the meeting the fbi conducted on january 24th preceded by one day, the first meeting with donald mcgann. isn't it a fact that michael flynn lied to the fbi? >> i can't reveal the internal fbi investigation even though that would not be classified. it is an ongoing investigation and i can't reveal that. >> did you tell donald mcgann that then national security adviser flynn told him in. >> he asked me how he had done and i specifically declined to answer that. >> because it was part of an investigation. >> that's right. was that intended to indicate to him that michael flynn had a problem in that interview? >> no. i was intending to let him know that michael flynn had a problem on a lot of levels, but 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 filibuster is a crime,correct? >> it is. yes. >> violation of 18 united states code 1001 and it is punishable by five years in prison? >> yes. >> so if he lied to the fbi, he had a ton of legal trouble facing him. >> co-face criminal

after the discussion white house counsel donald mcgann receives an award in honor of former attorney edwin meese. this is about 45 minutes. [inaudible conversations] >> about the election law panel we just had. but i want to move on to one of our big victories with the confirmation of justice gorsuch and the panel we've got now on the senate's role. so i'm going to go ahead and introduce eric liken, rnla's vice president for judicial affairs. he's from lexington, kentucky, and has long labored in the field in kentucky both for our senate majority leader and also for the republican party in kentucky. everything? >> thank you, david. you're looking at one of the very few unfortunate cayennes not to be in the commonwealth on this derby eve. i do want to thank the national press be chub for giving the kentucky flag pride of place. hopefully, everybody at home understands i will be back this evening and please save me a mint julep. so i'd like to introduce our panel for the senate role on the judicial confirmation process. first, we have martin gold. mr. gold is a partner with capital cou

his failure to disclose payments from foreign sources, which also he had done before you went to donald mcgann is also criminal punishable. is it not. >> that was not a topic i discussed with mr. mcgann and not something i can discuss today. >> it is in fact, from your knowledge, violation of criminal law. >> yes, but i'm not speaking to his conduct, but generally it is. >> if michael flynn is prosecuted for any of these crimes, is it possible the vice president of the united states might be a witness. >> i guess it would depend on the crime. >> if it was her false h statement to the fbi about his conversations with the russians, would the vice president potentially be called as a witness to corroborate that false statement. >> i would -- certainly is possible but i would speculate how it would come together. >> were i'm going is, the need for a special prosecutor is because officials at the highest level, who are responsible for appointing the deputy attorney general, the united states attorney general, they're all potentially witnesses and they are even targets, correct. >> potentially. >> a

. >> did you tell donald mcgann that then national security adviser flynn told the truth to the fbi? >> no. he asked me how he had done in the interview, and i specifically declined to answer that. >> because it was part of an investigation? >> that's right. >> tim mak, i thought that was a particularly dramatic moment there is don mcgann trying to find out how did that fbi interview go. because he knows lying to the fbi is a crime. he says how did he do in the interview? sally yates very deliberately refusing to answer. >> right. and what does that mean? what could michael flynn have been talking about? a couple issues just off the top of your head. if you're thinking about what that could have been. could it have been whether he properly disclosed the nature of his contacts with the russian ambassador? could it have been whether he properly a truthfully answered questions about his contacts with the russian government prior to speaking to the ambassador. did he discuss sanctions issues? these are all sorts of questions that fbi directors would be asking. >> we're going to take a qu

his failure to disclose payments from foreign sources which also he had done before you went to donald mcgann is also criminally punishable, is it not? >> that was not a topic i discussed with mr. mcgann so it's not something that i can discuss here today. >> but it is in fact from your knowledge a violation of criminal law, is it not? >> to not disclose payments, yes, but i'm not speaking to his specific conduct, just generally that it is, yes. >> if michael flynn is prosecuted for any of these crimes, isn't it possible that the vice president of the united states might be a witness? >> i guess it would depend on the crime. >> if it were a false statement to the fbi about his conversations with the russians, wouldn't he potentially be called as a witness to corroborate that false statement in the. >> certainly that's possible, but i'd be speculating how such a criminal prosecution would come together. >> so where i'm going is the need for a special prosecutor is because officials at the highest level who are simmon for -- who are responsible for appointing the attorney general, deputy attorn

