control. he is swerving way beyond the guardrail there is one man walking that line protecting the rule of law. robert mueller. >> could not have said it better. that is our list. that is the most for 2018. >> thank you for watching. next year we'll be on the ice. >> not a bad idea. >> michael flynn, donald trump's national security adviser for just 24 days, is pledging full cooperation with the president's antagonist, special counsel robert mueller. >> he was an all star cooperator. he's been working with mueller for a year. nothing leaked about that cooperation. i don't believe the trump

lawyers know what he provided. >> it's underneath the black marker that got my information. >> he has information about trump and pall manafort. >> 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. >> could he now implicate his commander in chief? did the president try to cover up. >> 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? >> from battlefield to political mine field, the complicated journey the michael flynn. >> he goes from the pinnacle of helping defeat our enemy, now he is mired in this political maelstrom that we don't know how it's going to end.

special counsel robert mueller is recommending liltle or no prison time for former trump national security adviser michael flynn. >> he talked about early and often. that's how his cooperation can be described. >> the volume of the cooperation. it's 19 interviews. it's not just cooperation with the investigation. it's at least two total and three total investigations depending on how you read it. >> whoo he told investigators hasn't been made public. his sentencing recommendation memorandum heavily redacted. >> a little spoiler alert. by the time we're on page 2, it already looks like this. >> what's already known is flynn's admission of discussion he had with the russian

ambassador. before trump swearing in. which could have under mine existing foreign policy. >> his choice to cooperate. out weighs loyalty to his commander in chief. a difficult decision for a complex military man. >> he ferociously intelligent. very confident guy. very blunt in his manner. >> frankly for my entire life it's been about what's best for the country. >> as a three star lieutenant general, during the war on terror, flynn is considered by many in national security circle 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 and iraq and taliban, and afghanistan. we won. >> general flynn.

revolutionized intelligence in the field environment. 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. a phenomenal man. we want tough and we want smart. he's both. >> they had a lot of same believes. i'm sure flynn realized trump shares my opinions. >> 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 support pays off when donald trump is elected president. >> the trump transition team

pushed back hard today over reports the cia concluded that russia intervened in the u.s. presidential election to help trump win. >> but amidmounting evidence that russia tampered with the election. >> it was a threat to the democracy. that's a big deal. a set of allegations the trump campaign was involved in that effort was working with the russians and the russians were sort of trying to hurt hillary clinton and help trump. >> the continuing drum beat of questions about flynn and the russians. >> michael flynn discussed sanctions with russian envoy before trump took office. >> several phone calls to russia ambassador to the united states. >> considering flynns remarkable service to the country, it begs the question. how did a military hero end up in one of the biggest national security scandals in american history? >> the aps answers to the

questions will be part of the michael flynns legacy. >> long before he plays a central role in the trump russian affair. michael thomas flynn ma mastered the art of standing out in the crowd. born in 1958. the sixth of sergeant first class charles and helen flynn growing family. >> he's a real small town rhode island guy. a big family man. very close to members of the family. he was one of nine children and one bathroom house. >> the all american flynn as he's known to his friends has a dark side. >> mike got into trouble when he was a kid. we called him a juvenile delinquent. >> 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 of his best seller the field of fight. this misguided mine set and some

serious and unlawful activity by me and two cohoodlum teenager friends leads to my arrest. >> the judge said you have a choice. you can have a life or you can have jail. >> the choice he makes will not only set the course for his future, he will play a role in america's. coming up. special operations portray us in the senior staff. and flynn and intelligence. these guys are like jed i knights in training. our dad was in the hospital.

