mike flynn did have a very distinguished military career including long deployments overseas. his time in washington thereafter was the opposite of distinguished. in 2014 general flynn was fired at the defense intelligence agency after what was widely considered to be a disastrous tenure there. before the trump campaign officially brought him on board in 2015 there was inexplicable but widely publicized appearance in moscow where he sat next to vladimir putin and led the standing ovation for the russian president. by the time mike flynn had come on board the trump campaign investigative reporters were already at the republican national convention asking about that trip to russia, asking whether he had been paid for making that appearance. it has emerged that mike flynn was paid tens of thousands of dollars in addition to free all expense paid trip to moscow in exchange for showing up at that gala and sitting next to putin. in addition to that money from the russian government media outlet he also receives two other five figure payments from two other russian companies after he

it says statement by counsel to lieutenant general mike flynn. the first line is this. general flynn certainly has a story to tell. and he very much wants to tell it should the circumstances permit. out of respect for the committees we will not comment on details of discussion between counsels other than to confirm that those discussions have taken place. but it's important to acknowledge the circumstances in which those discussions are occurring. the statement then goes on to include a detailed summary of the general's impressive long military career and the various awards he received for his military and intelligence work. and then that statement ends with this sort of call to arms. quote, not withstanding his life of public service, the media are awash with unfounded allegations, outrageous claims of treason. he is now the target of unsubstaniated demands to be criminally investigated. no reasonable person would submit to questioning in such a highly politicized witch hunt environment without assurances against unfair prosecution. this is the statement from general mi

we have been told, it's been reported, that the transcripts show that mike flynn discussed u.s. sanctions on russia. everybody though he lied and said he didn't. we still don't know -- and this is going to end up being important -- we still don't know why michael flynn's calls with a russian official were reported and transcribed by u.s. officials. if it was routine surveillance of foreign government officials in the united states, they always listen in on the russians. okay, that makes sense why a russian government official would have been recorded and had his communication transcribed but that kind of routine surveillance should not have included anything involved an american person. it was an official under routine surveillance, any american getting on the line, that should not be included in that surveillance because americans cannot be surveilled just because they happen to speak with foreign officials. if it was done under a fisa warrant, we would expect any person captured in the communication would be what they call minimized, would be excised out of the communication, w

we have been told, it's been reported, that the transcripts show that mike flynn discussed u.s. sanctions on russia. everybody though he lied and said he didn't. we still don't know -- and this is going to end up being important -- we still don't know why michael flynn's calls with a russian official were reported and transcribed by u.s. officials. if it was routine surveillance of foreign government officials in the united states, they always listen in on the russians. okay, that makes sense why a russian government official would have been recorded and had his communication transcribed but that kind of routine surveillance should not have included anything involved an american person. it was an official under routine surveillance, any american getting on the line, that should not be included in that surveillance because americans cannot be surveilled just because they happen to speak with foreign officials. if it was done under a fisa warrant, we would expect any person captured in the communication would be what they call minimized, would be excised out of the communication, w

does mike flynn know something about the president? we don't know. that's the psychology we won't know. if you're protecting mike flynn's interests, you'll do everything fobl get him congressional immunity which will put a big monkey wrench in any prosecution they would want to bring. if you're anybody else on the planet, you don't want him to have immunity. >> so he may be investigated with some things have nothing to do with the russia issue. he has this entire turkey episode, too. at what point do they get link asked the immunity gets linked? >> so understand the contours of immune. we pews phrase -- >> that's what i'll worried about. >> if i got immunity and i went before congress and i was asked, russia, russia, russia, and never asked a question about turkey, turkey, turkey. then your immunity on russia won't stop the government from finding evidence about turkey. and they could still prosecute you about both. the lynchpin is that if you're given immunity for what you say, a prosecutor has to prove not only did they not use what you said, but d

