this is what happened right after mike flynn got fired. that was so screwed up in so many ways, so many days in this new administration, wow, that's a mess, i can't believe that happened. this thing was so screwed up. at every level. the guys making a supposedly independent investigation making phone calls to reporters. and talking on the sidelines with the white house about what is and isn't going on in their investatanion ving the white house about pr advice about bad press they're getting related to that investigation. what was the actual quote from the deputy director of the fbi there? "i want you to know that the "new york times" story is bs." the biggest way this was messed up, what happened back there in mid-february, the biggest screw-up of all of this was that the "new york times" story wasn't bs at all. "the times" published this report on february 14th. later that night, cnn reported their own version of the story. trump aides were in constant touch with senior russian officials during the campaign. then the "washington post" go

mike flynn had worked in the obama administration. president obama presumably was speaking from experience. president trump ignored that warning. it was just one of many warnings. some public, some private from obama. and later from an acting attorney general sally yates and it raises grave questions about their judgment. >> and the white house, according to officials speaking to kristen welker, is that they said they believed this was -- donald trump believed that this was said sort of in jest, don't hire mike flynn. but also if president obama was so concerned about it, why did he not revoke his security clearance? and he candidn't revoke his security clearance. so explain that, why did mike flynn still hold his security clearance even after he left the obama administration? >> security clearances are not granted nor are they revoked by the president of the united states. that's kind of ridiculous. they are adjudicated by career professionals. these are routine matters. more than 1.5 million people in our country hold a top secret s

and the guy who paid mike flynn more than half a million dollars which mike flynn did not disclose on which his security clearance application in washington. this is the money that was paid to flynn that caused him to retroactively register as an agent of a foreign power after he was fired from the white house. the guy that paid flynn that money has his own business history in russia as reported by "politico," reporting at least one financing deal personally approved by vladamir putin. this is an interesting thing about the flynn story, right? that link from the guy who paid flynn to his russian business dealings that personally involve putin, does that mean the money used to pay national security advisor mike flynn might have its origins in russia while russia at that very time was attacking the u.s. election to help trump win? that's the question, people trying to figure out the trump russia story by following the money that's what makes this whole question red hot. that's why this is so important. the prospect when flynn was being paid during the campaign this possibility has been

nbc news reports that the trump transition had direct knowledge of mike flynn's payments from foreign sources, but nevertheless, vice president mike pence, head of the transition, he proclaims he was perfectly ignorant of that fact until weeks after mike flynn was fired. >> let me say hearing that story today was the first i heard of it. >> that is not credible. whether or not you care about what the vice president knew abt mike flynn, whether you care about that subject itself or not, the bigger question is why are eyelling this lie about it? why are they lying about this stuff? they are telling stories about mike flynn that make no sense given we now know about the facts. it is not good for the white house that they cannot come up with a story about mike flynn that has the benefit of being true. and that was a problem for them before today, it became a much bigger problem for them after today. before today, we knew they had inexplicably waited 18 days after being warned about mike flynn before they fired him. today that delay became all the more inexplicable and even a bit scary whe

clearance for mike flynn's son. hey had, actually applied for a security clearance for his son. after the president fired the fbi director, mike pence bluntly asserted the decision to fire james comey was based on a recommendation from the deputy attorney general. the president himself and reportedly the deputy attorney general himself now today have both made clear that that was not the reason james comey was fired. mike pence has also bluntly asserted that james comey was not fired for anything having anything to do with the trump-russia investigation, the president himself now admits that what he was thinking when he made the decision to fire james comey he was thinking about how much he hated that trump-russia investigation. mike pence had bluntly asserted there were no trump campaign contacts with the russian government. that is not true. he has bluntly asserted he had no idea that mike flynn had a paid relationship with any foreign countries' government. that would seem to be impossible given his role in the tr

nbc news reporting that president obama warned president-elect trump about mike flynn's russian connections, and trump hired flynn as his top foreign policy adviser anymore. this as for the first time today, we hear from former acting attorney general sally yates on her warning to the white house about flynn. why did they fire her and wait 17 days to fire him? >> she is very widely respected. and she apparently has some information as to who knew what when that she is willing to share. >>> health care check-up. as republicans feel the pain back home, the house obamacare repeal is now up to the senate. we'll get a second opinion on the trump diagnosis. >>> the president promised that he would take care of people with pre-existing conditions. critics say that this bill as passed by the house does not. >> now, i think it's absolutely true that the president is fulfilling his promise to the american people. that is make sure that every american has access to the kind of coverage they want for themselves and their family, not that the government forces them to buy. >> you're talking about access

