to tell donald mcgahn this is what was going to happen.e then assembled the president's senior team, himself, the vice president, chief of staff, kellyanne conway, steve bannon, sean spicer sean spicer, berated other aides, they went into the office, and they've met with the president, who just finished meeting with candidates to replace james comey as the fbi director, they said it was donald mcgahn. this is what the doj has decided to do. the president's response i am told was fairly measured. some people were expecting that he might hit the ceiling as a result of being told that a special prosecutor was going to look into the russian investigation, as many people were confronted with the appointment of a special prosecutor, i think naturally what way the president said, that it's a decision that has been made, those of the cards we have been dealt, let's get moving on the statement on the other things that we need to get going on, particularly with this big foreign trip coming up, as well as the domestic agenda, with hearings on capitol

. >> did you tell donald mcgahn that national security advisor flynn told the truth to the fbi? >> he asked me how he had done in the interview and i declined to answer. >> because it was part of an investigation? >> that's right. >> was it intended to indicate to him that michael flynn had a problem in that interview? >> no, i was intending to let him know michael flynn had a problem on a lot of levels but it wasn't necessarily with respect to how he performed in the interview. i was intentionally not letting him know how the interview had gone. >> and lying to the fbi is a crime, correct? >> it is. >> it is punishable by five years in prison. >> it is. >> if michael flynn lied to the fbi, he had a ton of legal trouble. >> he could face criminal prosecution if he lied to the fbi. >> if he became a foreign agent for another country, for turkey? which he was a foreign agent fo for. without getting permission from the department of defense, he faced criminal penalties for that, and still faces them. >> yes. can be criminally prosecuted. >> it's a violation punishable by two years

donald mcgahn was not on the job at that point. there's a sense in which the transition team was operating on its own. i know people disdain the advice of lawyers, but when you're operating the white house, you have to be very, very careful about these laws because they can get you into significant trouble. >> jon: as president trump as protested, the obama administration gave general flynn his clearance. if i were picking somebody for national security advisor, somebody who had just been a sitting general and worked with the national security agency, i think would be a pretty good peck. >> one of the mysterious things to us during the campaign was all the times that donald trump was saying wonderful things about leonard putin. a large part of that was michael flynn who is saying that he would do business with putin. that was a strategy they were pursuing and that's why he wanted to bring flynn on board. he then failed and got pushed out. tillerson came in, general mattis, trump changed his policy towards russia. that's not just lo

>> i think it's the president's attorneys, both white house counsel donald mcgahn and his private attorneyave got to be a little bit frustrated. you want your client to just stay quiet until the investigation is concluded and have a stock praise while the investigation is underway. but i'm not going to talk about in the till then. but i think having the president weigh in on the blow-by-blow every time there is a decision on whether or not a witness get called or what it witness says, it certainly an unusual way to handle it. of course, the president has been successful handling social media the way he has come about from an attorney's perspective, i suspect there is a little bit of indigestion on his legal team about this approach. >> jon: so your legal advice to the president would be to stay off of twitter when it comes to the russian investigations? >> my legal advice to anyone would be to stay off of twitter when you are under any type of investigation. but lawyers are, as i am, by nature, cautious. i'm sure the president has spent a lot of time with lawyers and his real estate career

the disclosure on january 4 was made to the transition team's chief lawyer, donald mcgahn.sation another 12 days later between lawyers shows the trump team knew about the investigation of mr. flynn far earlier than has been previously reported. march 9 when the story came out, i asked the vice president about it. the story today that former national security advisor michael flynn has filed with the department of justice has a foreign agent for making more than $500,000 as a lobbyist essentially for turkey, your reaction, considering, doesn't that mean, mr. vice president, that even if he didn't lie to you about the russian investors said or didn't say, you what i had to fire him anyway. >> well, let me say, hearing the story today was the first i heard of it. >> bret: you are disappointed by the story? >> the first i heard of it and i think it's an affirmation of the president's decision to ask general flynn to resign. >> bret: the vice president's office says he sticks by that answer. >> information in "the new york times" is coming from somewhere. i don't know who their s

i called donald mcgahn first thing that morning and told him that i had a very sensitive matter that i needed to discuss with him, that i couldn't talk about it on the phone and i needed to come see him, and he agreed to meet with me later that afternoon. i took a senior member of the national security division who was overseeing this matter to meet with him. we met in his office at the white house which is a skiff so we could discuss classified information in his office. >> again, it is remarkable here that this is not even one week into the new administration. swearing in was a friday, this is the thursday after the this is six days into the new presidency. and the serving attorney general, the acting attorney general, has gone to the white house counsel's office which has a sensitive compartmented information facility a skiff where they can handle classified material inside that office. this is after the fbi questioned the national security adviser and now it's the acting attorney general along with somebody you could reasonably include is the other senior careered justice departm