bannon and donald mcgann among others he was ready to move on comey. first he wanted to talk with attorney general jeff sessions and deputy attorney general rod rosenstein to whom comey reported directly. trump summoned the two to the white house for a meeting according to a person close to the white house. the president had already decided at that point to fire comey according to this person. but in the meeting, several white house officials say trump gave sessions and rosenstein a director to explain in writing the case against comey. compare that to what press secretary sean spicer told reporters on tuesday, that rod rosenstein made the decision himself to review comey. and what sarah huckabee sanders told us and reporters yesterday. >> sarah, you've made reference repeatedly to the report by the deputy a.g., rod rosenstein. who asked him to make that review? he's 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 the director reports to him, and i would imagine that'

the fbi conducted on january 24th preceded by one day, approximately, your first meeting with donald mcgann. isn't it a fact that michael flynn lied to the fbi? >> i can't reveal the internal fbi investigation, even though that would not be technically classified, it's on ongoing investigation. >> did you tell them that mr. flynn told the truth to the fbi? >> he asked me how he had done, and i specifically declined to answer that. >> because it was part of an investigation? >> that's right. >> was that intended to indicate to him that michael flynn had a problem in that interview? >> no, i was intending to let him know that 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. >> lying to the fbi is a crime, is it not? >> yes, it is. >> punishable by five years in prison? >> yes, it is. >> so, if michael flynn lied to the fbi, he has a ton of legal problems facing him. >> yes. >> and if he became a foreign agent for another country, for turkey, which he

. >> so -- and then don mcgann -- >> it's inconceivable that donald trump did not know that michael flynn was under some kind of investigation before he named him. when that kind of information comes in and then they have sally yates come in as well, you know, and then they sat on it, there is something very odd, very suspicious about how solicitous the president was about michael flynn. it will come out in these investigations. >> just to chime in, the relationship really between trump and michael flynn is really at the root of this. it's fascinating in that it's at the center of so many of trump's current problems. and it was not even unknown publicly that flynn was a bit of a wildcard. he said a number of very insend jerry anti-islamic things. >> he is the one that chanted "lock her up" and tweeted about the former president, his son as well. don mcgann knew about this and flynn himself, to david gergen's point, how could the president not know that flimpb was working for the government or might be compromised? >> i'm sure that's some of the problems that bob mueller will try to answer

again, i don't know donald trump and i don't know don mcgann. i don't know about their relationship, and there is still a lot of missing information as far as i can tell. but if the acting attorney general had come to me as a white house counsel with this information, this allegation, i would have immediately taken it to andy card, the chief of staff, and recommended that we immediately tell the president, and i'm sure andy would have agreed. and i suspect president bush would have said, i'll go over to the department of justice and look at the information and come back to me. and i think that's a process that would normally take a short period of time, quite frankly. you don't want to drag this thing out, if, in fact, you have a national security risk within the white house, you want to move on it very, very quickly. and so, again, i don't know whether or not what was communicated to the chief of staff or to the president, i don't know whether or not don mcgann ever looked at the information. so i don't know whether or not there was steps taken

mcgann. it is then said that this warning immediately went to the president, and that four days earlier, donaldld have been had with the russians concerning sanctions imposed under barack obama. —— don mcgahn. it sounds that we are all coming back to this one. thank you for joining 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 ther

don mcgann could not have known that on the 26th. donald sign the executive order on travel ban until the 27th, so there's just a little bit of an odd time line. >> the question is did she come back because she hadn't fully explained things, or did she come back, as she seemed to indicate in her testimony, that -- that don mcgann went to everybody at the white house, and they said here are these other questions? for example, criminal investigation going on. >> to follow up. >> to follow up. >> everybody stand by. everybody hold hon. there's a lot more coming up. we'll take a quick break and resume our coverage right after this. nstipation. i've had it up to here! it's been month after month of fiber. weeks taking probiotics! days and nights of laxatives, only to have my symptoms return. (vo) if you've had enough, tell your doctor what you've tried and how long you've been at it. linzess works differently from laxatives. linzess treats adults with ibs with constipation or chronic constipation. it can help relieve your belly pain, and lets yo