the explanation that mike flynn had no idea that -- excuse me, that mike pence had no idea mike flynn of these government ties. none of those things factually makes any sense. and sally yates is absolutely key to us all starting to get the real story and starting to make sense of it. so she's due to testify on monday. testimony from comey tomorrow. testimony from comey and rogers on thursday. sally yates will testify on monday. we're already getting reporting about what to expect from that. we've got nunes bailing. chaffetz bailing, jeff sessions bailing. everybody who gets near the flynn investigation is bailing. so this story is about to get big enot smaller. clearly mike flynn is at the center of some bull's-eye here. but, you know what? one last point here. we're also starting to see something else that's interesting. and that is how republicans in congress may be trying to bobble this up. the head of the senate judiciary committee is senator chuck grassley. he's now sent a shot across the bow at the fbi. ahead of james comey's testimony tomorrow before grasley's committee. grassl

the question of mike flynn and these foreign payments makes republicans faint. that makes the question of flynn's foreign payments very interesting. it is extraordinary enough the national security advisor was fired. it's extraordinary enough the national security advisor was fired for lying about his contacts with the foreign government. it is extraordinary enough he did not report his payments from foreign sources on his security clearance application. it is extraordinary enough as nbc news reported friday night the trump transition knew about mike flynn's foreign payments and they hired him as national security advisor anyway. it is sfroor enough that the sitting attorney general and the sitting vice president head of the transition, they both now deny there was any way they could have known about those foreign payments to mike flynn at the time. even though it's clear the white house and transition absolutely did know about those foreign payments to mike flynn at the time. the whole thing is extraordinary enough already before you get to the question whether

and mike flynn was a huge part of his campaign. he traveled with him a lot. so, yeah he -- now sean spicer today tried to defend the hiring saying flynn worked for obama and it's their fault. they approved him first. but i think that his predecessor telling him don't hire this guy probably made him double down d say yeah, i will. >> so brian, take me to the briefing room tomorrow. how do they counter-spin against what we watched this afternoon. do they try to paint sally yates as a kind of wild bought and paid for partisan? do they try to do the same thing with the former director of intelligence perhaps? >> yeah, tlir going to say these are obama administration officials that had an ax to grind against president trump, and that they were part of an apparatus that wanted to surveil the trump transition team and make donald trump look bad and feed into this narrative that the obama administration is pushing that there was collusion between -- potentially collusion between russia and the trump campaign to get trump elected. and that's what they are going to go a

ivanka, mike flynn. who's the third in zblals told by his mentor, cohn, to never apologize or -- >> even if he admitted a crime? >> i don't think he's going to throw mike flynn under the bus. it would be admitting a mistake and admitting i think something governor kay ssich made a point about. we need to get to the bottom of this. if russia is meddling in our elections -- >> they are. we know they meddled, right? is that an unknown -- >> no, i believe it's known. trey gowdy apparently has suspicions about it. >> straight out of the gate after president trump won the election, he could have said let's do a full-scale election -- excuse me, let's do a full-scale investigation into what russia did. he didn't. lawmakers are asking deutsche bank, the one known global lender to the trump organization, to see those loan documents. meaning has deutsche bank reassigned those loans, maybe to banks in cypress, maybe to banks in rush sla? if that's the case, it's like, hey, president trump, don't be so cute here, ju

subpoenas that went out to people who had business relationships with mike flynn. that's what we've known about the flynn part of the trump/russia investigation. what we are adding to that, what we can report tonight exclusively is that there is another subpoena. it's part of a federal criminal investigation, and this new subpoena is not about mike flynn. it's about former trump campaign chairman paul manafort. this new subpoena we can report tonight relates to a loan taken out by paul manafort immediately after he resigned from the trump campaign under a cloud of suspicion about his ties to pro-putin political interests in ukraine. "the wall street journal" reported late on friday night that the department of justice was looking into paul manafort's banking records. what we can add now is that a subpoena has gone out. it is related to a specific loan from a company that is related to a previous trump business associate. now i will explain exactly what we know about this little -- this information a little later on this hour. but this new news, this new news about t

