and on that list was mike flynn. so apparently devin nunes thinks that mike flynn was at some point talking to an fbi informant, nicolle. >> frank figliuzzi, can you go over the sen 10%ing of mike flynn and the notion they are dealing with ongoing requests for an unprecedented, it would appear, level of detail about an ongoing investigation. >> so, first, a couple thoughts on the flynn sentencing being delayed. first, look, i think what's apparent here is that the president may well intend to pardon flynn. and if you sentence him, the pardon could come down very, very quickly. if you draw this out, it's unlikely the president is going to do a presentencing pardon. so that's one aspect of it. the second is there is a hint here flynn is not fully cooperated or done yet and they want to keep this hanging over his head so that's that -- my theory on that. >>> with regard to the demands, unprecedented demands during a pending investigation for details on informants, sources, under cover agents, we've got to see this for w

flynn has not said a word about this that i'm aware of. dependence will have pleaded guilty or waiting sentences usually do not talk. >> laura: i have to ask you this. can michael flynn withdraw from a plea deal, if inde twe down as we think it went down, comey confirms it, mcgann confirms it in this memo to the file. what gives here? >> absolutely, it's unusual. but prior to sentencing in the interest of justice, the lawyers for flynn can convince the judge that the predicates for a guilty plea, which the judge's obligation to find out, whether the person is pleading guilty voluntarily without duress, that's one factor here that you just mentioned that's potentially a factor. number two, the predicate fact for the guilty plea, it's not for the judge to accept someone's guilty plea if the facts are not there. at the facts are not there, this is a judge who has recently after the plea order the government to disclose the brady evidence, the exculpatory evidence to the flynn team. claur >> laura: right. that indicates to me that the judge ha

today the prosecutors in the flynn's case and flynn's defense lawyer says in a joint filing that yet again they are still not ready to wrap up his case. they're still not ready to end the legal proceedings involving michael flynn. his guilty plea and his agreement to cooperate with prosecutors in the investigation, those two things were linked, right? >> guilty plea and the cooperation deal. mike flynn did plea guilty so he's expecting some form of punishment from the court. how much punishment he gets depends on how he helps prosecutors in the meantime. this filing today from flynn's lawyer and prosecutors suggest that even after seven months he pled guilty and cooperat cooperate -- suggests that he's helping prosecutors. they're asking for another two months extension before they wrap up flynn's case. >> the court ordered the party to file a joint status report by no later than june 29th of 2018. the party do not believe that this matter is ready to be scheduled for a sentencing hearing at this time. but actually right below that you can see in the filing, they do ask the court at

today the prosecutors in the flynn case and flynn's defense lawyers said in a joint filing that yet again they are still not ready to wrap up his case. they're still not ready to end the legal proceedings involving mike flynn. and that's because when flynn pled guilty his guilty plea and his agreement to cooperate with prosecutors in their ongoing investigation, those two things were linked. right? the guilty plea and the cooperation deal. mike flynn did plead guilty. so he is expecting some form of punishment from the court. but how much punishment he gets will depend almost entirely on how much he helps prosecutors in the meantime. so this filing today from flynn's lawyers and prosecutors suggests that even now, seven months after he pled guilty and started to cooperate, it suggests that flynn is even now still helping prosecutors with their work. they're asking for another two-month extension before they start to wrap up flynn's case. "on may 3rd, 2018 the court ordered the parties to file a joint status report by no later than june 29th, 2018," which is today. "due to the status of th

plus, flynn on hold. the special counsel wants a delay sentencing michael flynn. what is the issue? and the president journalists should fear w their jobs, so will he stop attack iing press? let's good evening. i'm erin burnett, "outfront" this evening, the breaking news. presid free wheeling aboard air force one. it was just a 50-m from washington, d.c. to the presid sort of weekend get away in the summer in new jersey but in that 50 minutes, he wan reporters and he made some major headli from the supreme court to russia to the fate of john kelly. first, the p president teasing sort of a bake off for his candid for the supreme court. >> i'l the 9th! r who you lee iin >>. >> we outstanding i look them all. >> five. >> but i'm, i've got it down to about five. i have a woman. >> is that amy? >> i have two women. two women out of the five. we hav women on the court now. i have two women. >> mr. president - out of the t. >> all right, so as he tries to build all that excitement, the presid went on to say this is really important. he will not ask his nominees if they'l overturn roe v wad

