the data. >> u.s. officials say they have come from somewhere in russia. >> hacked by russia and published by wikileaks. >> as the campaign heads towards election day, michael flynn will find himself at the center of not only a political hurricane, but an epic national security threat. coming up -- >> mike flynn is potentially one of the key witnesses into the investigation of what happened in the 2016 election.

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he would rather have a puppet as president. >> no puppet. >> it's pretty clear -- >> you are the puppet. >> it's an election year like no other in modern times. emerging amidst the din and spectacle of the 2016

trump/clinton contest, is the growing awareness of an attack on the country. in september, congressional leaders are briefed about the cia's belief that russia is hacking the election. >> the gru, right? their defense intelligence agency would have specialty officers who would facilitate whatever the cyber warfare teams needed. all of this was initially brought together to destroy hillary clinton. who had a very acrimonious relationship with vladimir putin. >> it was the first time a foreign adversary, in this case probably our greatest adversary used it to advantage one and hinder another. it was an unprecedented assault on our democracy. >> it's not only foreign powers who are weaponizing information, web sides like danger & play and true pundit pushed false conspiracy theories about hillary clinton's campaign which

flynn and his son promote in their twitter feeds. >> pizzagate was a madeup right wing scandal of a pizza parlor in northern washington, d.c. it was asserted the clinton family was running a child sex slavery ring in the basement. it culminated in a gunman entering that place, shooting it up and then finding that the place not only did not have child sex slaves, it didn't even have a basement. >> he was just saying very fringe-like things. his friends were trying to warn him that he was going too far, he was disgracing himself, he was disgracing the uniform that he wore for so many years. >> donald trump is elected president november 8. on election day, flynn makes a surprising move, publishing an op ed on the lit cal website the hill urging support of turkey's hard line president, erdogan who

is survived a coup attempt. >> it was extraordinary. it ran on election day. it contradicts things flynn had said in the past. it read like a document that was not written by mike flynn. but it was written by somebody else. >> "the new york times" later reveals that flynn had been hired as a lobbyist several months earlier by inovo bv, a company headed by a turkish businessman. >> i called him and i asked him how much he was paying flynn. he said it was around $100,000. it has emerged that flynn's group was paid more than half a million dollars. >> in fact, it is registered as a dutch company, its owner is connected to the turkish government. >> michael flynn was supposed to be providing unbiased advice to president trump and to his broader campaign. but he was being paid by interests within the turkish government that clearly had a

policy preference when it came to the united states policy. >> he was so dismissive and angry at generals who sell their stars. that's what he told me. that how could they trade on their career service and go out and use their stars to make money. and he was doing the same thing. >> soon after the election, president-elect trump visits president obama in the oval office for a private meeting. >> president obama warned donald trump not to hire mike flynn. obama had concerns about flynn's temperament and his judgement. >> one week later, donald trump ignores the warning and names michael flynn his national security adviser. flynn is now subject to the strong legal and ethical guidelines of a white house appointment. but his situation is complicated by a series of actions already taken. >> all while he was advising the

man who would become the next president of the united states, all through the campaign. he was earning money from the entities, one was on behalf of the government of turkey. another was a russian cyber security company that's under j scrutiny. another was an israeli security company. >> the department of justice notifies flynn that his work as a lobbyist is under investigation. news he doesn't share with the trump administration. he later registers as a foreign agent. ultimately, in addition to the cia, the fbi, nsa and office of the director of the national intelligence, all conclude that russia hacked the election. on december 29, obama issues his response to moscow. >> barack obama decided he would levy sanctions against the russians, starting with the removal of 36 people that were assumed to be russian

intelligence officers. >> the obama administration took away access to two compounds that the russians used in the united states for intelligence garagering. generally, it was expected the russians would do a tit for tat. >> surprisingly, the next day vladimir putin makes a statement that he is not going to retaliate for the sanctions. >> it was a shock to russia watchers. >> what the public doesn't know is that the day sanctions were announced, michael flynn spoke on the telephone with the russian ambassador, sergei kislyak. while the public is not aware of flynn's contact with kislyak, the fbi is. >> the fbi had intercepted some of the conversations. had transcripts of the conversations. >> of all the people in the world who should have known that that call was being monitormoni it would have been michael fl n flynn. >> "the washington post" breaks the story on january 12, 2017. three days later, vice-president

pence denies flynn discussed sanctions on "face the nation." >> i talked to general flynn about that conversation. they did not discuss anything having to do with the united states' decision to expel diplomats or impose a censure against russia. >> with inauguration day on horizon, storm clouds of suspicion about collusion with russia are gathering over trump tower. michael flynn is the lightning rod. coming up -- >> i find it impossible to believe that candidate trump and then president trump wasn't fully aware of the contacts that mike flynn was making with the russian ambassador. surf & turf even t. get ready these 5 pairings are gonna floor ya. like our new feast with lobster-wrapped scallops and a juicy sirloin, plus a savory lobster-and-shrimp smashed potato.