so when mike flynn had his lawyer come out and say mike flynn has a story to tell and he would like to tell it, remember that? certainly general flynn has story to tell and he would very much like to tell it. remember that statement from flynn's lawyer? that was couched with a request for immunity from prosecution for mike flynn. today in the atlantic magazine, you could see the white house spilkus about that. saying he is worried about mike flynn said one source close to the white house. trump has questioned whether or not they should have fired flynn. they don't know what he is going to say. when he did retroactively register as a foreign power after he was fired, that was a sign that oh, it slipped his mind that he had been an agent of a foreign power before. no. that was a sign that he was talking to the department of justice. the department of justice has jurisdiction over the foreign agents registration act. that was a sign he was talking to the department of justice with attention to his own legal misbehavior in terms of representing foreign governments without previously regist

according to tonight's front page scoop in the "the washington post," mike flynn was warned that his s with russian officials were quote, undoubtedly being monitored by the fbi and by the nsa. transition officials tell "the washington post" they also prepared a briefing document for flynn, specifically a profile of the russian ambassador who he liked to talk with and meet with so much. officials say that despite the fact that they prepared a profile on the russian ambassador for flynn, they are unsure as to whether or not mike flynn ever bothered to read it. so interesting reporting from the "the washington post." after "the washington post" posted theirs, the associate press also went live with their scoop tonight on mike flynn. they're reporting that the obama administration was so concerned about what they could see of these ties between mike flynn and the russian government that they decided to delay telling the trump transition about the obama administration's plans to levy new sanctions against russia as punishment for them messing with our election. the obama folks delayed tell

breaking overnight again, putting mike flynn, remember him, general mike flynn, at the center of thisistration's controversy. "the new york times" reporting that the president's transition team led by mike pence knew mike flynn was under investigation weeks, weeks before he was sworn in as national security adviser, and another report says flynn had many more contacts with russian officials than previously known. i want to get back to peter alexander at the white house. peter, it seemed like just yesterday, we were being told that one phone call between mike flynn and russia was nearly a happy new -- merely a happy new year greeting. i guess that changed. >> that's right. this reporting from "the new york times" reports that flynn himself told president trump's transition team when he was only president-elect trump at the time this was weeks before the inauguration he was under federal investigation for having secretly worked as a paid lobbyist for turkey during the course of the campaign. the first disclosure, the times reports, would have happened on january 4th, several weeks ahead

they'd look specifically into mike flynn's payments from foreign sources. and despite their very narrow focus on just that piece of it, the house oversight committee appears to have stumbled on to something unexpectedly rich. their inquiries turned up the theory that mike flynn had not disclosed his foreign payments from russia, even though he'd been told explicitly and in writing that he needed to do that. the inspector general's office announced they started an independent investigation of mike flynn. the white house remarkably -- remarkably refused to hand over any documents to the house oversight committee about mike flynn. they would not hand over a single document, a single piece of paper about mike flynn. and that's a -- an important stonewall there. and the democrats on that committee reacted the way you'd expect. they were not happy with that refusal. democrats on that committee said their chairman, jason chaffetz, should demand to get those flynn documents from the white house. he should subpoena those documents from the white house if necessary t

we knew what mike flynn was doing with russia was wrong and risky.i don't know where any of these investigations are going with mike flynn but the way that other people in republican politics are treating him, is like they're grease and he's a drop of dish soap. so new mike flynn news tonight in the "the washington post" and the associated press but that brings us to tonight's news dump from the administration and that story is next. stay with us. . ...that's heard throughout the connected business world. at&t network security helps protect business, from the largest financial markets to the smallest transactions, by sensing cyber-attacks in near real time and automatically deploying countermeasures. keeping the world of business connected and protected. that's the power of and. ltry align probiotic.n your digestive system? for a non-stop, sweet treat goodness, hold on to your tiara kind of day. get 24/7 digestive support, with align. the #1 doctor recommended probiotic brand. also in kids chewables. i mwell, what are youe to take care odoing tomorro