nbc news last night confirming that mike flynn has told the senate intelligence committee he will testifyn exchange for immunity for himself. the "wall street journal" is reporting that flynn made the same offer to the fbi. the "wall street journal" also reporting that so far no immunity deal has been granted. his lawyer put out this statement last night saying no reasonable person who has the benefit of advice from counsel would submit to questioning in such a highly politicized, witch hunt environment without assurances against unfair prosecution. of course the lawyer is right. in our system you're entitled to a defense, entitled to the presumption of innocence. this may not mean mike flynn has anything damaging to say. it might just mean that this is good, aggressive lawyering by his defense attorney. the problem for mike flynn is one of optics. that's not at all what he said last sec last september when he was talking about certain hillary clinton aides who received narrow immunity deals last year. here's what he said on "meet the press" last year. >> five people around her have had b

nobody is denying that they derelease mike flynn. released his conversations, that the spying occurred. it's funny we're arguing this point in -- >> neil: it's a big point though, isn't it? you're right the michael flynn situation. but he was saying, donald trump was saying, that it was barack obama that led that effort to tap his phone at the trump tower? >> right. there's a lot of imprecision in the language when you look at a tweet. wiretapping probably to donald trump meant spying. donald trump probably meant mike flynn. so i think we're arguing circles around somebody that somebody admitted somebody was trying on the trump campaign and mike flynn lost his job because of an illegal felony in which somebody released the results of spying on the trump campaign. >> senator, thanks very much. good chatting with you. rand paul. meals on wheels off the wagon. why a budget cut within hud might have the new secretary in charge of that department between a rock and a hard place. ben carson here and only here next. >> a week after kong, an

today, donald trump rallied to his side with this tweet: "mike flynn should ask for immunity, in thatelection loss by media and dems of historic proportion." but this is what donald trump and michael flynn said during the campaign, when it emerged that clinton aides had sought immunity over disclosing information about her use of a private e—mail server. if you're not guilty of a crime, what do you need immunity for? when you're given immunity it means you've probably committed a crime. so is there worry at the white house that his information could implicate the president? no — he believes that mike flynn should go and testify. he should go up there and do what he has to do to get the story out. in the meantime, the russians are again dismissing as fake news suggestions that they've been up to no good. lots of americans, they do think that yes, russian hackers are everywhere, russian hackers are in every fridge, russian hackers are in every iron and so on and so forth, but this is not true. but the defence secretary james mattis, who's in london at the moment, expressed about russia,

former national security adviser mike flynn says he is willing to talk to congressional investigatorsity from prosecution. flynn is making an offer to the fbi and senate and house intelligence committees to appear before them and talk about and answer their questions about trump campaigns alleged ties to russia. of course flynn was fired after misleading the white house about his own deals with moscow's ambassador to the united states. general flynn certainly has a story to tell. he very much wants to tell us should the circumstances permit. and the president weighing in just a short time

that tweet could have been to signal to mike flynn that he stands with him. he supports him. it was a pro flynn tweet. what you worry about, your subordinates turning on you and i think, he can't call mike flynn on the phone. i don't think that would be proper. so therefore, how can he communicate with him? well, maybe through a tweet that says, you're the object of a witch hunt which signals, i'm going to have your back. >> the question remains, what does mike flynn snng asking for immunity does not necessarily mean you're guilty but michael flynn said himself, when do you ask for immunity, it does mean you're guilty. he said that on "meet the press" on the campaign with hillary clinton. thank you for sticking with us during that sean spicer briefing. we will be right back. >>> had she inherited a secret family recipe for hibiscus tea. she now bottles her great grandfather's caribbean drink and she is trying to build it into a national brand. she said she needs help. we answered her call and now she is getting a your business makeover. your business 7:30. i had frequent heart