yep. >> it's now up to flynn's older brother, deputy john flynn, to keep interested staff and inmatesp to date on justin's journey. >> i don't know if he saw one. he hasn't caught one. been watching the news. quite sure he hasn't caught one yet. >> i check in with "usa today" every day. >> right. >> another sasquatch believer is 21-year-old scott dipiazza who's decided to try out a new hair-style for an upcoming visit with his mother. >> just going to get it braided into corn rows straight to the back. hopefully it will hold and stay. >> what's your mom going to say when she sees your hair in corn rows? >> oh, she'll probably -- i don't know. she'll probably dig it. she supports everything i do. except for breaking the law. >> dipiazza is awaiting trial on charges of breaking and entering into a vehicle. he's had a long list of minor convictions. but depiazza says he's gotten away with far many more crimes than he's ever been caught for. >> i've done some pretty dirtball [ bleep ]. this was this mexican market i used to go to. i feel like a real dirtball for this. there was a shoe box

michael flynn says michael flynn lied and robert mueller says michael flynn lied. and the fbi says michael flynn lied. and michael flynn has pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi. but moves importantly, michael flynn says that michael flynn lied. that's what's important here. if donald trump said one true thing in the driveway this morning i would show it to you right now, because it would show that he knows how to tell the truth about something, and that would mean that lying is a conscious choice for him. it's a conscious choice and he makes that conscious choice every time. when you watch donald trump in the driveway this morning you're seeing someone who seems to know there is nothing in the truth that sounds good for him, absolutely nothing. and that's why he lies. the truth is so bad for him, he will lie and create a falsehood that his followers will believe instead of the truth. so he lied about the inspector general's report. >> here's the good news. i did nothing wrong. there was no collusion. there was no obstruction. the ig report yesterday went a long way

this is certainly not the first time mueller's team has played sentencing for flynn. talk about the legal strategy to this. >> well, there's a couple of things to look at. a joint status report was filed that basically said we need a little bit more time. both parties agreed. both sides agreed. it could mean flynn is still in the process of providing valuable information to the mueller team for purposes of the sayre yours tentacles of the investigation. there was also included in this report a request that a pre-sentence investigation report process begin. and what that means is a ps i-report, as it's called, is an investigation into the background of the defendant michael flynn. it is really what the federal judge will look at in terms of a recommendation for sentencing to get an idea of what michael flynn is all about and what has he done to assist the united states government in its investigation into potential other defendants, co-conspirators, he could. >> so that means he can't be sentenced until that is completed, or shouldn't be? >> he's not going to be senten

the president said he fired flynn for lying and flynn later pleaded guilty for lying to the fbi about his contacts with russian officials. the president pressed on his former personal attorney, mike equalco.en, and reports cohen is considering cooperating with federal investigators. >> are you worried michael cohen did not flip? >> look, i did nothing wrong. this stuff would have come out a long time ago. >> it comes just days after the president struck a deal with north korea to denuclearize. reporters questions him on why he has been praising a nuclear dictator. >> because i don't want to see a nuclear weapon destroy you and your family. >> and the president raising eyebrows with this comment. >> he's the head of a country and he's a strong head. don't let anything say anything different. he speaks and his people sit up with attention. i want my people to do the same. >> but north korea is a totalitarian regime where dissent isn't tolerated. when challenged, mr. trump shrugged it off. >> i'm kidding. >> the president weighing in on the immigration crisis engulfing his administration