we knew what mike flynn was doing with russia was wrong and risky. i don't know where any of these investigations are going with mike flynn but the way that other people in republican politics are treating him, is like they're grease and he's a drop of dish soap. so new mike flynn news tonight in the "the washington post" and "the associated press" but that brings us to tonight's news dump from the administration and that story is next. stay with us. obviously, ohhh... but with added touches you can't get everywhere else, like claim free rewards... or safe driving bonus checks. oh yes.... even a claim satisfaction guaranteeeeeeeeeee! in means protection plus unique extras only from an expert allstate agent. it's good to be in, good hands. adult 7+ promotes alertness and mental sharpness in dogs 7 and older. (ray) the difference has been incredible. she is much more aware. she wants to learn things. (vo) purina pro plan bright mind. nutrition that performs. start your day with the number one choice of dentists. philips sonicare removes significantly m

, mike flynn doesn't work for the administration right now, okay, and it's not a mike flynn -- >> and obama fired him! >> fired him and mike flynn around washington was known as a weirdo. i mean, like he was -- >> technically speaking. >> this is a classification as you well know, national security. and so, the question always was, why was he even in the trump transition team and in the national security ap rat fups trump is both trying to kind of defend him and separate himself from him at the same time. i'm sure people around donald trump, including the people who run his foreign policy and national security right now, are asking the same question that you are. they don't understand probably what donald trump is doing in terms of his approach with michael flynn. >> a larger issue which is what leverage does the russian federation have over u.s. foreign policy? it appears in the early days they did have some leverage dealing with flynn. what flynn was saying hey those sanctions being imposed today, don't worry about it. >> those sanctions are crippling. remember, vladimir putin may b

i mean, just on that matter, mike flynn has [ inaudible ] and vice president continue to deny knowledge of those foreign payments to flynn even after they were notifd about that emphaticity and over a period of weeks and months. to the point where the mike pence-led transition sent a thank you for your letter to the house oversight committee when they put in writing to the transition their concerns about mike flynn's foreign payments. so even if you take just that slice of it, just on the issue of mike flynn, when you talk about concealment being a complicating factor here, there would seem to be a lot of reported evidence of him trying to conceal those foreign ties and the white house trying to conceal them for him. the financial trail is lit up like broad daylight on mike flynn. multiple investigations are now thundering down that path like a convoy of semis. but we have learned tonight that there may be a problem with the financial side of all of these trump/russia investigations and we've got that ahead tonight and a lot more. stay with us. finally. hey ron! they're finally taking d

caller: when the guy called in about mike flynn's security clearance, does the president give or take away security clearance? , you allquestion is have not come on and say what donald trump's regulations that he has pulled how they affect the public. gm mentioned the consumer intention best protection agency. -- gmg pesticides mentioned the consumer protection agency. letting pesticides be used in certain construction materials good can you -- materials. can you talk about the regulations he has taken away and the harm it could do to public -- the public in general? certainly topics we can cover, and i would point you back to tuesday of last week where we had an entire show on the coal industry. an environmentalists came on and spoke about the swing rule that the trump administration rolled back. it was an extreme protection rule that was moved at the end of the obama administration. thank you for bringing up other topics we can discuss.

to simple low be able to say mike flynn was just a bad hire. the president continues to never say anything bad against vladimir putin. how can those two facts exist. >> oh, my gosh, hillary clinton -- >> and hold on, hillary clinton did not win the election. donald trump did. >> of course, thank god she didn't. >> we're going to put that over here. donald trump won. how can you possibly say, mike flynn was just a bad hire. trump's never said anything about putin. bad about putin, but i know there's no evidence. how do you add those up? >> hillary clinton's whole -- >> i'm not talking about hillary clinton. >> what i'm saying is flynn was a bad hire, no need to waste political capital defending him. hillary clinton and her relationship with putin -- >> we're going to move on. >> hillary clinton had nothing to do with -- she is at her office in midtown working on onward together. why are we talking about hillary clinton? let's focus on the issue that happened yesterday. >> you want to talk about collusion with russia, look at the clintons. $145 m

nbc news reporting that president obama warned president-elect trump about mike flynn's russian connectionsynn as his top foreign policy adviser anymore.