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♪ there's no place likargh!e ♪ i'm trying... ♪ yippiekiyay. ♪ mom. ♪ i never thought in my wildest imagination as a kid growing up in rhode island, small town, that i would be in this place today. >> michael flynn's teenage arrest is a wake-up call. he is not convicted of a crime. a year's probation and rotc scholarship to the university of rhode island and marriage to his high school sweetheart turn his

life around. >> it's a very good marriage. she's terrific, very smart, very lively, very creative. >> he entered 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 prompts an invasion. on the pretext of the rescues medical students. >> it may have been one of the last gasps. of the 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 saw this thing going on. couldn't bear being left out. showed up at the airplane, climbed on the first available plane. >> flynn could have sabotaged his career by doing so but for his commanding officer as he

recalls. in the audio book. >> 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 probably would be renting surf boards at second beach in 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 in use then was maps on paper with pins. >> the intel community along with our ability to do joint operations was pathetic. you can't ad hoc these. you can't pull together this and

marine helicopters and nay vee navy seals. 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 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 the various 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. >> it's a place of strategic study which can bring your thoughts down to the tactical level. >> it's here that flynn first meets two men with whom he will be associated during the wars to come. then colonel stanley mccrystal and david petraeus. >> could you imagine that. a colonel mccrystal and petraeus. they 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 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 downs bringing changes and 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. as someone in witness protection, i can't tell you anything about myself. but believe me... i'm not your average consumer. that's why i switched to liberty mutual. they customized my car insurance, so i only pay for what i need. and as a man... uh... or a woman... with very specific needs that i can't tell you about- say cheese. mr. landry? oh no. hi mr. landry! liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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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 they topple saddam hussein's regime. within a month. then the difficult part. >> we made our 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 won't have a retirement system. >> then everybody with a gun disappeared. then 30 days later showed back up in the middle of the night, started shooting, sniping, assassinating soldiers. 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, joint special operations command. >> 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, look, we're only doing a fraction of what we should be doing. we need more, 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 in combat. >> you kill one of these guys, they are replacement. you have to go after the information first. if that means trying to keep the person alive and taking more risk, he was willing to do that. >> flynn focuses 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 is the world look like from inside the head of a terrorist. >> this was critical.

that's 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 critical 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 networks of insurgents in a devastating and effective way. >> within two years, flynn and mccrystal transform 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, secretary of state. they were integrated with the

cia. mccrystal and 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 kind of attacks that were so horrific that even al qaeda was criticizing him, killing other muslims, killing women and children. he was really public enemy number one for the u.s. at the time. they caught up to him. >> he is dead. the terrorist responsible for horrific acts of violence in iraq 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 more troops during the bush administration's 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. >> the following year, mccrystal takes command of nato's international security assistance form and flynn joins him there as deputy chief of staff for intelligence. >> 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 grip on who are they, where are they, the bad guys. >> for a war in its eighth year, it appear 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 critique 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 2010 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. it bluntly said, look, the intelligence community does not understand key things about afghanistan, about how the tribal system works. it was remarkable, because 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 public this through one of the military publications, it will never see print. it will be watered 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 -- >> lock her up. that's right. 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.

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the hours top stories more than 40 people injured in a restaurant explosion this japan. it caused apartments and nearby buildings to shake. it's under investigation. heavy storms hitting the east coast. major flooding in virginia left some drivers stranded in their cars. six people had to be rescued by boat. now back to headliners. is crisis becoming the norm? >> yeah. honestly, 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 o bo

afghanistan policy. despite his criticism, two years later, obama appoints flynn director of the defense intelligence agency. >> myself and other people were surprised that he got the job, just 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 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 it was a clash of civilization. >> mike flynn was running around town going, i just learned about this new group called isis. they are 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

that this is a win. we killed bin laden. >> flynn is invited by russia in 2013 to be the first american military official to visit. his foreign intelligence service. the gru. >> 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 an nefarious reason. >> back 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 just didn't hold up. for example, he said that hezbollah killed more americans than al qaeda.