peter strzok was one of those agents that interviewed flynn.er strzok hopefully will be subpoenaed and hopefully will speak to congress. he was already tainted. when he went into that interview, he wanted to take people down in the trump administration. i believe that everything he touched was tainted. i don't know what his attorneys are going to do. something will come of this. >> sean: thanks. we will never give occupy this story. i am telling you the hard work of justice begins. that's the interesting part. when we come back, the shy and demure roger stone is up next. your brain changes as you get older. but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. the name to remember. jushis local miracle ear t at helped andrew hear more of the joy in her voice. just one hearing test is all it took for him to hear more of her laugh... and less of the background noise around him. for helen, just one visit to her local miracle-ear is

peter strzok was one of those agents that interviewed flynn.enaed and hopefully will speak to congress. he was already tainted. when he went into that interview, he wanted to take people down in the trump administration. i believe that everything he touched was tainted. i don't know what his attorneys are going to do. something will come of this. >> sean: thanks. we will never give occupy this story. i am telling you the hard work of justice begins. of justice begins.1 that's the interesting part. when we come back, the shy and demure roger stone is up next. demure roger stone is up next. - in a crossfit gym, we're really engaged with who we are as people and making everybody feel welcome. ordering custom ink t-shirts has been a really smart decision for our business. - [narrator] custom ink has hundreds of products and free shipping. upload your logo or start your design today at customink.com. >> ♪ >> ♪ >> sean: special witch hunt counsel robert mueller investigating a meeting between roger stone and this was not disclosed by stone. based on

so, guess what, if the president chooses to pardon michael flynn that is only going to help michael flynnichael flynn has given testimony. it's sort of like, you know, you're closing the barn door long after the michael flynn horse is out frolicking in the field. and he will not be put back in that barn, pardon or no pardon. >> so, the fact that dinesh d'souza was pardoned this week, was that some sort of a test, a signal, of how the president would use his power. pardon and how that would go on? >> it sure does seem like the president is sending a signal. and unfortunately he is either pardoning or considering pardoning the wealthy, the influential, the connected. when there are so many people who are not wealthy, who are not connected and who are not influential who have their cases at this very moment sitting in the office of the pardon attorney at the department of justice, going through the process which is a long rigorous process, as well it should be. and yet, the president leapfrogs the d'souzas of the world over the top of all of those potentially worthier candidates. and it does

is michael flynn and his conversations with the ru also the michael flynn -- the fbi investigation, whether or not the president tried to interfere in that investigation. and here's an interesting argument from the lawyers in this case, because they're arguing, essentially, that the president didn't even know that michael flynn was under investigation and therefore because they -- he didn't know that he was under investigation, how could he obstruct justice? let me read that part of the letter to you. it says here, "there could not possibly have been intent to obstruct an investigation that had been neither confirmed nor denied to white house counsel, and that they had every reason, based on general flynn's statement and his continued security clearance, to assume was not ongoing." there's a part in this letter, anna, where they talk about how michael flynn and certainly folks at the white house were under the impression that the fbi was going to clear michael flynn, that he was not under investigation, that they did not believe that he lied and therefore there's no way that the pre

you had john dowd going to lawyers for michael flynn and paul manafort raising the specter, reportedly, of a pardon. what do you make of what we see here and what may be telegraphed from the white house and those roped into this investigation who might be thinking about the prospects for a pardon? >> oh, yeah. i think there's no question that the president is signaling both through what dowd said to the lawyers for manafort and flynn that there might be a pardon and also with this pardon of dinesh d'souza and the idea he might pardon martha stewart and rod blagojevich, i think there's no question that that is telegraphing to his associates who have been targeted by mueller that he will have their back, that he will stand by them, that they can expect a pardon from him which they've done as well, which are crimes that are very similar to the ones he's pardoning these other people for. and that message is stick with me, do not cooperate, do not give information and i will pardon you. and i think that is disturbing and it adds to this obstruction of justice evidence. >> alex, great to spe