. >> we don't know what don mcgann received, what he took to the white house. or donald trump.now how closely donald trump was paying attention. we don't know the why donald trump seems to not be able to quit michael flynn in the 18 days and subsequent 18 days. he has this attachment to michael flynn that is the subject of investigations. >> i just want to sneak in in because of delicious irony. yesterday's story was did the president go to a meeting with russian diplomats and share top secret israeli intelligence that the administration had been told don't share with anybody because it's so sensitive did, that happen trying to help the president now, vladimir putin. >> translator: moreover, if the u.s. administration thinks it's possible, we are prepared to provide the transcript of the conversation between trump and lavrov to send it in congress. only if that is the u.s. administration wants it. >> in the with friends like these file -- >> a little grin on his face. >> a little grin on the face there. as he tries to meddle in this. we make a joke about that. but now to the po

donald trump hire him on? >> president obama warned against this. now we learn that michael flynn told don mcgann early january he was under federal investigation for his work with turkey throughout the campaign. none of that was red flag enough to not be named national security adviser. sally yates warned after he was in the position. there were early warnings here. there were people in the transition operation set up during the campaign that were saying to then candidate trump. i'm not sure michael flynn is the right guy for the white house. you may want to keep your distance from this guy. the warnings were there. guess what? listen to what comey says in his memo that he says trump was still saying after he fired him and we're in the middle of february after the warnings. let this go. mike flynn's a good guy. he said the day he resigned. he talked about flynn's character. donald trump has seen in michael flynn in his relationship with him a loyal soldier who was with him and on the campaign with him. stood up with him and impressed by the general factor. there was nothing. no matter how many r

sally yates testified she had a conversation shortly after donald trump was sworn in with don mcgann, the white house c counsel for trump, and she raised concerns that she felt flynn was lying to the vice president. >> we began our meeting telling him that there had been press accounts, statements from vice president and others, that related conduct that mr. flynn had been involved in that we knew not to be the truth. >> but more than the question of lying and what was the truth and what was not the truth, yates said to don mcgann that was she concerned about potential of compromise with the russians. that is if he had not been telling the truth inside the white house the russians would know that and could potentially use it against him. here's how she explained that piece of it. >> compromise was certainly the number one concern. and the russians can use compromise material, information, in a variety of ways. sometimes overtly, sometimes subtly. again, our concern was that you have a very sensitive position, like the national security adviser, you don't want that person to be in a po

mcgann 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 arc lot of the republicans -- 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 wiener and uma abedin briefly. but there wa

threatening and then saying this, this is donald trump on fox news talking to janine pejan ine piro about whether he asked for a loyalty oath, the day after he warned don mcgannould be compromised. >> i don't think it's inappropriate. >> did you ask that question? >> 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 how you define loyalty. >> in a tweet you said there might be tape recordings. >> i won't talk about that. all i want is for thome to omo honest. >> he's not refusing to comment on whether he threatened james comey. your thoughts. >> well, the loyalty oath that's important is the loyalty oath to the united states. i've been active in the republican party for 30 years. i'm a committed christian, i was involved in the christian ne fellowship bringing in speakers. our political duty is not to the president if he's going to behave this way. i listened to that speech at liberty university. there's nothing that's american or christian about discriminating against mexicans and musmuslims, about participag in a white house coverup or t e treason or colla