after all, the mike flynn case is still open. flynn still hasn't been sentenced. it could pertain to anybody else from trump land, right? but the criminal cases adjacent to this president and his campaign and the various trump presidential scandals, all these criminal cases, so many of them are still live and underway. and don't forget all of these federal case are under the auspices of the department of justice run by barr and that's a weird and concerning dynamic because the prosecutors who have brought all of these cases against manafort and against gates and against flynn and papadopoulos and stone and all the russian military intelligence officers and constantine kilimnik and the guy who ran the russian troll farm for the kremlin, all of these federal cases that have been brought by prosecutors that are along side or abutting trump and his presidential scandals, all the prosecutors who brought all of those cases are working under the auspices of bill barr. and bill barr appears now day by day to increasingly be at war with the justice department that he is le

against flynn or donald trump. whatever else they thought this would give him. you might imagine the judge today having the opportunity to see this report might be annoyed. the inspector general report out today does discuss the fbi opening their investigation into mike flynn and they conclude that it was no problem. ig took a hard look at it t seems pretty kosher, definitely nothing wrong with the mike flynn investigation. this is what's in the inspector general report on flynn. quote, the initial investigative objective of cross fire hurricane, the russia investigation, was to determine which individuals associated with the trump campaign may have been in a position to have received the alleged offer of assistance from russia. after conducting preliminary open source and fbi database inquiries intelligence analysts on the cross fire hurricane team identified three individuals, carter page, paul manafort and michael flynn associated with the trump campaign with either ties to russia or a history of travel to russi

flynn's brief."nd the judge goes on to explain that the ethical concerns with flynn's brief is that his lawyer copied stuff from a supreme court ruling, which is the kind of thing a judge might notice. i mean, copy stuff from wikipedia, right? maybe the judge won't have -- supreme court ruling, the judge might -- and so now mike flynn has had his scheduling sentenced again. it's not going to be wednesday while the president is going to be impeached. his sentencing is going to be next month, toward the end of january. the only real drama now left in the flynn case is whether there's going to be some sort of ethics finding against his lawyer. but also the question of whether prosecutors might actually revise their earlier request to the judge that he go easy on flynn. initially prosecutors said flynn should get credit for earlier cooperation. now that flynn has switched his legal defense to somebody he found on fox news, now that he's no longer cooperating and, in fact, is trying to use this case to un

flynn said he didn't lie?i have to tell you, i don't understand this. it's very interesting to me. up until now justice has been pushing to get this sentencing done. now they want it delayed. i would hope that they finally understand that the abuse, the fbi abuse that doj i.g. uncovered may have affected this case. there is an outstanding motion by flynn's lawyers asking the justice department to turn over brady material that is potentially exculpatory term they have not yet done. the journal has not ruled on that yet. it would be premature to have a sentencing without all that information and evidence being released. gregg: much of the trump russia investigation was based on the forney steele dossier that was debunked by the attorney general. rachel maddow was slammed for inflating the dossier as true. he said she engaged in a pattern of dishonest asymmetry. she was rooting for the document to be true and it wasn't. why would anybody in their right mind ever listen to rachel maddow now? >> i don't know. she h

flynn, harriet met a black man and fell in love. when dr. flynn found out, harriet's circumstances became worse. >> harriet, you will never get away from my grasp. you are mine and if i see him on my property, i will shoot him dead. after all i have done for you, you ungrateful wench, be one. >> i can't believe master just hit me. he has never done this before. he keeps harassing me hour after hour, day after day, year after year. he harasses me and is hunting for my innocence and he won't stop. there have been so many restless nights when i have been thinking about what he can do to me next and sometimes i just want to end it all. i mustn't lose hope. there is mr. sawyer and he has been very compassionate towards me. he could be my ticket to freedom. >> within a few months of meeting with mr. sawyer, harriet discovered her plan had worked and she became pregnant with their first child. her grandmother never tolerated this behavior and was so appalled by harriet's decisions, she then banished harriet from ever coming back to her house. >> i