the tweet for you here, "mike flynn should ask for immunity." you know the story, flynn was fired for misleading officials about his own dealings with the russian ambassador to the u.s. "general flynn certainly has a story to tell and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit." we've learned today that a senate source has suggested they are unlikely to accept the offer. so let me bring in my panel on this. james, first to you, former fbi former assistant, specifically, the senate has said it's too early to decide on the immunity deal but it's unlikely. if you're representing general flynn, what's the strategy in requesting it? >> the presumption has to be that any attorney advising a client appearing before a senate or house and you can't presume that means you have something to hide. >> what does he mean by he has a story to tell. the aides got immune when they testified means a presumption of guilt. if he said something before the fbi beforehand and said something. >> general flynn himself as well talked about immunity in s

mike flynn was surveilled. why? was mike flynn the subject of a warrant? if so, was it a warrant for a criminal investigation? was it a warrant for a counterintelligence investigation? and in either instance, if he was on the warrant, if there was a court-ordered warrant to surveil him because of one of those types of investigations, how on earth did the white house end up appointing him to be national security adviser under those circumstances? so the cia, the fbi and the nsa all got a letter demanding that information about michael flynn by today. why was mike flynn surveilled? why was mike flynn -- why were his contacts with the russians surveilled by u.s. agencies? tell us by friday, march 17. tell us by today. that letter, sent to the nsa, fbi, cia, it was sent to them by one of the committees that oversees those agencies, fbi, cia, nsa, they can't refuse to hand over this information to the intelligence committee. but apparently they're not doing it. i almost can't believe it. this is really, really not normal. the intelligence chair put out a statem

it seems during the mike flynn issue, the white house was saying we didn't realize mike flynn did this. a meeting at trump tower with jared there? >> reporter: the wte house is saying this is an introductory meeting. it was a chance for ambassador kislyak to get to know jared, the son-in-law of donald trump. officials are saying they learned about the meeting when it was first reported in the press. the new yorker had the story last week and yesterday, they confirmed it. they are saying it's one of dozens of introductory meetings kushner and flynn had, sort of preparing to have a transition and a white house that was more functioning and in touch with foreign leaders. just to give you a quick example of that, on march 14th, angela merkel will meet here. these are introductory meetings, planning meetings. the white house is giving me one collective yawn about the story. clearly, it's getting a lot of attention and gaining currency and controversy on capitol hill. stephanie? >> i want to bring in my panel. ari, jason johnson is politicsed dor at the root.com and a process sor and matt we

let's get into mike flynn. david, do you believe that the white house's line that he was a private citizen, this is what he did in his personal life, is a line that is good enough? >> i think the question of him having not registered at the time and now we're having a retro active registration tells us that there was something missing. the idea that a person who was on the way to being national securi adviser on election day would have published an op-ed pis in "the hill" newspaper advocating turkish interests, the turkish line, and not having disclosed that at all to the white house is hard to imagine. >> this is the national security adviser. >> right. and somebody who is also, let's not forget, considered for vice president as well. this is somebody who's been the principle national security adviser to donald trump really almost since the beginning of the campaign. somebody who is getting national security briefings. per a letter congressman elijah cummings wrote to vice president-elect pence is somebody who

why did he fire mike flynn? from an outsider looking in, it appears they only fired him because the washington post later broke a story that said flynn had been lying. but for the press looking into this, it's unclear whether they would have reacted at all to sally yates' warning. >> let me ask you another question about your line of work. meaning offense to no one. if i'm fbi director comey and i have watched the republican chairman of house intelligence go up to the executive branch and see intelligence and go up the next day and share some piece of intelligence with the president, am i really anxious to share with that chairman to brief him up fully, to let him know everything i'm supposed to tell him, everything i know? >> it's a great point because we've had counterintelligence investigations. we've had criminal investigations of the white house. never a counterintelligence investigation of the white house and the innecircle. th is unmapped terrain. to tell the commander and chief about the threats to the co