the president said he fired flynn for lying, and flynn later pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi about his contacts with russian officials. the president pressed on his former personal attorney michael cohen and reports cohen is considering cooperating with federal investigators. >> did you hear michael cohen might flip? >> i did nothing wrong. you have to understand. this stuff would have come out a long time ago. >> reporter: it comes just days after the president struck a deal with north korea to denuclearize. today reporters pressed him on why he's praising a brutal dictator. >> you know why? because i don't want to see a nuclear weapon destroy you and your family. >> reporter: and the president raising eyebrows with this comment. >> he's the head of a country. he's a strong head. don't let anyone think anything different. he speaks and his people sit up at attention. i want my people to do the same. >> reporter: when challenged, mr. trump tried to laugh it off. >> i'm kidding. you don't understand sarcasm. >> reporter: the president weighing in on the immigration crisis engulfing

he was being loyal to flynn or is it because there's something that flynn knows?faces a new challenge two weeks later, when the president tweets that president obama had trump's wires tapped in trump tower. >> i have no information that supports those tweets and we have looked carefully inside the fbi. >> the justice department later confirms there was no evidence of a wiretap. in the same hearing in march, comey announces for the first time that the fbi is investigating members of trump's campaign. >> i have been authorized by the department of justice to confirm that the fbi as part of our counterintelligence mission is investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the trump campaign and the russian government. >> it was bone chilling to hear that the fbi had opened criminal and counterintelligence investigations into the president's campaign. >> that hearing is a turning point. >> trump, we know, demands loyalty over everything else and in fact had asked jim comey for loyalty. in trump's mind, apparently loyalty means standing up and

. >>> plus mike flynn apparently still of use to robert mueller. also new developments on paul manafort's legal case. >>> and the president treating his upcoming court selection like a premiere, dropping hints today and revealing the date of the unveiling of his nominee. all of it as "the 11th hour" gets under way on a friday night. >>> as we come to the end of another week, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 526 of the trump administration, and the president tonight says he will announce his choice for the supreme court next month. >> i'll be announcing it the monday after july 4th. i'll be announcing it on the 9th. >> we will have more on the president's list of nominees just ahead, but we begin with the war between the trump white house and the department of justice, specifically the president's own deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, the man overseeing the special counsel's russia investigation. the president and his allies in congress have been hammering rosenstein over this mueller inquiry, and t

why would the feds delay the sentencing of michael flynn? >> you delay a coop cooperator sentencing is you you're not done using them yet. he might have things to do that might further reduce his sentence or credit. that may be testimony or giving reactions. they are not done cooperating him. >> betsy, i know that manafort's pe personal assistant wads cooperating with fbi before a search warrant was issued with the storage locker. is this a sign that people around manafort were turning on him before he was necessarily even indicted? >> absolutely. it's another indicator of the amount of influence officials with the federal government can have when they talk to private vin individuals. they didn't need a search warrant to get access because he just voluntarily let them in. manafort's team is argued they shouldn't be able to use the material from that locker in the case against him because he didn't have the authorization or the authority to let them in to the locker. his name was on the lease. he was the individual whose name was on there as

some of the other issues is michael flynn and whether or not the president tried to interfere in that investigation when he fired the former fbi director james comey. here in an interesting argument from the president's lawyers they claim that the fbi never told the white house that flynn was under investigation and how could trump obstruct justice when he didn't know flynn was under investigation? they say that the white house had every impression baesed on what flynn told him he would be cleared? they write there could not have been intent to obstruct an investigation that had been neither confirmed for deny. ed. they had to assume that that investigation was not ongoing they say the letter at dresses more and it has to do with the crafting regards the donald trump jr. meeting. the response here looking into that meeting and crafting of the statements when it was revealed that this meeting took place they say that this is a private matter and the letter goes onto say that special council resooeed all of the notes, communications indicating that the president dictated a short but acc