flynn said he didn't lie?ell you, i don't understand this. it's very interesting to me. up until now justice has been pushing to get this sentencing done. now they want it delayed. i would hope that they finally understand that the abuse, the fbi abuse that doj i.g. uncovered may have affected this case. there is an outstanding motion by flynn's lawyers asking the justice department to turn over brady material that is potentially exculpatory term they have not yet done. the journal has not ruled on that yet. it would be premature to have a sentencing without all that information and evidence being released. gregg: much of the trump russia investigation was based on the forney steele dossier that was debunked by the attorney general. rachel maddow was slammed for inflating the dossier as true. he said she engaged in a pattern of dishonest asymmetry. she was rooting for the document to be true and it wasn't. why would anybody in their right mind ever listen to rachel maddow now? >> i don't know. she hasn't done

flynn said he didn't lie?well i have to tell you, about i don't understand this, and it is very interesting to me up until now justice has been pushing to get this sentencing done as soon as possible. now all of a sudden they wanted delayed. if i would hope that is an indication they finally understand that the abuse, the fbi abuse that the dojig uncovered may have affected this case plus as you know, there's an outstanding motion by flynn's lawyers. asking the justice department to turn over brady material that's potentially exculpatory material and judge hasn't ruled on that yet. it would be premature at this point to have a sentencing without off that information and evidence released. >> much the of the trump investigation turned out to be a hoax was based on the the christopher steele phony dossier recently debudgetted by inspector general. eric who is media critic at the washington post had a column absolutely slamming msnbc rachel for inflating the value of the dossier is true. he said she fen gauged in

edited the email and used flynn's son against him to make this plea.hat's going on here? >> yes, jesse. it's a very sordid story. the flynn case evidences the very worst of our justice system and how much power the department of justice has, especially a special possible possibleo -- a special prosecutor. we are in the process and have done extensive briefing exposing the truth of what happened here. i hope to find more from the the inspector general's report and we are waiting for the judge to issue an order compelling the government to produce more evidence. they have not given us the documents including a january 30 memo from 2017 that exonerates general flynn from russia collusion involvement. jesse: and you are not on waiting for this i.g. report to drop. you are also waiting for the government to hand over blackberries by joseph mifsud. do you expect to get those devices? >> i don't necessarily need the devices but we asked for the data from them. we think that might indicate what mr. mifsud's role was in all of this and who it was being run by a

what do you make about this ruling against michael flynn?ael flynn may have had this defense and it may have been effective but the time to assert it was many, many months ago when the case first started. michael flynn was an exemplary cooperating witness, charged, rushed into court, pleaded guilty, cooperated, and that is the path that a cooperating witness takes, or a defendant takes, that puts him in the best position to get the lowest sentence and the prosecutors behind that lowest sentence. what you have with michael flynn now is essentially at the 11th hour, he has changed his attorneys and changed his entire theory of the case. and now, he is arguing, hey, i should get this discovery, shy get these documents, i should be able to look into whether or not i was railroaded into this plea agreement. the time to have made that argument was many months ago. even though the inspector general's report just came out, a lot of this information was known to michael flynn way back when he pleaded guilty. and the way the system works is that once

flynn. >> so mr. flynn was clearly the target. >> he was the three people there from the trump campaign from the only one of the three about whom who was a subject of the fbi investigation. >> he was not told that he was under investigation or the ajget was there hoping to bait him or providing krcriminology -- >> he certainly was not told it is a duo purpose investigation. >> you pointed out this will never happen again, is that what you said? >> that's correct. >> are you familiar with the fact that director comey had a meeting with president trump january 2017 to talk to him about the steele dossier. >> i am and we referenced that of the report of him handling the memos. >> why do we believe director comey so-called defensive briefing of the president, was there anything more than in an attempt to abate the president and be useful to the fbi and counter intelligence and some future investigation. >> as mentioned earlier, one of the concerns doing that here is that it leaves open the possibility tha

