stay and if he wants sheryl to stay, she can stay. >> if zuckerberg wants facebook to be profitable his job is already done. but if he wants it to be something more, a platform with values and civic responsibility his work may just be beginning? >> thank you so much for coming out here today. the flynn memo came out. michael flynn sentencing memo has been released. >> michael flynn, donald trump's national security adviser for just 24 days -- >> we learned he was an all-star cooperator and working with robert mueller for a year. i don't believe the trump team knows what he's provided. >> it's what's underneath that black magic marker that has my

attention. >> he has information about president trump. he has information about the former campaign manager, paul manafort, maybe about jared kushner and donald trump jr. >> i thought to myself this is the best intel officer i ever met. >> did the longtime military man implicate his commander in chief and 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 minefield, the complicated journey of michael flynn. >> he goes from the pinnacle of helping defeat you are enemy. now mired in this political mile strom that we don't know how it's going to end.

special counsel robert mueller is tonight recommending little or no prison time for former trump national security adviser michael flynn. >> he talked early and often. that's how michael flynn's cooperation with the mueller investigation can be described. >> the volume of the cooperation, it's not just a few interviews, it's 19 interviews. it's not just cooperation with mueller mueller's investigations but two or three investigations. >> what he has told them has not been made public. his sentencing recommendation memo heavily redacted. >> by the time we're on page 2, it already looks like this. >> what is known is his admission of discussions he had with the russian ambassador before trump's swearing in. it could have undermined

existing foreign policy. his choice to cooperate outweighs loyalty to his commander in chief. a difficult decision for a complex military man. >> he's ferociously intelligent, very confident guy, very blunt in manner, not a courtier to the princess. >> for my entire life it's been about what's best for this country. >> as a three-star lieutenant general during the war on terror, flynn is considered by many in national security circles 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 the taliban in afghanistan we won. >> general flynn, revolutionized intelligence in the field environment. i mean, he saved thousands of lives. with what he did.

>> despite his 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's both. >> they had a lot of the same beliefs and i'm sure mike flynn realized early on that trump shares my opinions. >> at the 2016 republican national convention michael flynn delivers an impassioned speech in support of trump. >> and 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 reports the cia concluded that russia actually

intervened in the u.s. presidential election to help trump win. >> but amidst mounting evidence that russia maliciously 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 and was working with the russians and that 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 has mastered the art of standing out in a crowd. he's born in 1958, the sixth of sergeant first class charles and helen flynn's growing family. >> he's a real small town rhode island guy, a big family man, very close to members of his family. he was one of nine children in a one bathroom house. >> but the all-american flynny as he's known to his friends has a dark side. >> mike got into trouble when he was a kid. we'd 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 in the book narration of his best-feeler "the field of fight." >> this misguided mind-set and some serious and unlawful activity by me and two of my

co-hoodlum teenage friends would eventually lead to my arrest. >> the judge said you got a choice to make, can you 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 -- >> mcchrystal and petraeus and flynn in intelligence, i mean, these guys are like jedi nights in training. [brakes squealing] accidents can happen anytime that's why geico is here 24 hours a day everyday. geico, fifteen minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.

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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 coup on the island of grenada prompts an invasion. >> it may have been one of the last gasps. >> 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. and flew to grenada. >> flynn could have sabotaged his career by doing so but for his commanding officer as he recalls in the audio 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 probably would 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 in use then was maps on paper with pins. >> the intel community in grenada along with our ability to do joint operations was pathetic. you can't ad hoc these things. you can't pull together this helicopters and navy s.e.a.l.s and get it to operate at the last minute. i think a lot of lessons came out of it. >> they are lessons flynn puts to use in the years that follow.

he advances 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 the various elements of the military working together. this showed him the importance of cooperation with other branches 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 that flynn first meets two men with whom he will be associated during the wars to come. then colonel stanley mccrystal and david petraeus. >> you can just imagine that, a colonel mccrystal and a colonel petrov. they are like jedi knights in training. >> these flag officers 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 will fight a future war, would have been developed. early 1990s is a very significant point. >> combat is changing. the cold war is over. and a new stateless enemy is emerging. prior to flynn's arrival at fort polk, a little-known terrorist group called al qaeda sets off a truck bomb in the underground garage of the world trade center. flynn, mcchrystal and petrov recognize the new threat. >> mccivil 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 bringing changes and placing him at the center of them.

[ sirens ] >> 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 sort of rocketed him to the top of the list of people you think about when you think of intelligence officers. than the accident itself. that's why esurance makes it simple. just take some pics. [picture noises] go to sleep. wake up. grab a bite. maybe some racquetball. and boom - your money's on the way so you can get back on the road fast. well, not that fast. the editor had to make it fit in 30 seconds. it's pretty tricky actually trying to ... and ... tagline. when insurance is simple, it's surprisingly painless.

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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 saddam hussein's regime within a month. then 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 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. 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. >> watch out! >> to evaluate how to meet and defeat this new enemy, in 2004 flynn examines strategy and operations in both iraq and afghanistan with general stanley mcchrystal, 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 to mcchrystal,

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 intelligence in combat. >> you kill one of these guys, they are totally replaceable is what he realized. 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 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 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 whole networks of insurgents in a devastating and effective way. >> within two years, flynn and mctravel completely 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 totally integrated with the cia.

general mcchrystal and general flynn created a counterterrorist 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. abu al zarqawi. >> 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. jsoc and michael flynn caught up to him. >> zarqawi 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 2007 surge helped bring more areas of iraq under control. within a year, al qaeda in iraq is crippled.