flynn lied and it's like they ruined his life.r. >> i've always found paul manafort to be a very decent man. i don't know. i thought that was a very pretty tough stuff. >> mr. president. >> to wake him up, perhaps his family was there. i think that's tough stuff. >> my goal would represent me and represent me on some things. he represents me like with this crazy stormy daniels deal. he represented me and you know, from what i see, he did absolutely nothing wronging. > former trump political adviser roger stone told "the washington post" that trump's recent pardons have to be a signal to mike flynn and paul manafort and robert mueller, indict people for crimes that don't pertain to russian collusion and this could happen. the special counsel has awesome powers, this is stone talking. but the president has even more awesome paurpz he's bragging how the president can pardon everybody. tim mac from npr, ginger gibson and jonathan lemire from the "associated press." jonathan, it seems to me he's out there showing his stuff. those are p

the president himself said michael flynn lied, that's why he fired him. the ig report was of course not about that. it's -- what do you do? >> you have to be a tax on mist of falses. he has been trafficking in a substance that's identical to my initials. >> your name again is bret stephens. >> right. >> i wanted to clarify. >> i mean, this is a world sort of -- the gray world between clear truths and unmistakable lies. and there's always a question also about the president's state of mind because he says stuff and then often doesn't seem to remember what he had said the day, the hour, the minute before. i still think that you have to horadicting information has pre >> it's funny you say this about the mental capacity. andrew sullivan went there. if someone behaved like this, if someone kept initialing that the sea was red and the sky was green i would assume they were a few sandwiches short of a picnic. it's vital to remember this every day, almost no one else in public life is no openly living in his own world. >> what do you want me to do? that's like -

flynn has been cooperating with the investigation after pleading guilty.he news that prosecutors are not yet ready to set a sentencing hearing suggests that flynn may still be in the process of cooperating with investigators. your response, jackie? >> my gosh, i would imagine they are nervous over at the white house and they hear he is still talking. and it doesn't seem like he's been reached out to lately. >> you are the lawyer at the table. so give us a -- >> i play one on the show. >> but what -- stepping aside from your defender of trump and your republican hat, what might that mean? >> there is more there. this is a guy who has been -- he's the first guy in the cue. the first guy that the department of justice talked to. it means there is something new they've uncovered that he could offer some insight on and that is -- that can't be good, right? you think they've asked him everything possible under the sun and they keep turning over rocks and find something new and so he's participating. so i don't think it is great. whatever it is. but i thought he

about whether trump asked comey to end the investigation into flynn in a one-on-one encounter in the oval office, questions about sessions and sessions' recusal and how the president deathlt with that information. i found interesting is that the president's lawyer take on the lester holt interview. they say clips of the lester holt interview, the interview that the president gave to lester holt in which the president talks about russia was on his mind when he fired comey. they say that has been taken out of context and that the president was not saying what people believed he was, and he was saying he knew there was nothing to the russia investigation and that he could fire comey because it wouldn't impact the investigation because there was nothing to be found. it's an acknowledgement by the president's lawyer of the problematic nature of that interview and how mueller sees the president's statements there as an indication of what his true motivations were for firing comey. the other thing that's interesting in the letter is about how the white house dealt with mike flan, the nation

flynn has pled guilty to lying, america. my gosh. >> kimberly: based on fraudulent information in the compromised investigation. see what happens without. >> jesse: juan, you usually defend people who plead guilty. troubling trend for nancy pelosi. how concerned should she be? find out next. if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, or psoriatic arthritis, little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats differently. for psoriasis, 75% clearer skin is achievable with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. and for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. tell your doctor if these occur. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal t

contreras who heard mike flynn's case and recused himself after flynn pled guilty. kind of interesting. why would they redact that? there's not an ongoing investigation, for goodness sakes, flynn pled guilty. why redact that? because it was embarrassing to the f.b.i. they tried to hide the fact andy mckay spent $70,000 of your tax money buying a table at the f.b.i. when you catch them redacting things and they haven't complied with subpoenas sent by congress and most importantly, when they took the dossier to the fisa court and didn't tell the court two important facts, who paid for it, democrat national committee, and the fact the guy who wrote it, christopher steal, was fired by the f.b.i. because he was leaking information. a cardinal rule, when you work with the f.b.i. you don't tell the press you're working with the f.b.i. and information you're collecting for the f.b.i. and he did that and yet they used his work product to secure a warrant to spy on a fellow -- make sense to me and is not consistent with the history. remember this, too, five of the top people