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amid continuing concerns about the impact of russia's influence on the 2016 election. >> i donald john trump -- >> donald trump is ininaugurated as president of the united states on january 20, 2017. two days later michael flynn accepts the most public position of his career of national security advisor after a lifetime of covert intelligence work. >> national security advisor is supposed to run a process and be an honest broker to get information to the president. making sure the president hearing from all stake holders. >> just two days after flynn's been on the job, the fbi interviews him at the white house about his december 29th phone contact with then russian ambassador sergey kislyak of which they have secret recordings. >> general flynn makes five

phone calls to the russian ambassador to the united states. >> five communications like that on the same day are not just one message. it's a series of negotiations. >> what flynn does or does not tell the fbi compels acting attorney general sally yates to alert the white house counsel don mcgahn. >> sally yates came to the white house with deep concern about michael flynn. >> as yates testifies she's troubled by the disconnect between how flynn described his phone calls with the russian ambassador to mike pence versus the fbi's recording of them. >> so what you're saying is that general flynn lied to the vice president. >> that's certainly how it appeared, yes, because the vice president went out and made statements about general flynn's conduct that he said were based

on what general flynn told him and we knew that flat wasn't true. >> she thought mike flynn was subject to blackmail because he hadn't told the truth. >> you don't want your national security advisor compromised with the russians. >> though there's no apparent response from the white house concerning flynn, the president fires sally yates on january 31st for refusing to follow his executive order on immigration. nine days later "the washington post" lifts the vail on flynn's talked. >> michael flynn discussed sanctions before trump took office despite denials officials say. >> i don't know about it. i haven't seen it. what report is that. >> on the morning of february 14th, the administration publically supports flynn. >> flynn does enjoy the full confidence of the president. >> later that same evening that

support collapses. >> nbc has confirmed michael flynn has resigned. >> michael flynn served the shortest tenure of any national security advisor in history. >> that does not end the fbi's investigation. a fact that according to its director, james comey, president trump confronts him with the next day. >> comey is at the white house for a meeting, trump kicks everyone out of the room and he wants to tell him, flynn didn't do anything wrong, he's a good guy, i need you to move past this investigation. >> in a move that sends shock waves through washington, president trump fires james comey from the fbi. >> did you or any fbi agent ever sense that mr. flynn attempt to deceive you or made false statements to an fbi agent? >> i don't want to go too far.

that was the subject of the criminal inquiry. >> i think there's a lot of questions about this that we still don't understand. was trump asking comey to move past the flynn investigation because he was being loyal to flynn or is it because there's something that flynn knows and more investigating of that could reveal things about the administration or about trump or about the russians? >> the next month, through a letter from his lawyer, michael flynn offers to provide some clarity on one condition. >> mike flynn's lawyer writes an extraordinary public letter, essentially, where he dangles his client and says mike flynn has a story to tell and he'll tell that story in exchange for immunity. it was directed at congress but it seemed like it was a message for the justice department, i'm looking for a deal in exchange for him telling what he knows

about the key question which is did the trump campaign include with the russians. >> michael flynn pleads guilty on december 1, 2017, for lying about conversations he had with sergey kislyak the previous year regarding sanctions and a u.n. resolution. >> this was somebody close to the president throughout the campaign and the transition and then in the white house. nobody cuts a deal like this unless they have something to deliver on somebody who's a bigger fish. >> he commits to on cooperating with robert mueller's investigation into the trump campaign and collusion with russian. my guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the special counsel's office reflect a decision i made in the best interests of my family and of our country. i accept full responsibility of my actions. flynn's commitment to working with mueller may be the tipping

point in the russia investigation. >> robert mueller is now inside the white house, michael flynn was the key that opened up those gates and it's very clear he did not act alone. >> until mueller's widening investigation uncovers the entire truth involving russia's involvement in the election of donald trump. the question remains will michael flynn be re remembered for his military role or for his role in the political scandal. >> i think he got wrapped up in an enterprise gone bad. >> for one reason or another he went down the wrong path. and he was, as a result, humiliated. >> here's a man who devoted his life to his country but at the same time there are a number of important questions about what he did in his short tenure as national security advisor involving the russians. >> is he going to be the hero of this story? i truly hope that as the

investigation progresses that he sits down and says, i am a u.s. fighting man, and i will live by our code and our creed, duty, honor, country, first and above all and he tells them absolutely the truth and that it is checkable, verifiable and he comes out of this with his honor intact. >> i think tv's always been a fantastic medium for taking characters who -- you know, they're outrageous. they're slightly inappropriate. >> people who are socially awkward or people who are missing an etiquette or filter. >> schlebs, nerds, weirdos. >> it's not a normal person. >> someone who has almost zero self-awareness. kind of zero wisdom. >> expressing things they