the 302, that process would have taken place by the time she went up to see white house counsel donald mcgahn. >> that is right. >> onto the anthony weiner laptop. as i understand it, you were informed by agents in the fbi office that there was potentially related or relevant information in mr. weiner's laptop. on the basis of that information, you then sent a letter to the members of congress before whom you had committed to answer if there were any changes in the status of things. you also then authorized the agents to pursue a search warrant which then gave them access to the content which allowed them to do the search that you then said came up with nothing so that you could then undo the letter and say, actually, we took a look, there is nothing there. do i have the order correctly there? >> right here they came to me and briefed me on what they could see from that metadata, why it wasn't significant. they thought they should seek a search warrant, wanted my approval to do that, i agreed, authorized it, so did the department of justice, then they reviewed, just making sure i get the numb

the house judiciary and oversight committees also today sending a letter to white house counsel donald mcgahn writing they are compelled to ask whether any such ro recordings do exist. miker sheerer, who sat down with the president nearly 100-minute interview and a four-course dinner on monday. naturally the question is did you feel taped? >> it's funny when we sat down at the meal, he looked at the table, we were in the blue room. and there was a digital recorder by the flower display next to a candle. he says, whose is that? he wasn't sure. it was one of his staffers who put it there. so he was aware when he sat down, you know, where the recording devices were in the room. and we were recording, too. we were recording on our iphones. >> you were recording, everybody was recording. >> there is no secret. if the white house has tapes it will match the tape i have on my iphone i'm sure. >> bill -- >> congress is probably more interested in the tape of the dinner with comey three months ago. excellent discussion. i think -- i mean, the president is in serious trouble for a couple reasons. he tw

, that included the vice president, chief of staff, kellyanne conway, all of the senior staff, donald mcgahn the white house counsel, saying the decision has been made that rosenstein is going to appoint a special prosecutor. the president i am told was very measured in his reaction to it. he said, that is a card we have been dealt. let's move on. in terms of analysis and all of this, the white house staff is looking at this as an opportunity to clear the decks of criticism that has been coming down from capitol hill in recent days, weeks, in fact, to pull the team back together again instead of being splintered in so many different directions and really focus on the president's agenda. while there is the danger when you are point up a special prosecutor, this could go down a lot of different roads, the team at the white house white house, including the president, feels this is giving them an opportunity to focus on the future as opposed to trying to relitigate everything that has happened over the last few months. >> martha: john, thank you very much. john roberts reporting tonight from the

bannon, donald mcgahn, among others, that he was ready to move on comey.ey general jeff sessions, his trusted confidant and attorney deputy general. trump summoned the two of them to the white house for a meeting. according to a person close to the white hout house. the president already decided to fire comey. but trump gave sessions and rosenstein a directive, to explain in writing the case against comey. compare that to what press secretary sean spicer told reporters tuesday, that rob rosenstein made the decision himself to review comey and what sarah huckabee sanders told us yesterday. >> sarah, you made reference repeatedly to the report by the deputy ag rob rosenstein. who asked him to make that review? he has just arrived at the justice department. who asked him to undertake that review? >> i'm not aware that it was requested. all i know is that the director reports to him and i would imagine that that's part of the process of him coming on board, and taking over that position. >> sarah, you've suggested in response to david's questions that the depu

that letter and was one of the first people to really stand up to donald trump, and then of course this meeting she had with don mcgahn to talk about mike flynn. this will be the first time the public is going to see her talk in person. i think it is going to be a fascinating hearing. >> we're not going to hear from former national security director rice. advisor. we're not going to hear from her. she says she won't come why? >> i believe she's asserting sort of executive privilege essentially. her conversations with the white house, you know, advisors to the president like that shouldn't be called before congress to answer these kinds of questions. >> she did say sthe wanted to cooperate fully. >> that's right. in fairness to her, what is the allegation? it is sort of unclear here what they're saying she did wrong. >> i don't know if anyone is saying she did anything wrong. she fills in a piece of the public. this would be public unless it's national security. >> i don't know that she should testify. anyone conducting one of these investigations has to ask themselves, are they going to look at actual questions of wro

four days earlier, donald trump said he had no information about any conversations that could have been had with the russians concerning sanctions imposed under barack obama. —— don mcgahnning coming back to this one. thank you forjoining us. my pleasure. bill o'reilly stepped down last month are to act of sexual harassment by a number of women. —— fox news anchor bill o'reilly stepped down last month, accused of sexual harrassment by a number of women. and now one of them has flown to london to try to block rupert murdoch — who owns fox — from taking full control of sky. she met the media regulator ofcom — which is investigating whether murdoch's company 21st century fox would be fit and proper to take full control of sky. this from our media editor amol rajan. on the west coast of ireland, people are flocking to a remote island to see a sandy beach that has reappeared — that is the word. it was washed away by storms more than 30 years ago. but a freak tide has dumped thousands of tonnes of sand back there again. keith doyle has the story. achill island, on the west coast of ireland, has many beautiful beaches. but for the past 30 years, this was not one of them. howev