it's not true. it's something that 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, he also believes that the united states is opposed by an evil coalition of countries, including china, russia, north korea, syria, cuba, venezuela, bolivia, nicaragua, with iran being the central player. >> when general flynn says iran is the linchpin of the global alliance, he means several things. first, 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. world war ii era. >> regardless of flynn's 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, and and the pentagon top official official. they realized they had a problem. >> 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. 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, livid. >> for the first time in 33 years, michael flynn is a civilian. >> he wasn't an experienced businessman. 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 forces 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 tenth anniversary celebration of rt, russia today, a propaganda arm of the kremlin, raises eyebrows. >> president obama seems to think he is containing isis. >> i know he said that. i disagree with that. >> he gave an interview to a russia propaganda outlet.

he stood and applauded putin's speech. it would emerge later was 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 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. back in the united states, flynn takes to social media to air his increasingly extreme views about the muslim world. he authors an article saying he was fired for calling enemy insurgents radical islamists. >> no one i have talked to has 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 extremism. that emerged later in his mind. it became a narrative for why he was fired. >> people that 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, general michael flynn. >> around the same time, the campaign for the 2016 presidential election is heating up. >> i advise a couple of the candidates. that's kind of what -- >> on your knowledge. >> one stands out from the pack. >> we have a president that won't use the term radical, right? he doesn't know radical islamic terrorism. he won't even talk about it. >> he saw a kindred spirit in trump. one of donald trump's central themes was the obama administration is not telling the truth.

they won't utter the phrase islamic extremism and i will. >> they shared this paranoid thinking. idea that there's a clash of civilization. and that there's a muslim trying to invade the country. and take over america. >> during the campaign, flynn gives several speeches for trump. >> 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 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. >> 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 nomination, wikileaks dumps thousands of e-mails. stolen from the democratic national committee. it becomes clear who originally hacked the data. >> u.s. officials say they have come from in russia. >> hacked by russia and published by wikileaks.

>> 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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probably our greatest strategic adversary, not only hacked but then weaponized the information to use it to advantage one candidate and hinder another. that was unprecedented. it was an unprecedented assault on our democracy. >> it's not only foreign powers who are weaponizing information, websites like danger & play pushed false conspiracy theories about hillary clinton's campaign which flynn and his son promote in their twitter feeds. >> pizzagate was a made up right wing scandal of a pizza parlor in norther 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 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 in "the hill." the political newspaper. it's not about donald trump or american politics. it urges support of turkey's hardline president erdogan. who recently survived a coup attempt. >> it was extraordinary. it ran on election day and in t contradicted things flynn said in the past. it read like a document not written by mike flynn but written by somebody else. >> "the new york times" later reveals that flynn had been hired as a lobbyist by a company headed by a turkish businessman. >> i called the businessman. i asked him approximately 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, though it's 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. he was being paid by interests within the turkish government that clearly had a policy preference when it came to united states policy. >> he was so dismissive and angry at generals who sell their stars. that's who 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 judgment. >> one week later, donald trump ignores obama's warning and names michael flynn his national security adviser. flynn's now subject to the strong legal and ethical guidelines of a white house appointment. his situation is complicated by a series of actions taken. >> all while he was advising the man who would become the president of the united states. all through the campaign. >> he was earning money from entities, one of which was on behalf of the government of turkey, another was a russian cyber security company that's under scrutiny, another was an israeli cyber security company, another was rt. >> he later registers as a foreign agent for representing the interests of the turkish government.

the department of justice notifies flynn that his work as a lobbyist is under investigation. news he doesn't share with the trump administration. ultimately, in addition to the cia, the fbi, nsa and office of the director of national intelligence conclude russia hacked the election. on december 29, obama issues his response to moscow. >> barack obama decided that he would levy sanctions against the russians. >> generally, it was expected that 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, that's for sure. >> what the public doesn't know the day sanctions were announced, michael flynn spoke with the russian ambassador on the phone. 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 monitored, it would have been michael flynn. >> "the washington post" breaks the story of the phone contact between flynn and kislyak on january 12, 2017. three days later, pence denies flynn discussed sanctions. >> 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 the 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