so when mike flynn had his lawyer come out and say mike flynn has a story to tell and he would like to tell it, remember that? certainly general flynn has story to tell and he would very much like to tell it. that was couched with a request for immunity from prosecution for mike flynn. today in the atlantic magazine, you can see the white house spilkus saying he is worried about mike flynn said one source close to the white house. trump has questioned whether or not they should have fired flynn. whermgs retro actively registered as a foreign power after he was fired, that was a sign that he was talking to the department of justice. the department of justice has jurisdiction. and mike flynn registered and everybody thinks paul manafort registering but manafort did not. in a statement, paul manafort said he consulted with federal authorities and had received formal guidance from those authorities. the authorities would be the of justice. paul manafort never registered apparently thanks to the guidance he got from federal authorities. federal authorities told him not to register? you're f

mike flynn was right about it. whatever you think about what he did hear her or his explanation since he was right about that. he was sounding the alarm at a time when president obama was saying al qaeda was on the run. they weren't. and mike flynn was right about that. the idea that sean spicer would say you know, the obama administration should've pulled mike flynn's clearance, can you imagine how the trump campaign would have responded? as he is campaigning? 's to go the trump campaign should have worried about vetting michael flynn, so they would have avoided this headache that they have. one of the questions that's been raised during the testimony, and i think it's worth pursuing, why did the trump administration keep flynn on from that january january 28, the 18 days? they have this information and flynn was still attending classified briefings. >> bret: senator franken posited that perhaps he was concerned about other people and other communications and he just threw that out there in the hearing, saying may

did the white house put any security restrictions on mike flynn at all during that time? was he limited to access to classified information, national secrets or decision making in any way? >> i'm not aware. the decision that we made was the right one. the president made a decision. he stands by it. jenna. >> he'd like to go over the timeline again. you have yates coming to the white house on january 26th and the 27th. you then have mcgann going to the doj on february 2nd to see those documents. but it is not until february 13th that flynn actually resigns. tell us what happened between -- you know, you go the this warning, you then saw documents that backed up that warning, and then you have 11 days that pass. what was happening in those 11 days? >> i think if you go back in time and look at what we talked about at the time, there were several conversations that occurred with general flynn between the chief of staff, general counsel, vice president. that all occurred then. look, when you think about the scope of time that actually occurred, those 11 days, to make sure tha

th trump familyad a "blind ot" when it came to mike flynn. this is important because it raises new questions, as you know, about the vetting of flynn. the "new york times" reporting that flynn, himself, communicated in the transition time to the transition team, specifically to the head transition lawyer, that he was under federal investigation for his ties, having received money effectively from turkey. that didn't affect the president's decision making, he still brought mike flynn in and brought him by his side with access to the most classified documents and secrets that the u.s. holds. >> i'm told they vetted him, but it was to find out all of the stuff that would discakadisqualm a june yore press aide's position in any other white house. it is just extraordinary. we will be drilling down on that throughout the hour. and to capitol hill and kristen welker. today is a big day. they're going to hear from rod ro ro rosenstein. >> he initially said he did it at the direction of the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. and then president tru

mike flynn to take this job and flynn was reluctant to do so.the whole thing is a little bit odd but donald trump does want to keep a circle around him who he trusts. now that he is finding he doesn't trust those around him he is starting to bring in people from the old campaign circle. we are seeing names like corey lewandowski showing up at the white house again. donald trump is work working hard to surround himself with people who he thinks are loyal to him. and in his mind, michael flynn was one of those guys. >> matthew, that lewandowski story is a political story tonight. you mentioned him and a couple others who have reentered the circle. >> it's almost like a security blanket in some ways bringing back the old characters from earlier in the campaign. but it's not a good idea, many around trump, will say, to bring someone like corey lewandowski who was so much trouble during the campaign back into the picture. but we know donald trump likes to be in touch with these old hands, you know, according to reports he still talks on the phone wit

to be finding out about mike flynn. appears the fbi has an enormous quantity of information, the intelligence community has information, and they're going to, obviously, they see him as a linchpin that could probably break. >> is that why president trump in your opinion, matt, doesn't break with mike flynn? mike flynn knows so much information. time and again people are saying, mike flynn, let's try to isolate it, bad hire, and the president not making that statement. he is not someone afraid to turn on a friend. >> this is true. i think part of it is mike flynn is not just a silo within the entire trump organization, he brought in a lot of -- >> carter page. >> people like sebastian ghorka, people who have been part of the foreign policy, steve bannon, they know each other and come from the same universe of policy an thinking out there, so maybe, if you try to go after him you will see a domino effect of people in the administration. >> that policy and thinking is not traditional conservative thinking. it's destabilizi