former federal prosecutor, sydney powell, michael flynn's attorney.digging into the footnotes finding more information how early a democrat funded opposition research group behind the anti-trump steele dossier was trying to directly feed information about trump campaign officials in to the fbi probe of the trump campaign. think every, think really, really early. this story next. (thud) (crash) (grunting) (whistle) play it cool and escape heartburn fast with tums chewy bites cooling sensation. ♪ tum tu-tu-tum tums this is the epson no more buying cartridges.. big ink tanks. lots of ink. print about... this many pages. the epson ecotank. just fill and chill. (classical music playing throughout) what are you doing back there, junior? since we're obviously lost, i'm rescheduling my xfinity customer service appointment. ah, relax. i got this. which gps are you using anyway? a little something called instinct. been using it for years. yeah, that's what i'm afraid of. he knows exactly where we're going. my whole body is a compass. oh boy... the my account ap

michael flynn, roger stone. the possibility there of an election year, unless it came in the next two days or so, it would be an election year pardon if trump were to do that in the immediate future. what do you think of the prospects of that? >> i hope that i'm right in saying that the prospects are slim. i fear that i'm wrong. there's no hoax. michael flynn under oath pled guilty in a federal court and roger stone was convicted unanimously by a jury of his peers. that's not a hoax. that's justice. the president, however, has an unbridled authority to pardon whoever he wants for federal crimes pursuant to article ii of the u.s. constitution. again, it can't be for a corrupt purpose. if it turns out that he's doing it for something in return, the pardon would probably still stand. i hope he doesn't grant it to either of these two gentlemen. but if it's for a corrupt purpose, it could lead to trouble for the president down the road. just as if the former kentucky governor was granting pardons in return for someth

flynn. >> so mr. flynn was clearly the target. >> he was certainly of the three people there and from the trump campaign the only one of the three about home was the subject of an fbi investigation at the time. >> and he wasn't told that he was under investigation or that the agent was there, hoping to bait him into providing increments or information, and the agent can provide him any declaration or admonishment of his miranda rights, correct? >> he certainly wasn't told there was a dual purpose. >> while he pointed out, this will never happen again. is that correct? >> that's correct. >> so let me ask you. are you familiar with the fact that director comey had a meeting with president trump in january of 2017 to talk to him about the steele dossier? >> i am and we actually referenced out in a report about his preparation and handling of the memos that came out of that meeting. >> why should we believe that director comey's so-called defensive briefing, if you want to call it that, of the president i

lou: where are we with general flynn?ou have represented him aggressively and effectively, and still the judge does not move. the justice department does not move. we know he was spied upon and that spying was outright illegal. where do you go next. >> right now we are waiting for judge sullivan to decide our motion to require the government to produce exculpatory evidence. given what the inspector general found that is damning for the fbi, they withheld exculpatory evidence from the fisa court and lied to the fisa court. there is a real problem with the doj and fbi making up crimes and falsifying documents. they falsified a 302 interview report and changed that at the last minute. lou: what does judge sullivan say to you? doesn't judge sullivan want to say this looks and smells like a real corrupt mess? let's get to it now? why isn't somebody doing something? i am sick and tired of hearing about judges sitting around waiting for things to wash over them. i am sick and tired of the justice department and its corrupt agenc

matt flynn is in michigan with more. nat? reporter: president trump supporters fiercely protested, even heckled congressman slotkin at a rowdy town hall she announced she will be voting yes to impeach the president. representative slotkin joins a list of 20 other democrats in trump districts that say they will vote yes to impeach president trump. this fiery town hall of 400 people here in michigan, supporters of the president and democratic congresswoman repeatedly clashed. 9 congresswoman will vote yes for impeachment out of principle because she feels the president used power of for personal, political gain, not to benefit the country. relationship slot skin says she understands on her yes vote on impeachment she could be vote the out of office in 2020. >> and i did not think that, you know, that events or actions of that time were worth of, worthy of an impeachment inquiry. that changed for me on the very basic facts that the president