why was mike flynn on that wiretap? why was anybody else associated with the clinton campaign or the trump campaign on a wiretap if they were? who were those people on wiretaps? who was caught? why were they kept? why were those recordings, why were those transcripts of those calls not minimized, not taken out? because that should have been only a foreign warrant. we've got those questions now posed by the chairman and the ranking member of the intelligence committee. they've told those agencies they want the answers right away. they want the answers by the day after tomorrow, friday. intelligence committee will also of course hear testimony from fbi director james comey and nsa director mike rogers at a public hearing on monday. no word on whether they will get these answer they're looking for. but at least somebody is asking in an official way. and in a bipartisan way, which we're not used to seeing. i still don't understand the baseline truth that undergirds this whole mist, but at least we're starting to get more cl

but the reality is just to remind our viewers, who is mike flynn? he was the national security adviser, one of donald trump's early supporters. remember, he had a lot of fiery rhetoric on the campaign trail, particularly about hillary clinton. and then he was fired for, the president says, he misled the vice president about having conversations with the russian ambassador in which he discussed sanctions. mike flynn himself acknowledging when he was let go that he gave incomplete information to white house officials. so there is a cloud over his departure and certainly a lot more information that investigators want to hear from him as they dig into potential interference by russia in the 2016 race, chris. >> on that, another low key day at the white house. kristen welker, that you can for that. i want to bring in jason osbourn, strategist for the ben carson campaign. ron clain served a former chief of staff to joe biden and paul butler is a professor at georgetown university. paul, i have to start with you. there are so many questions here. but let's

fired mike flynn and didn't need to. the fbi said they weren't going to charge the man with a crime. they said they heard the story that flynn told pence, found him not to be misleading. the white house had all the cover they wanted to save flynn and they didn't. now to come back to flynn as the rationale, not only is it strained fact and credibility, but i don't get the strategy. >> it is confusing to have fired flynn but go back to this flynn conversation. we have to separate two things, flynn did mislead the president, absolutely unacceptable. >> how do we know that? >> because the vice president who is a very honest good man came on national television and said i know for a fact mike flynn did not discuss this, he didn't discuss sanctions. i trust mike pence. >> mike flynn according to sources close to him said he didn't discuss sanctions, it never came up. we've seen the vice president with all due respect, either underplay or go quiet. i don't know we can use him as a barometer. >> that's a personal preference. i tr

isikoff, this great reporter, he asked mike flynn about that directly to his face. it was one of the great news moments that came out of the republican convention. watch. >> last december you flew over to moscow to participate in the tenth anniversary -- >> russian television. >> -- celebration of rt russian television. a propaganda arm of the russian government. were you paid for that event? >> you'd have to ask my -- the folks that i went over there to -- >> well, i'm asking you. you'd know if you were paid. >> yeah, i mean i went over there as a speaking event. it was a speaking event. what difference does that make, though? is somebody going "oh, he's paid by the russians"? >> well, donald trump has made a lot of the fact that hillary clinton has taken money from wall street. >> i didn't take any money from russia, if that's what you're asking me. >> well, then who paid you? >> my speaker's bureau. ask them. >> okay. >> my speaker's ask -- you know what? don't say something like that idly. don't say ask them idly to an investigat

>> he believes mike flynn should go testify.hinks he should go up there and do what he has to do to get the story out. >> without immunity? >> that's up to him and his lawyer to decide. i'm not going to give mike flynn or anyone else legal advice from the podium, but i will tell you the president's view is he should go up there, he should testify. >> but the president gave legal advice from his twitter account -- >> i understand -- >> and he said in the past the only reason you ask for immunity is if you commit a crime. >> the underlying point you're missing is what he's asking is go testify. get it out there. do what you have to do to tell congress and tell everybody exactly what we've been saying for a long time. i get your point, but i think that the interesting thing is if you actually stop for second and realize what the president is doing, it's that he's saying do whatever you have to do to go up to make it clear what happened, take whatever precaution you want or however your legal counsel advises you. but again, the -- y