i'm under routine audit. >> general flynn is a wonderful man. i think he's been treated very, very unfairly. sheriff joe was very unfairly treated. they are holding up every single nomination. what they're doing is unfair. >> now in prison for his seventh year, disgraced illinois governor, rod blagojevich no longer has that thick brown hair but what he does have that's been eluding him for some time is hope. that is what his wife said president trump gave him and his family when he announced he was considering commuting the rest of his 14-year sentence. patty blagojevich said she gets how this russia feepresident fe the whole russia investigation. >> i see the same people that did this to my family, the same people that secretly taped us and twisted the facts and perverted the law that ended up my husband in jail, you know, these same people are trying to do the same thing that they did to my husband, just on a much larger scale. >> with me now is rod blagojevich's brother, robert blagojevich, a co-defendant in the ex-governor's first trial. he

and mike flynn actually took it very well, very gracefully.a wonderful retirement ceremony for him area and in the summer of2014 . and i have lost contact with him, i think my observation is from afar that i think that early departure eight him and he became an angry man. and he began advising several of the republican candidates and find connected with mister trump. and yes, he became very outspoken, very indoctri very ideological. and this raises a whole concern. you mention other names, john brennan, myself about our speaking out. whatever our views are. and that is, that in itself is controversial. i acknowledge that. it's certainly not a role that i anticipated when i retired from the military and never would have thought i think under different circumstances. i started this to try to defend the community, that's all i had in my and it people into another role. >> not one i planned on or desired. >> but i felt, excuse me. i felt after 50 years or so, or more of defending the institutions and values of this country that i sort of felt like

next, to his former national security adviser, michael flynn. >> i feel badly for general flynn.s lost his house. he's lost his life. and some people say he lied, and some people say he didn't lie. i mean, really, it turned out maybe he didn't lie. >> flynn pleaded guilty of lying to the fbi. and president trump said so himself in a tweet from the president. i had to fire general flynn, because he lied. to the vice president and the fbi. and lastly, on immigration, and this administration's policy separating children from parents at the border. here was the president this morning. >> the children -- the children can be taken care of quickly, beautifully and immediately. the democrats forced that law upon our nation. i hate it. i hate to see separation of parents and children. >> on the "that law," fact: there is no federal law on the books requiring family separation. factcheck.org states instead it is the administration's decision to criminally prosecute all immigrants who cross the border that will cause children to be separated from their parents. ed lavandera is in mission, t

and flynn and -- if they were all pardoned, mueller would still be prosecuting this case against all these russians. this conspiracy case. as part of this case alone mueller and his team can pursue everybody who might have been involved in this alleged criminal conspiracy. which means even if they're all officially pardoned they can all end up named as co-conspirators in any superseding indictments or any court proceedings that derive from this case, up to and including the president himself. the only way the president could avoid that, the only way the president could avoid having mueller continue to investigate, having the whole criminal conspiracy laid out for the american people is if in addition to pardoning don jr., paul manafort, carter page, george papadopoulos, jared, mike flynn, himself, if in addition to all of those pardons, the real way he could only make this go away through his pardon power is that he would also have to pardon all of the russians in this indictment. he would also have to pardon alexandra and anna and sergei and evgeni and irina and vladim vladimir. oth