mcgahn knew. we know that other white house officials knew. i don't know yet if they told donald trump and he for 18 days did nothing with the information or they didn't tell him. either way it leads to more questions. one thing i wanted to add to what brian also said, i think the white house wants to move on from this. sean spicer will have to answer our questions about this tomorrow but i was just talking to a white house official on my way over here and they are not planning any sort of offense other than sean addressing this at the briefing. i think they would rather put this behind them. the president tweeting doesn't help that cause. >> we were shocked today to learn that washington is a partisan town. and at this hearing, a lot of the republicans kind of formed a wall in their questioning. they doubled down on leaks. they doubled down on this process of unmasking. clapper said that about 2,000 people have been unmasked in calendar year 2016. they doubled down -- ted cruz even went the route of anthony weiner and huma abedin briefly. but there was a tense exchange between c

donald trump. and he has, i've been told by sources close to him, that he's been complaining an awful lot about his white house counsel, don mcgahne reason is, maybe it's because he -- the president felt he was out of this loop. i just, you know, i don't have any idea, but it's hard for me to think of any other white house in which, you know, she would go down to the white house, tell the white house counsel these issues that she had with the national security adviser, you know, being subject potentially to blackmail and that a white house wouldn't act on that very, very quickly. it's stunning. >> it is incredible, though, to have the president of the united states, you know, basically seeming to blame all the people around him constantly without any self-realization that at a certain point, it's not everybody around you who is making errors. >> is the president also -- i mean, when it comes to flynn, i think gloria's right, he might have been the loop. he likes this guy, he seemed invested in protecting him even when he was firing him, he was effusive in his praise of him and i think when donald trump likes you, even if it's for

that meeting, yates said mcgahn asked her if he could look at the evidence that had her cso concerned about general flynn. the date of january 27 is key, and here's why, donaldow admitted that he had dinner with fbi director james comey that very evening, january 27 at the white house. a private dinner soon after the president learned that his nsa director was being investigated for ties to russia. in his interview with nbc, the president said he can't remember who called the dinner. but new cnn reporting says comey says it was at the president's request. so was the timing of this dinner just a coincidence? what exactly had the president been told that the department of justice and fbi had learned? and would it have been enough to trigg trigger a dinner at the white house and a test of loyalty. trump apparently had a few questions of his own for the man leading the russia investigation. >> i said, if it's possible, will you let me know, am i under investigation? he said, you are not under investigation. >> reporter: randy kaye, cnn, new york. >> the president admitted in an interview with lester holt -- >> did the president ask the white house counsel whethe

donald trump. and he has, i've been told by sources close to him, that he's been complaining an awful lot about his white house counsel, don mcgahnow what the reason is, maybe it's because he -- the president felt he was out of this loop. i just, you know, i don't have any idea, but it's hard for me to think of any other white house in which, you know, she would go down to the white house, tell the white house counsel these issues that she had with the national security adviser, you know, being subject potentially to blackmail and that a white house wouldn't act on that very, very quickly. it's stunning. >> it is incredible, though, to have the president of the united states, you know, basically seeming to blame all the people around him constantly without any self-realization that at a certain point, it's not everybody around you who is making errors. >> is the president also -- i mean, when it comes to flynn, i think gloria's right, he might have been the loop. he likes this guy, he seemed invested in protecting him even when he was firing him, he was effusive in his praise of him and i think when donald trump likes you, even i

donald trump is saying the issue isn't plimichael flynn, it's ho the information sally yates had is public. so he's still saying it's about the leaks. clearly folks on capitol hill would like to question don mcgahn. i'm sure the president would have some executive privilege things to say and we may never know but clearly president trump still seems to be saying that michael flynn didn't do mig i don't think. >> george, this is this criticism that republicans -- many of them seem to care more about donald trump's judicial nominations than this particular controversy. this is what a top official in the bush justice department wrote today for the national security blog law fare. this is jack goldsmith "several conservative friends have chastised me for being too hard on mcgahn, most importantly they said he was doing a great job in selecting conservative judges. i'm not so sure the tradeoff is worth it for conservatives and the opportunity costs of dealing with the investigation will be large." is he right here, george will? because we did hear republicans yesterday talk far more about unmasking and hillary clinton's e-mails than what flynn did. >> i think they can do both things. they can attend t

sally yates had warned don mcgahn, the white house counsel, that michael flynn was subject to blackmail, he suddenly brings in the fbi director and asks for loyal. this is donald trump talking to jeanine pirro on fox. >> i read that article. i don't think it's inappropriate. >> did you ask that question? >> no, no, i didn't, but i don't think it would be a bad question to ask. i think loyalty to the country, loyalty to the united states is important. it depends on how you define loyalty. number one. number two, i don't know how that got there, because i didn't ask that question. >> eric columbus, the idea -- you now have a he said/he said or he said/friends of he said. if trump said that wouldn't be a bad question, would that be a bad question to ask of an fbi director, in your view? >> it would be a horrible question. i think he's been watching "the godfather" one too many times. >> in your view, i said to go back to the moment the way comey was let go. mr. rosenstein, who wrote the memo on the same day of the firing, when you read that memo, how did it strike you? did it seem that mr. rosenstein was initiates the firing or responding to a request that he had