so does the president think mike flynn is guilty of a crime?should go testify and do what he has to do to get the story out. >> with or without immunity? >> that's up to him and his lawyer to decide. i'm not going to give mike flynn or anyone else legal advice from the podium but the president's view is he should go up there. he should testify. >> but the president gave legal advice from his twitter account. >> right. and i understand. >> and he's said in the past the only reason you ask for immunity is if you've committed a crime. >> respectfully, what he's asking is go testify. get it out there. do what you have to do to get there and tell congress and everyone exactly what we've been saying for a long time. again, i get your point but i think the interesting thing is if you start for a second and realize what the president is doing, do whatever you have to do to go up and make it clear what happened, take whatever precaution you want or however your legal counsel advises you. it's quite the opposite and again i think that that compared to th

president trump for his part has thrown his support behind his former top advisor tweeting this: mike flynnuld ask for immunity in that this is a witch-hunt, excuse for big election loss by media and dems of historic proportion, he writes. but that is not what president trump and mr. flynn said about immunity deals during the 2016 campaign back when hillary clinton's advisors were under the microscope during her email scandal. watch. >> the reason they get immunity is because they did something wrong. if they didn't do anything wrong, they don't think in terms of immunity. when you are given immunity, that means that you have probably committed a crime. >> so there is that. chief washington correspondent ed henry joins you now with the latest on a very busy friday from the white house. >> very interesting. contentious white house briefing for sean spicer question after question about this russia investigation. they was playing a lot of defense. first batting down questions about general mike flynn, insisting the president and other higher ups in the white house are not worried if the genera

>> i think mike flynn and legal counsel should do what's appropriate for mike flynn. >> reporter: they cannot obtain immunity, it must be granted. >> again, to your question -- >> reporter: the president recommending to fbi or congress to grant immunity? >> again, he didn't say congress should grant. >> reporter: what does he mean by that? >> he supports mike flynn's attempts to go up to congress and be very clear with everything that they ask and what they want. >> reporter: right, he could have just said i testify. he should get immunity. i'm asking because every lawyer who works on this tells you it's extremely important to seek it and obtain it. there's only one way you can seek it, granted by the fbi or congress. and for the president of the united states to even lightly indicate he's in favor of that, seems is a significant development. i'm trying to find out if that's what the president was trying to say. >> i'm trying to answer the question. i talked to the president and the president is very clear he wants mike flynn to go and be completely open and transparent with the commit

the "wall street journal" reporting general mike flynn will talk in exchange for immunity. the reporter who broke the stoistory joins us at the top of the broadcast. working in reverse, the white house wants to show the intelligence committee some intelligence the way they reportedly did in private for chairman nunes who then privately briefed the president. and president trump picks a fight with republicans, going after the freedom caucus for not having his back on health care. how are they likely to react to a frontal assault? "the 11th hour" begins right now. well, good evening once again from our headquarters here in new york. day 70 of the still young trump administration and already we have mention of the word immunity. the "wall street journal" first to report tonight that the president's former national security adviser, retired u.s. army three star general michael flynn, has told the fbi, the house intelligence committee, and the senate intelligence committee that he is willing to testify in the russia investigation in exchange for immunity. nbc has confirmed flynn

this morning, president trump tweeted, "mike flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch-hunt." were you trying to tell the justice department to grant immunity to michael flynn? were you trying to do that, mr. president? was that your intention, mr. president, sir? mr. president, was that your intention, mr. president? what does he mean by that? >> what he means is he supports mike flynn's attempts to go up to congress and be very clear with everything they ask and what they want. >> reporter: right, but he could have just said, "i testified." >> the president is very clear he wants mike flynn took toog and be dpleeptly open and transparent. >> reporter: even if he doesn't obtain immunity. >> he wants him to do what is necessary, to go up there and talk to the commitez of jurisdiction to get this matter behind him. >> reporter: last night, flynn's attorney confirmed that negotiations with the house and senate intelligence committees were oen going but no deal for immunity has been offered. even with congressional immunity, flit flynn might still be subject to prosecution by t