>> let's be clear on mike flynn. mike flynn only was fired because it was leaked about his -- what his conversations really were. >> true that. >> and that is what is also truly troubling about this, is that absent that leak, they would have probably kept him on. in terms of russia, it's exactly as clint says. it is a fact that they tried to hack our election. it is a fact accepted by 17 intelligence agencies by every foreign government. that is a fact. the president -- we are six months on from this now and still talking about this as if it is some sort of fact in dispute. it is not. look, is there evidence that his administration colluded with russia that is what is under investigation. him saying there is nothing there is as you say, is interfering with an ongoing pending investigation, his level of frustration boiled over with james comey. when he keep saying we have to, and the media has to say, this is wrong, these are the facts, this is what happened. >> it appears to be putting more pressure on calling for a

mike flynn continuals to cast a long shadow over this presidency. well after he's been fired. we have two reports on nbc fronts. we're reporting that flynn, i know what the former chairman paul manafort are the prime suspects in this sprawling russia investigation. their conduct, it is not so much at least in public of their collusion with russia. there's really no evidence of that. but it is the other activities. with flynn, it is the three things that we know well at this point. he was paid half a million dollars to lobby on behalf of turkish interests. he didn't disclose that until after the justice department questioned him about it. he failed to disclose that he was paid to appear at a state dinner in moscow on behalf of russian state television. so he seems to be on the fbi hot seat. and we have reporting today from "the new york times" that the administration knew he was under criminal investigation when they hired him. so he doesn't appear to have been properly vetted for the job of national security adviser. >> what about these 18 phone calls. reuters reports there wer

and "the washington post" tonight reaffirmed they were keenly interested in mike flynn and paul manafort. flynn and manafort are both subjects of criminal investigations, both in the cross hairs, but we now know it's not either of them because neither mike flynn more paul manafort is a current white house official. so the president flies off on his first foreign trip tonight in the face of confirmed reporting now that his former campaign chairman and national security adviser and somebody working for him now as a senior adviser in the white house are the subject of active law enforcement investigations specifically into whether his campaign colluded in the russian attack on the election last year. these are not normal times. "the washington post" also reports tonight that the fbi is investigating whether any financial crimes were committed by people close to the president. and they report the fbi's inquiries are getting to a point where their work may be more public, more visible in public because the fbi according to "the washington post" is getting to a point we're going to see more su

to jason chaffetz i pose to you, do you think it was a mistake for president trump to bring on mike flynnhis national security adviser? >> at this point, in hindsight it certainly was a significant mistake. it appears that the president who is very loyal to michael flynn made a different decision along the way, knowing what we know now, it was not a good choice, in that position, but eight time to move on, get back to work, the special counsel gives us an opportunity with his investigation to dig deep into the facts so that we can do that. >> you said this a couple of times, time for congress to move on, something that i will tell you in my conversations with folks at the white house they'd like to get back to the agenda. our political team with first read grouped is shifting on the hill for republicans, like yourself, when it comes to what has happened here, the reverberations of the russia investigation, do you think it's realistic to be able to get past this and to talk about whether it's tax reform, whether it's infrastructure, et cetera, in any kind of a timely fashion, while this in

can't invoke the fifth amendment to protect itself in a case like this and they said we'll subpoena mike flynn directly. so that's essentially the next step. from there, the question is, what happens next? in theory, congress could hold flynn in contempt. it is unlikely because they control both houses of congress. they would have to go along with it to have a vote on that on the senate floor, and the house floor. and then the added wrinkle of bob mueller, the special counsel now investigating in the wake of james comey's firing. and that has changed the tirks of these investigations. everybody is very careful and concerned about screwing up the investigation. if they find new information, if there's public testimony, that can affect in sometimes very unpredictable ways how mueller's investigation might proceed. so that's where it stands. >> we'll get back to you in a little bit. it certainly feels like we're in the open stages of a devastating chapter of american history. evidence is mounting for the president's meddling in the russia probe. all these stories in the last two weeks. the presid