he asked comey forget this thing on flynn. that's potentially obstruction of justice. >> coming up the federal government said approximately 11,000 immigrant children have been separated from their parents. a debate with jorge ramos just ahead. coppertone sport. proven to protect street skaters and freestylers. stops up to 97% uv. lasts through heat. through sweat. coppertone. proven to protect. you finished preparing overhim for college.rs, in 24 hours, you'll send him off thinking you've done everything for his well-being. but meningitis b progresses quickly and can be fatal, sometimes within 24 hours. while meningitis b is uncommon, about 1 in 10 infected will die. like millions of others, your teen may not be vaccinated against meningitis b. meningitis b strikes quickly. be quick to talk to your teen's doctor about a meningitis b vaccine. i'm a small business, but i have... big dreams... and big plans. so how do i make the efforts of 8 employees... feel like 50? how can i share new plans virtually? how can i download an e-

give polygraphs. >> sean: look at their own office. >> like mike flynn.ind out who was leaking inside of the doj or inside of the f.b.i. or inside of the administration. as to the classified he cans. >> sean: we are just putting it together. ""new york times" times, even their own leadership is commenting on this. they will realize that sean hannity may have been right, and greg jarret and sarah carter. we pointed out lying to fisa court abuse and omissions by lying to the judges. and hillary clinton's crime and dual justice system for this country and fixing investigations and everything else associated with this. that has been our point, the entire time crum congressman how do we get to the bottom of this now. >> they fight tooth and nail to show american people the activities. rosenstein even last night was refusing to turn over the documents. they are saying this is what we want the f.b.i. to do. if that is the case, show the documents to the american people and congress. and see how good you did. the fact they are not doing that. that tells me there

next, to his former national security adviser, michael flynn. >> i feel badly for general flynn.st his house, he's lost his life. and some people say he lied, and some people say he didn't lie. i mean, really, it turned out maybe he didn't lie. >> uh, flynn pleaded guilty of lying to the fbi, and president trump himself in a tweet said, i had to fire general flynn because he lied to the vice president and to the fbi. lastly on immigration here, and this administration's policy that is ripping children from their parents at the border. here, once again, is the president. >> the children -- the children can be taken care of quickly, beautifully and immediately. the democrats forced that law upon our nation. i hate it. i hate to see separation of parents and children. >> fact. there is no federal law on the books requiring family separation as fact check.org states, quoting them. instead, it is this administration's decision to criminally prosecute all immigrants who cross the border illegally that will cause children to be celebratseparate their parents. we are also on that final p

it has to be a signal to mike flynn and paul manafort and even robert mueller, indict people for crimeshat don't pertain to russian collusion and that is what could happen. so are you saying, is the president saying, is rudy giuliani saying he can pardon anybody he wants including people that are swept up in the special counsel's investigation? >> corey: the constitution is very clear in the power of the president as defined by the constitution allows them to pardon anybody he wants for federal crimes and no one is talking about the pardon of the heavyweight boxing champion jack johnson that he pardoned, something the obama administration had the opportunity to do and others but chose not to. so people want to make this a political issue. pardon was a one-off but this president has pardoned i think 0.7% of the applicants in front of him, which is a far lower number than any previous president at this point and is he going to pardon like you did? of course not. the president back then who had crimes committed against our government that were convicted and they were pardoned for -- >> chr

and from mike flynn, who had worked on the campaign and been national security adviser. all knowable if not googlable people involved directly in the trump campaign. but then after mueller got this letter from trump's lawyers in january, what's the next thing mueller did? he indicted mikhail bystrov, mikhail burchik, aleksandra krylova, sergey polozov, maria bovda, robert bovda, dzheykhun ogly, vadim podkopaev, gleb vasilchenko, irina kaverzina, vladimir venkov, yevgeny prigozhin, the internet research agency, concord management, concord catering. who the heck are those people? 13 individual and three corporate defendants all in russia. all indicted by robert mueller. and it was a surprise at the time, in february. in some ways it still feels surprising. i mean, immediately there were two big reactions, right? one is, wow, this is a sweeping indictment. it's what they call a speaking indictment. look at how this lays out what russia did in terms of interfering with our election. indictment was this great piece of storytelling in terms of this crime that had allegedly bee