else that's as high up or higher up. >> what do you make of all this and the president tweeting mike flynn should ask for immunity and he goes on to say this is a witch hunt, et cetera, et cetera. he wants flynn to tell his story. that's interesting. >> yeah. i don't know how much to make out of the tweet. it's sort of more evidence that, at least the president himself is not the inner circle just aren't taking this seriously. every aspect of it is at best sloppy, at worst signs of a coverup or collusion. i think paul is absolutely right that this is big news about flynn. he is the first person in the inner circle who is suggesting that he's going to turn his back on them. what we don't know is the substance of the proffer. it may be nothing. it may not satisfy what either committees or the fbi want to hear or need to hear to get an investigation. and for all we know, flynn is the one who they're focussing on, right? >> right. >> so we don't know how far up this goes. so it is significant. but we just don't know. we don't yet know how to read the fact that the proffer has not been accepted

the fbi gave the white house such great cover to keep mike flynn. they said we heard the same story he says he told mike pence. we don't think he was misleading it. he might may have forgotten it. he didn't think the election was a big part of the conversation with the russian ambassador. he was innocent. we're not charging him. we don't think he was misleading. yet the white house chose to get rid of him. that's why i'm asking the question. >> it's a good question, chris. let me make a few observations. first, the fbi hasn't said anything publicly about this. there have been reports of what the fbi is saying privately, but we don't know and don't have a public record about what the fbi's position is, and second, it's not the fbi's position to make a prosecutorial decision. that's a decision normally for the justice department. obviously we saw a big aberration with that last year when loretta lynch essentially said i'm going to defer to the fbi about the clinton case, but in the ordinary course of events it's the justice department that makes a pros

both mike flynn's cell phone and location and the ambassador's location. and that is not supposed to be leaked to the press. as a former intelligence officer, i would go to jail for doing something like that. so that sparked this whole thing. now we learned there were other officials that were reverse targeted. you don't have to have an order in place. you simply go after the foreign entities, already under legitimate orders, you target them. what you're looking for, any time they talk to a trump member. then those names are unmasked and made widely available to individuals in the intelligence community. and in some cases, leaked. >> sandra: so according to our latest fox news reporting, adam housely disclosed that nunes knew about the existence of the intelligence documents back in january, well before the trump tweet or meeting with the president. he spent weeks trying to find way to see this. but he was stone walled. the only option was to go to the white house. chairman had to figure out a way to view these documents. this was the last option. >> well,

fired national security adviser mike flynn says he'll talk with one caveat. it's all part of this bigger russian investigation that has lawmakers asking questions about how information is getting out of the white house. "the new york times" reports two white house staffers, a lawyer and a national security official, helped congressman devin nunes seek classified information. "the washington post" names a third. >> are these the same white house staff that reportedly discovered them in the ordinary course of business. so why all the cloak and dagger stuff. >> and they are calling it evidence, information about americans was mishandled or leaked. >> we are willing to provide them with information that we have the materials that we have come across. >> reporter: a congressional official tells nbc that former national security adviser mike flynn now wants to testify in exchange for immunity. on the senate side, lawmakers are learning how russia tried to influence your vote. >> the russians employed thousands of paid internet trolls and botnets to push out fake ne

flynn was in this list. >> reporter: he was forced to resign a month into the presidency. after admitting he misled mike pence with his conversation with sergei kislyak. that is coming after flynn's account and weeks after the j t justice department warned the white house. >> general flynn is a wonderful man. i think he has been treated very, very unfairly by the media. >> reporter: now this white house is insistent that questions about russia are a distraction. officials said repeatedly they believe there is no evidence of collusion between trump campaign officials and suspected russian operatives. it is worth noting the leaders of the senate probe have not gone that far. >> sara at the white house. but wait, there's more. another controversial consuming washington. several staffers in the trump white house shared files with nunes. nunes then took that information dr directly back to the president rather than his committee and that weird chain of events. cnn's suzanne malveaux on capitol hill with more. >> reporter: good morning, john. the house and senate are not in session today. the congress member