he got hit very hard as did general flynn as did a lot of other people.y got hit very, very hard and now they're finding out it was all a big hoax. >> it was a big hoax. we already know president trump has demonstrated a willingness to use his pardon power on unorthodox recipients. joe arpaio anyone? is this a sign he's willing to do it again? joining us now voice vance. what a pleasure to see you again. thank you for joining us. >> good to be with you. >> is there anything you're looking for in the coming weeks as a sign the president may be getting ready to pardon either roger stone or mike flynn, both of whom are awaiting sentencing? >> you know, he has the legal ability to pardon them but i think what we're looking at here is more of a political question. typically presidents issue pardons late in their term often on the last day to avoidby political fall out and these pardons would potentially be so explosive i think we'll see them in the last week or last day of a trump term whatever that might be if he does go ahead with the pardons. >> trump's dep

liz: matt flynn, thank you so much. both sides fired up.gan, at the president's rally. next up, president trump his supporters are saying he is getting things done. we'll show you the latest coming up. ( ♪ ) at chevy, we're all about bringing families together. this time of year, that's really important. so we're making it easier than ever to become part of our family. that's why our chevy employee discount is now available to everyone. the chevy price you pay is what we pay. not a cent more. family is important to us. and we want you to be part of ours. so happy holidays. and welcome to the family. all: the chevy family! get the chevy employee discount for everyone today. ♪. liz: look at this new headline from the week magazine. quote, democrats are sleep walking into a biden disaster. let's get back to the trump rally. trump 2020 campaign communications director tim murtagh joins me there in battle creek, michigan. what is the reaction there to the impeachment vote today? democrats gunning to impeach trump before he was inaugurated. that

injustice for michael flynn, the appointed judge collected all evidence that could prove wrongdoing byical dems in the deep state, the fbi and the justice department flynn scheduled to be sentenced on january 28, we will see what happens. u.s. trade representative robert lighthizer met with mexico foreign affairs undersecretary to clarify language in historic usmca ideal and lighthizer says new labor inspections would be performed by independent panelist not inspectors from the labor department, the house inspected to vote on usmca thursday. that is moving right ahead. joining us tonight is u.s. commerce secretary wilbur ross, the man moving a very large agenda ahead and great to see you. let's start with trade, these are extraordinary developments, as usmca, phase one trade deal between china and the united states, anyone of them would be a big deal. this is historic stuff. >> it is fundamentally reshaping the nature of trade among all countries in the world. because it is not just usmc or as you say that would be huge in itself itself, not just the china deal but also the the deal wi

tomorrow night we'll be talking with michael flynn's attorney, sidney powell.eminder to follow me on facebook and instagram. good lauren: it is 5:00 a.m. here are your top stories at this hour. a big day in washington as the justice department's watchdog report on fisa abuse is drawing different reactions but it's not slowing down democrats who the in hours are expected to unveil two articles of impeachment against president trump. cheryl: today u.s. and canadian officials descend on mexico to finalize the usmca trade deal as a top trump official says the december 15th

we got a tip that michael flynn, the retired army general had given the unpublished interview with ananistan. and you have to remember back in august of 2016 michael flynn was becoming well known, maybe even notorious for his support of then candidate trump. and his dislike of hillary clinton. but when he was in the military c flynn was known as a pretty straight shooter and someone who wasn't afraid to criticize how things were going within the ranks. so we were curious what he said in the interview. and we put in a public records request under the freedom for information act. we thought we'd get our hands on this soon. the long and short of it is it turned into a three year legal battle. >> it's interesting it starts with a single tip about a single interview. and then snowballs. you never know when a single tip is going to lead you to something. >> and this one we didn't know, because we were just pulling on the string. and we kept pulling, but it was hard. and once we got the flynn interview, he was really forthright and blistering in his criticism about how it was portrayed to th

tomorrow night we'll be talking with michael flynn's attorney, sidney powell. night from new york. >> we learned our fbi relied entirely on a "national enquirer" style dossier to spy on an innocent american in the trump campaign. the real headline buried in this horowitz report that the main real media does not want to talk about. john durham and attorney general william barr must follow up on. the main real media is touting horowitz' finding there was