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about the russian impact on the 2016 election -- >> i donald trump do solemnly swear -- >> donald trump is nainaugurate on january 20, 2017. after a lifetime of covert intelligence work. >> so help me god. >> the national security adviser is supposed to run a process and be an honest broker to get information to the president making sure that the president

hears from all stakeholders. >> 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 in the united states. from my experience in the foreign intelligence collection world 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 excels acting attorney general sallyia yates alert the white house counsel don mcgahn on january 26th. >> sally yates came to the white house with deep concerns about michael flynn. >> as yates later testifies she's troubled by the disconnect between how flynn described his calls to the russian ambassador

to vice president pence versus the fbi recording of them. >> so what you're saying is that general flynn lied to the vice president? >> that's certainly how it appeared, yes. >> she thought that mike flynn was subject to blackmail because he hadn't told the truth about his meetings with the russians. the russians knew that. >> you don't want your national security adviser compromised with the russians. >> though there's no apparent response from the white house concerning flynn, president trump fires sally yates on january 31st to refusing to defend his immigration. >> "washington post" just posted this, national security adviser michael flynn discussed sanctions with russian envoy 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 13th the administration publicly supports flynn.

>> yes, general flynn does enjoy the full confidence of the president. >> later that same evening that support collapses. >> breaking news tonight nbc news has confirmed donald trump's national security adviser lieutenant general michael flynn has resigned. >> mike flynn served the shortest tenure of any national security adviser in history. >> more than a year later the justice department releases to congress memos created by james comey. >> what you know day before mike flynn was fired reince priebus, are you guys wiretapping flynn with a secret warrant? >> in reaction to the memos president trump defends flynn. dweeting to general michael flynn's life can be totally destroyed bill shady james comey can leak and lie and make lots of money from a third rate book that should never have been written. flynn's resignation in 2017 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's at the white house for a meeting, trump kicks everyone out of the room. and he wants to tell them, look, flynn didn't do anything wrong. flynn's a good guy. i need you to move past and not do this investigation. >> in a move that sends shock waves through washington, president trump fires james comey as director of the fbi. >> 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 that mike flynn has a story to tell and he'll tell that story in exchange for immunity. it was directed at congress but it really seemed like it was a message for the justice department. the key question, did the trump campaign collude with the russians? >> michael flynn pleads guilty on december 1st, 2017 to lying to the fbi about conversations he had with the russian ambassador sergey kislyak the previous year, regarding sanctions and a u.n. resolution. >> this is somebody who was 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 considered a bigger fish. >> he commits to cooperating with special counsel robert mueller's investigation into possible collusion between the trump campaign and russia and releases a statement to the

public. 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 for my actions. flynn's commitment to working with mueller may be the tipping point in the trump/russia investigation. >> is he going to be the hero of this story? i truly hope 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 that he comes out of this with his honor intact. >> for substantially cooperating early in the investigation mueller's team recommends a light sentence. >> he gave so much information to the investigation that it actually warrants the government requesting a sentence of zero incarceration.

i mean, it doesn't get any more lenient than zero incarceration, which suggests to me that, you know, he really has been giving, over the course of 19 interviews, some very significant and probably damaging information. >> mr. flynn's cooperation was early, timely, that it was firsthand, that it was long term and that, in fact, it caused other people also to cooperate. >> robert mueller is now inside the white house. michael flynn was the key that opened up those gates. and it's very clear that he did not act alone. >> until mueller's widening investigation uncovers the entire truth surrounding russia's involvement in the 2016 election of president trump, the question remains, will michael flynn be remembered for his military success or for his role in an international political scandal. >> he's one of the most competent military officers during this entire war on terror. so i think he got wrapped up in a 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 adviser involving the russians. >> he had deeper feelings for me than just friends. he managed to get me to care about him. he had my whole life wrapped up. >> she's at the center of a riveting courtroom drama. the wife who's entrepreneur husband was found murdered one cold autumn morning. >> our whole family has lost its