>> i think they should do with appropriate for mike flynn. >> i cannot obtain immunity.must be granted. >> and again to your question -- >> recommended to the fbi or congress to grant immunity. that's the only way can happen. >> i get that but he didn't say congress should grant. >> what does he mean? >> he supports the attempts to go to congress and be very clear with everything that ask them what they want. >> he could've just said he should get immunity. and i'm asking you because it's important. everyone who works on this tells you it's extremely important to seek it ended up ten. and there's only one where you can seek it by being granted either by the fbi or by congress. congress. for the president of the united states to even lightly indicate that he is in favor of that is simply a significant -- unkind. if speed is unkind and to the question which is i think what the, not that i think. i talked to the president. the president is clear that he wants mike flynn to going to completely open and transparent with the committee. whatever it takes to get his supportive o

reference to how few people would've known the name mike flynn and how that was caught up in surveillance. only a few people at the highest levels of the obama administration would've had access to that information. that somehow made it into the press. we've seen this ongoing campaign and we have a lot to learn about how those things came out and what it means about what the obama administration was doing or how much it knew about the campaign. >> bret: i talked to brit. adam schiff laying out a case that if there is collusion, what it would look like and asking questions along that line but trey gowdy laying out the case about the leaks and help mike flynn's name gets out there. >> mike flynn lost his job because he was in discussing sanctions with the ambassador. the leak of the transcript is a violation of the law. it's a violation of the code of conduct and against the law. he lost his job. the leaks is a great discussion, worth a discussion. would have been a lot of the discussion today had president trump not leveled a false allegation against his predecessor. that's the problem. so

a little over two weeks later, mike flynn had to resign because of conversations he had. also his capacity as a nonsurrogate for the campaign. with the very same ambassador. did anyone on your staff say to you, holy smokes, perhaps we should clarify? >> no, i never gave that a thought. i never considered it. no one ever mentioned that to m me. quite different circumstances, to me, tucker. i had a meeting in my office with two senior staffers, most retired military people. nonpolitical people. some 25 ambassadors in recent months while i was senator and then the russian ambassador was just one of them. but >> tucker: he was also the very center of countless news storms. so it just seems like a red flag might have arisen. what was the nature of your conversations? they did not pertain to the campaign, you had said earlier. there was conversation about the campaign, as one official said today. >> i do not know what they were referring to but we had a conversation that he came in, we talked about a number of issues. one was the ukraine, we had a disagreement over that. the uk

senate and the fbi itself and they would make their own determination on whether or not they think mike flynnuld get immunity or not, not clear what this means at this early stage. could be too early to make that determination. it could be that flynn himself is the target of the investigation. it could be that officials don't think there's anybody further up the food chain who they would need flynn to flip on in order to give him that immunity. so it's very early here. but it looks like at least for now the senate turning down that request from mike flynn's lawyer for immunity, kelly. >> eamon, thank you. eamon javers at the white house. >> you bet. >> when we come back on "squawk alley," awaiting sounds from the president's meeting with the national -- manufacturers. then the president of that group, ceo jay tim mons will be joining us right after his meeting in the white house. a first on cnbc interview. find out what went on inside. "squawk alley" back in a moment. dow's down 34 points. flz . >>> post nine is sponsored by fidelity investments, innovative ideas for serious investors. at fid

. >> yeah, at least one of them has a close tie to mike flynn. ezra cohen was brought in by flynn when he was tapped to be the first national security adviser. appears to share lot of flynn's distrust or disdain for the cia. so he actually -- the agency tried to get him removed in thi job because he's in an important white house job, as the main liaison between the white house and spy agencies. it backfired. he went to steve bannon, jared kushner. they protected him and kept him in place. that's why, i think, when sean spicer says there is a slippery slope here for him, he may be right. it is hard to imagine that this story ends with just these three individuals that we identified in the "post." there has to be -- it's likely that others were aware of or involved in arranging these -- this whole escapade with nunes. >> what doesn't, i guess, make sense to a lot of people then, he was pretty specific with a couple of different reporters. with another reporter, his spokesperson was very specific, that these were not people within the white house. >