>> mcchrystal and flynn tackled the problem. they are credited with turning around the situation in iraq. >> the following year, mcchrystal 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 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 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 publish 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 publish 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 mcchrystal 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 mcchrystal, 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. that's why i switched to liberty mutual. they customized my car insurance,

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says he is not going anywhere despite calls to step down. the democrat courted widespread controversy from all directions after a racist picture surfaced in his medical school yearbook. in aning crisis in venezuela. two men claim they're president. now back to "head liners: michael flynn." 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 obama administration's 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 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 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 osama bin laden. >> flynn is invited by russia in 2013 to be the first american military official to visit. it was the 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 a 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 lynchpin 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 fascism. >> 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 mike vickers was the pentagon's top intelligence official and 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, 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 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. but controversy soon 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. >> yeah, i mean i know he said that. i disagree with that. i definitely disagree with that. >> he gave an interview to a

russian propaganda outlet. he stood and applauded putin's speech. what emerged 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 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 russians' 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 for several newspapers stating he was fired by president obama 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 only 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? what's the word? 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 idea that there is a clash of civilizations and there is a muslim hoard that is trying to 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. [ chanting "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 republican nomination, wikileaks dumps thousands of emails stolen from the democratic national committee but it soon 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. ♪ hoo

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♪ memories. what we deliver by delivering. 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.

>> it was the first time that a foreign adversary, in this case 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 and true pundit pushed false conspiracy theories about hillary clinton's campaign which flynn and his son michael flynn jr. promote in their twitter feeds. >> pizzagate was a made up 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 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 8th. on election day, flynn makes a surprising move, publishing an op-ed in the political newspaper "the hill." it's not about donald trump or even american politics. instead, it urges support of turkey's hardline president erdogan who recently survived a coup attempt. >> it was extraordinary. one, because it ran on election day and it 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 several months earlier by inovo,

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 since 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, unvarnished 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 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 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. but his situation is complicated by a series of actions already 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.

at the end of november, 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 all conclude that russia hacked the election. on december 29th 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 is that the day sanctions were announced, michael flynn spoke on the telephone with the russian ambassador, sergey 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 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, vice president-elect 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 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 believe that candidate trump and then president trump wasn't fully aware of the contacts that mike flynn was making with the russian ambassador. live from the starlite lounge. ♪ one plus one equals too little too late ♪ ♪ a sock-a-bam-boom ♪ who's in the room? ♪ love is dangerous ♪ but driving safe means you pay less ♪ ♪ switch and save ♪ yes, ma'am excuse me, miss. ♪ does this heart belong to you? ♪ ♪ would you like it anyway? [ scatting ]

amid continuing concerns about the impact of russia's influence on the 2016 election -- >> i, donald john trump -- >> donald trump is inaugurated as the 45th president of the united states on january 20th, 2017. two days later michael flynn accepts the most public position of his career as national security adviser after a lifetime of covert intelligence work. >> so help me god. >> so help me god. >> the national security adviser is supposed to run a process and be an honest broke story 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. they have secret recordings of them. >> general flynn makes five phone calls to the russian ambassador of the united states. in my experience 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 compels acting attorney general sally yates to 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 with the russian

ambassador to vice president 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? she thought that mike flynn was subject to blackmail because he hadn't told the truth about his meetings with the russians and 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, president trump fires sally yates on january 31st for refusing to defend his executive order on immigration. nine days later "the washington post" lifts the veil on flynn's talks with kislyak. >> "the washington post" has just posted this. national securitier 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, 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. >> one day before michael flynn was fire reince priebus asked comey, are you guys wiretapping flynn essentially with a fisa warrant? >> in reaction to the memos president trump defends flynn tweeting, so general michael flynn's life can be totally destroyed while shady james comby can leak and lie and make lots of money from a third rate book that should never have been written.

flynn's resignation does not end the 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 and trump kicks everyone out of the room and wants to tell him, 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 in 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 he offers to provide 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 really 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 collude with the russians? >> michael flynn pleads guilty on december 1st about lying about conversations he had with sergey kislyak the previous year regarding sanctions and the u.n. resolution. >> this is somebody who was close to the president throughout the campaign and the transition and then in the white house and nobody cuts a deal like this unless they have something to deliver on somebody who is 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 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 that he comes out of this with his honor intact. >> for substantially cooperating early 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. >> but on december 18th, 2018 flynn's sentencing before a federal judge doesn't go that way. >> this whole thing today this, whole sentencing today was supposed to just roll downhill. this just turned into a train wreck for mike flynn and here's the judge surprise in open court flat out warning flynn, i cannot assure you that if you proceed today you will not receive a sentence of incarceration. >> flynn's lawyers request a postponement of his sentencing. 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 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 >> it's a murder mystery. you've got a wealthy family. it's something for everybody. there is a club of people consumed by trying to figure out what happened. i've never seen anything like it. >> reporter: almost everywhere robert durst goes, mystery follows. a missing wife. >> everything about this reeked of murder. >> reporter: a murdered best friend. a dead neighbor.