go, that the fbi should ease up on their investigation into flynn. the fbi by that point was not only pursuing that case against mike flynn, they were also pursuing a counter intelligence and criminal investigation into russia interfering in the 2016 presidential election and that crucial question of whether russia had any help from the american side when they did that. in the context of that ongoing investigation by the fbi, president trump by that point had repeatedly pressured fbi director james comey to promise him loyalty, and comey would not do that. he demurred from that. he took careful note of all his interacti interactions with the president, but he told the president he wasn't going to be loyal to him not in the way the president wanted. the president then fired fbi director james comey. that ultimately would lead to robert mueller being appointed to special counsel and all the rest of it. but it is still amazing that the very day after trump fired fbi director james comey, the day after firing comey that's the day he brought that guy, rus

you will notice right around flynn drive, also flynn road. just very spotty, very light. i would hang on to the umbrellas because you're going to run into wet roadways. as you step out of your car, you'll need them. wider perspective, the moist flow continuing and that's keeping the showers and drizzle around. very spotty in nature like i said. but this system is really kicking up the surf. high surf advisory. 13 foot waves now. the northwest swell 12 to 14. breakers 16 to 22 feet possible. and that means rip current risk is high. i'll be back with hour by hour timeline of the next round of rain. >> thank you so much. of course all this rain is adding up. take a look at the maps from the u.s. drought monitor. on the left showing the state last week, 85% abnormally dry. on this right, this week, only 4% now abnormally dry. how did we get here? the rainy season started in october. we had just two days of rain. in november we had five days in a row. now in december, so far only one day without rain. >> well, happening now, democratic presidential candidate joe biden is in th

. >> early december 2016 one of those choices, new national security adviser michael flynn, met withp's son-in-law jared kushner at trump tower. they later exchange texts and phone calls amid the obama administration decisions to impose sanction and russia in retaliation for hacking the dnc. donald trump raised vladimir putin's decision to not retaliate tweeting i always knew he was very smart. at the beginning of 2017 in intelligence report the director of national intelligence stated vladimir putin ordered and influence campaign aimed at the us presidential election with the intent to help president-elect trump's election chances. >> if there's any evidence anyone affiliated with the trump campaign communicated with the russian government in the course of this campaign what will you do? >> i'm not aware of any of those activities. >> any contact between the campaign, this is ali distraction and part of a narrative to delegitimize the election and question the legitimacy of this president. >> reporter: the white house announced flynn's resignation, the related conversations with the

. >> george papadopoulos, michael flynn. >> laura: mena forte, paul manafort. >> paul manafort. and the allegations, the russians trying to make and roads into the presidential campaign and normally would have led to a defense briefing of the higher officials in the trump campaign so they could be on their guard. they deliberately chose not to do that because they were trying to entrap the campaign. and the notion that this ig report exonerates -- well we were a little afraid someone might release information. yeah that is utter nonsense. this is spying on the opposition political campaign. and mccabe, i'm sorry if you think that is calling it as it is but it is calling it is as it is. you spent on the political campaign and you want to be in jail for it. this is a travesty. the worst scandal in american history. in this report here is a white wash of it but full of detail that a real prosecutor up in connecticut is going to be able to have a heyday with. >> laura: you know, this is something i didn't hear anybody discussed today. byron, i didn't realize this before, that peter

let's not forget about attorney general michael flynn and what he did to a 33 year veteran.s part of comey's deceitful investigation, what did he do? he brags, first to andrew mccabe, no you don't need a lawyer. but he brags, james comey breads and sets up an american war hero. i would never do this or try this and the bush or obama years. i wouldn't ever do that, watch this. >> you look at this white house now and it is hard to imagine the fbi agents but how did that happen? >> i sent them. [laughter] something i probably wouldn't have done or maybe have gotten away with in a more organized investigation, a more organized administration and the george w. bush administration, for example or obama administration. both of those administrations there was process so the fbi wanted to send agents into the white house itself to interview senior official, you would work through the white house counsel. there would be discussions, approvals, and it would be there. and i thought early enough, lit sent a couple of guys over. >> sean: oak my wouldn't do these in these other administrat