>> he is hoping mike flynn testifies.you have to do to go up, make clear what happened, take whatever precaution you want or however your legal counsel advises you. reporter: so far, david it does not appear if any committees whether on the house side or the senate side granted mr. flynn immunity. david: blake, do we know adam schiff will talk to the press once he is out of there? we have our eyes and cameras on the white house? melissa: great question. reporter: those cameras are 100 feet away and they are trained. we don't know if he will walk across and talk. the cameras are ready if he wants to do so. david: we're ready and we'll bring it to our viewers live. thank you very much. blake. melissa: good question. that is the thing i want to hear. david: absolutely. melissa: to see the look on his face when he comes out. david: when you go into the secure rooms, you can't bring any paper or pen or any kind of device. it has to be all be in memory. we'll see what he remembers. melissa: amazing. more on former national secu

we know mike flynn has talked to the fbi in the early days of the administration as well. we don't know if he has had subsequent conversations with them, but he is on record with the fbi on some matters and that is really important in the context of this conversation. >> robert, we have seen the white house in defensive mode. they're sitting on top of as of yesterday a 35% rate in the polls. they've been throwing mostly fastballs to the opposition. is this where we find out if they have a curveball, if they have a cutter, if they have anything else because this is going to change their daily stance no matter what mr. spicer contends from that podium going forward? >> so far many republicans, especially those in the white house, have resisted the suggestion about having an independent prosecutor. they've put the emphasis on congressional committees, but we have seen the controversy surrounding devin nunes. again, there's so many storms about russia. general flynn, the acquisition of information about russia and possible relationships within the trump administration. it's no

this is a stay behind agent left by mike flynn. he came there because of mike flynn. this is a guy who obviously is unsuited to be in the white house, and he's obviously there right now to filter intelligence material from the intelligence committee through the national security council to give it to bannon and the rest of their team for political pushback. and nunes was their patsy in 24 whole affair. >> clearly the next question is, okay, there's multiple people reporting these two individuals. another individual is a lawyer at the nse. if it is these folks and sa pears to be, they weren't just freelancing. presumably someone said, go find something in the surveillance that the u.s. takes, go find something to back up the claim and feed it to nunes. the question is who did that? >> well, look, i think there's an obvious suspect in this, and that's steve bannon. there's no one else who would have the sort of political will inside the white house to push this far against the law and the handling of national security information. look, all of this is top secret sci mat

right now, mike flynn doesn't cost him anything to throw them overboard. i would do the same thing if i were him. >> meghan: can i ask you, what is the concern here? we know he had spoken with the russian ambassador. if talking to him is it something that is done by so many members of congress, it's a big scandal that he misrepresented himself? >> mike: i think that's a lot of it. the fact he had done some lobbying work and didn't disclose that. it's a classic thing going back to watergate. is not the crime, is the cover up that gets every time. i think it's one of those issues where it wasn't what mike flynn did, and probably wasn't a big deal, but he didn't fully disclose it and that will get you every time. >> sandra: meantime, we're getting some new information about how devin nunes got access to those documents that reportedly showed trauma campaign officials were swept up and routine surveillance. fox news confirming at least two white house aides helped chairman nunez review the information last week. the administration is in confirming that, but di

mike flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch-hunt. . keep in mind, michael flynn, pictured right there, he was the national security advisor to the president of the united states. he was early on in the days of the trump administration. he was asked apparently by the fbi, hey, did you talk to the russians during the transition period about sanctions? and he said no, i don't remember doing that and then suddenly somebody from one of the major newspapers has got the intercept between flynn and russians and said nope, he said it right here. how did that newspaper wind up with this? that's really what the committees on capitol hill and the fbi are looking at. how did american names get unmasked and passed illegally and perhaps feloniously to members of the mainstream media. brian: keep in mind if you ever meet michael flynn he is one of the finest americans you will ever meet. i don't know how this will play out. what he did in the military for 33 years most could only fantasize. abby huntsman have you more news. abby: i do. thanks for wat