he tweeted that he fired flynn because he lied. he lied to the vice president and flynn himself pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi. >> -- a democrat bill. that's democrats wachnting to d that. i hate the children being taken away. the democrats have to change that law. the democrats forced that law upon our nation. i hate it. >> but there is no law that says families have to be separated at the border. >> the democrats gave us the laws. >> it is not democratic law. it is a policy put in place by the current administration. it was introduced in a speech by president trump's own attorney general. the democrats are the minority party. republicans -- republicans -- control the house, the senate and the white house. >> president obama lost -- pardon me, just so you understand. president obama lost crimea. it's his fault. yeah, yeah, it's his fault. because putin didn't respect president obama. >> russia annexed crimea in 2014. president obama did not "lose it." russia took it by force. a reminder, that is why the g8 became the g7. and t

this is before the flynn guilty plea, i believe. i think when you put all of that together, it's pretty clear what's going on. this is not the first time when there has been a controversial pardon. bill clinton did it at the very end of his term on his way out. trump is doing it all sort of in plain sight as it goes, but this is not what the pardon power is supposed to be there for. it is supposed to be about sort of a lifting of a -- undoing a wrong. this is him undoing, i think in his mind, a wrong to him. >> we had john lockhart on and one of his points was there's also a process for this. there's a protocol and a process. you work with the department of justice. president trump isn't doing that. >> no, he's winging it, as we've seen him wing many things. as kaitlan says, his staff is often surprised. the dinesh tweet landed as we were taking off for texas yesterday and there was a fair amount of surprise about it but this is going around the normal process, which we've seen him do repeatedly. there could be lasting implications

last year he said "i had to fire flynn because he lied." and about separating migrant children from their parents -- >> i hate the children being taken away. the democrats have to change the law. that's their law. i said it before and i'll say it again and again and again. separating migrant families is actually a policy of the trump administration, a huge part of jeff session's zero tolerance of illegal immigration. jeff, let me start with you. let me get your broad sense of what happened yesterday on the white house law, what that says about what the president is thinking and what he's p prioritizing policy-wise at this point in time. >> we've always seen the president -- it appears maybe strategy is too strong of a word, he does it because he knows the american public, by and large, isn't as keyed in in all of these details, the ins and the outs. we've seen the president make these statements that are easily disprovable from the very start. his core base of reposupporters haven't -- this is something that works for the president, even if

like pressure the comey to stop investigating flynn or fire comey other these other things. even though that particular moment was between the public and "new york times" annd the president is could be evidence of other things. the other thing relevant is one of the articles of impeachment against richard nixon talked about, as one of the items against him, lying to the public and trying to mislead the public about whether there was anything there to the watergate investigation. even if it's not a crime in terms of federal statutes and what you could be prosecuted for in court, lying to the public about -- there is precedent in american history for lies in an investigation like this to be part of what was the bill of particulars in an impeachment proceeding. >> stand by. as always great reporting. if you don't mind, two or three minutes. we're going to bring in the legal panel. all going to join charlie savage, as well as we are in this breaking news cycle right now. a revealing 20-page memo coming from the trump legal team. we're going to dig deeper. stick around. (vo) what

. >> the president asked james comey to stop investigating michael flynn. what do you think benefits more by this letter now becoming public? >> i think the trump team would believe that having this leak now is a benefit to them. it gives the president a chance to accuse the special counsel or people associated with him of trying to leak this to damage the president. we saw the president complain about this earlier today on twitter. i think if we get to the end of the line here and the special counsel issues a report and some of these revelations are a part of it, we've long since raked this over the coals and it's old news and doesn't have the same punch as whatever the special counsel's report is going to say at that time. >> you're saying this actually benefits the president? >> i'm saying it could benefit the president. i would speculate, but i feel very good about the speculation, that the president's team is not unhappy about this leak. you have to ask yourself who is in a position to leak this. clearly the special counsel's team is because they have