flynn which did in fact occur later. >> so mr. flynn was currently the target? >> he was certainly of the three people there from the trump, for the trump campaign, the only one of the three that about whom, who was a subject of the fbi investigation at the time. >> and he wasn't told that he was under investigation or that the agent was there hoping to bait him into providing incriminatory information or, and the agent did not provide him any declaration or admonishment of his miranda right, correct? >> he was not told that there is a dual purpose to the briefing. >> well, looks to me like director wray was so concerned about this that he as you have pointed out said that this is never going to happen again. is that what you said. >> yes, that is correct. >> so let me ask you, mr. horowitz, are you familiar with the fact that director comey had a meeting with president trump in january of 2017 to talk to him about the steele dossier? >> i am and we actually reference that in the report about his preparation and handling of the memos that came out of that meetin

and what it was like to meet with her successor, michael flynn. you're watching "hardball." flynn.rdball. so the whole world looks different. the unbeatable strength and speed of advil liqui-gels. what pain? take dayquil severe with vicks vapocool.d, (acapella) whoa! (vo) and vaporize it with an intense rush of vicks vapors. (acapella) ahhhhhhhhhhh! (vo) dayquil severe with vicks vapocool. the daytime coughing, stuffy head, vaporize your cold, medicine. >>> welcome back to "hardball." and her new book "tough love my story of the things worth fighting for" former national security advisor to president obama susan rice writes about how she recognized the very real prospect of a trump presidency back in august 2015. quote, during a small dinner with president obama and a couple of senior political aides i said i could see a way for trump to gain the nomination. i persisted saying, quote, there's a lot of hate out there. you know, some people can't get over where we are now. i was not suggesting trump couldn't be president but i didn't think the nomination was out of reach. i sat down

and what they did to general flynn is very unfair in my opinion. and what they did tests of many others is very unfair. and that we found out there bunch of dirty cops. , they did a phony dossier, these the dossier for pfizer and now you know, the pfizer court and your top judge involved and hopefully they're going to do something about it, these were dirty people, bad people. these were people people. and i hope that someday it is going to be one of my greatest achievements getting rid of them. because we have no place in our country for people like that. >> sir, what did president put in say to you that convinced you that ukraine interfered in the 2016 election? >> what he say to me come about what? who are you referring to, me? i never said a thing about it. i never said anything about it. speaker pelosi will hold up the articles of impeachment indefinitely? >> all i knows my poll numbers are the highest they've ever been and our fundraising other public and part is the highest it has ever been. she hates all of the republican party and she hate

i am shocked at general flynn's decision.hout a doubt, comey played a central role and what what is the weaponization of these most powerful tools that we entrust to our government. they turned them against we come of the people. and he didn't act alone. let's see what former cia director john brennan, another notorious liar, let's see what role he has played in all of this. i can't wait to get to the bottom of that. according to multiple sources, he strongly advocated for hillary clinton's bought and paid for dirty dossier to be included in the official u.s. intel assessment. time will tell. the inspector general horowitz confirmed this fact in his report because a 2017, we do know this. john brennan clearly lied to congress when he said the exact opposite. take a look. >> do you know if the bureau ever relied on the steele dossier as part of any court filings, applications competitions, pleadings? >> i have no awareness. >> to the cia rely on it? >> no. >> why not? >> because we didn't. it wasn't part of the corpus of intel

the judge rejected several requests by flynn and his legal team to compel more evidence. saying the evidence has already been provided or isn't relevant. coming up next, after the obama care website crashed on the final day of open enrollment, there is some relief for some people locked out of signing up or updating their coverage plans. >>> plus, the hallmark channel apologizes for pulling ads showing a lesbian couple kissing following a flood of pressure by viewers and advertisers to boycott the channel. you are watching msnbc. tching mc when you shop with wayfair, you spend less and get way more. so you can bring your vision to life and save in more ways than one. for small prices, you can build big dreams, spend less, get way more. shop everything home at wayfair.com cologuard: colon cancer and older at average risk. i've heard a lot of excuses to avoid screening for colon cancer. i'm not worried. it doesn't run in my family. i can do it next year. no rush. cologuard is the noninvasive option that finds 92% of colon cancers. you just get the kit in the mail, go to the