>> i think mike flynn is somebody who honorably served our country in uniform for over 30 years and i think as he's noted, lieutenant general flynn was asked for his resignation because he misled the vice president. beyond that, i think he did have an honorable career. he served with distinction in uniform for over 30 years and the president does not want to smear a good man. >> reporter: what was his role at the white house in those 18 days? was he still fulfilling his normal national security adviser duties? >> i'm not going to get back into it. >> reporter: wasn't worrisome he was still doing that when he was the potential target of blackmail? >> one thing that's important to note is let's look at again how this came down. someone who is not exactly a supporter of the president's agenda who a couple days after this first conversation took place refused to uphold a lawful order of the president, who is not exactly someone that was excited about president trump taking office or his agenda. hold on. let me answer the question. she had come here, given a heads-up, told us there were ma

mike flynn said he would pledge immunity but that's not going to happen. tell me how that's going. >> they sent for documents related to this investigation, it was not a subpoena to have flynn come and testify himself, but they decided a couple of days early to formally let them know that they were not going to be offering up those documents, skpin ste and instead, that he was going to invoke the 5th amendment. we have members of congress still coming back into town after the weekend. senator james lankford, member of the senate intelligence committee, said in a tweet, it is mike flynn's right to plead the 5th. we'll get to the truth one way or another. we need facts, not speculation and anonymous sources. so important to point out, katy, invoking your 5th amendment rights does not assume guilt, this is done to protect certain people. of course president trump has suggested otherwise in several tweets in the last couple months, but flynn's lawyers saying, look, there was this escalating public frenzy. there were all these calls from members of congress for

then, donald trump is tweeting how mike flynn is a great guy and he didn't do anything wrong and this was all essentially, i'm paraphrasing a witch-hunt by the media. in those 18 day, was there an assessment from the white house whether mike flynn was fit to continue serving or would he have continued to serve if those news reports did not shed light on the conversation between the former acting attorney general, samly yates and don mcgann. also at question, sean spicer, as sally noted, calling the question betweeniates and mcgann nothing more than a heads-up. we now know as was shown us to in that testimony that sally yates had three separate meetings, two of them in person and one over the phone. the second one she said she laid out four different topics with don mcgann. they discussed, number one, why it mattered to the doj, don mcgann asked, why one white house official was lying to another white house official. sally yates said that's essentially because he became a security risk, he could have been compromised, subject to blackmail by the russians. ultimately, that is a concern

. >> president obama warned president-elect trump from hiring general mike flynn. why did he not heed that warning? >> it's true that president obama made it known that he wasn't exactly a fan of general flynn's. the question you have to ask yourself, really, is if president obama was truly concerned about general flynn, why didn't he suspend general flynn's security clearance which they had approved just months earlier? how did they not do that besides not liking some of the comments he made? >> as we get to our correspondents as well, hallie, it's been called a connard for the trump house to rely on their reasoning, why wasn't general flynn's security clearance canceled? do you know why? >> this is a line you'll keep hearing over and over again from the trump administration and sean spicer today, being that flynn was politicized. his argument says they should have revoked his clearance if they had concerns. multiple former national security officials and intelligence officials are telling nbc news that there actually is a tougher vetting process, essentially, need

to be honest, i think mike flynn has deeper problems than improperly filling out forms. there's indications of money going back to the turkish businessman in this contract. $80,000. there's a dispute over whether it was a consulting fee or reimpurrei reimburei reimbursement. >> thank you, all. elizabeth, dion, rena and david. >>> next, the disturbing image. comedienne kathy griffin holding the likeness of president trump's severed head. did she go too far? we'll have reaction from the white house and the latest on the secret service's response. this isn't funny. i- [sound of wrench] [intricate guitar riff] [engine starts] [guitar continues] ♪ everything your family touches sticks with them. make sure the germs they bring home don't stick around. use clorox disinfecting products. because no one kills germs better than clorox. let's take a look at some numbers: 4 out of 5 people who have a stroke, their first symptom... is a stroke. 80 percent of all strokes and heart disease? preventable. and 149 dollars is all it takes to get screened and help take control of your health