they kept mike flynn in place as national security advisor for another 18 days. but now there is this tonight from "the new york times." despite concerns about blackmail, flynn was still privy to cia secrets. the paper tonight gives this timeline, quote, cia director mike pompeo was sworn in three days before sally yates went to the white house. by that time, cia officials had attended meetings with fbi agents about mike flynn and reviewed the transcripts of his conversations with the russian ambassador. intelligence officials knew a sally yates later told congress they were looking at quote a compromise situation. a situation where the national security advisor essentially could be blackmailed by the russians. at the fbi, at the justice department, at the office of the director of national intelligence and yes, at the cia career officials agreed that mike flynn represented an urgent problem. yet, nearly every day for three weeks the new cia director went to the oval office and briefed president trump on the nation's most sensitive intelligence with mike flynn sit

i happen to like the guy. >> happen to agree to disagree about mike flynn. >> he's not guilty. >> mike flynn sought immunity. >> let's litigate that at this table, he is not guilty -- >> are you going into the trump administration? >> we'll see. time will tell. >> good luck with thereat. they'd be lucky to have you. anthony scaramucci, thank you. >>> coming up, how democrats on the hill are responding at this hour. >> hiwhy didn't you stop and sa mr. president, this is wrong, i cannot discuss this with you? >> it's a great question. maybe if i were stronger, i would have. i was so stunned by the conversation that i just took it in and the only thing i could think to say, because i was playing in my mind, because i remember every word he said, i was playing in my mind what should my response be? that's why i very carefully chose the words. look, i've seen the tweet about tapes. lordy, i hope there are tapes. ♪ ♪ welcome to holiday inn! ♪ ♪ thank you! ♪ ♪ wait, i have something for you! ♪ ♪ making every stay a special stay. holiday inn, smiles ahead. whether for big meetings or little ge

they kept mike flynn in place as national security advisor for another 18 days. but now there is this tonight from "the new york times." despite concerns about blackmail, flynn was still privy to cia secrets. the paper tonight gives this timeline, quote, cia director mike pompeo was sworn in three days before sally yates went to the white house. by that time, cia officials had attended meetings with fbi agents about mike flynn and reviewed the transcripts of his conversations with the russian ambassador. intelligence officials knew a sally yates later told congress they were looking at quote a compromise situation. a situation where the national security advisor essentially could be blackmailed by the russians. at the fbi, at the justice department, at the office of the intelligence and yes, at the cia career officials agreed that mike flynn represented an urgent problem. yet, nearly every day for three weeks the new cia director went to the oval office and briefed president trump on the nation's most sensitive intelligence with mike flynn sitting right there list

so they had that over mike flynn. they could conceivably coercion him to behave in ways they wanted that would not be good for the united states. now, after that warning, there remain even today a lot of questions about the white house basically having no response to that warning for several weeks. the white house did not, for example, correct the record on any of the things that flynn or the white house had been lying about. they apparently did not limit his access to highly secret and highly sensitive information, despite what they had just been told about him. they even allowed flynn to sit in on a call between the president of the united states and vladimir putin. this is after the white house had been warned that flynn had been compromised by putin's government. you want to sit in on our call? you know him, right? so there remain a lot of questions about how the white house dealt with mike flynn after the warning they got and the evidence that they got about his foreign ties, particularly related to russia. but u

if mike flynn and the white house handling him as national security adviser stay informed about the russian attack. it raises questions about flynn and why he was able to listen in on the most sensitive intelligence our government has. in addition to that, in this letter, elijah cummings and democrats on the oversight committee, they also raised the question of the security clearance not just for flynn but also the one that had been issued to jared kushner, the president's son-in-law. because although mike flynn and jared kushner are different breeds of cat, they do both have multiple high-level contacts with russian officials that have yet to be explained that they didn't publicly disclose until they were forced to by press reports. and importantly, the russian contacts both of them had were apparently not included on their applications for their security clearances from this white house. and so congressman cummings, top democrat on the oversight committee, raises this question of whether or not jared kushner should also be keeping his security clearance, especially since he's a currently

we know that the mike flynn investigation has produced already multiple subpoenas to businesses associated -- to people in businesses associated with michael flynn. we know a federal grand jury has been convened in conjunction with that mike flynn case. that's how the subpoenas are being issued. we know that mike flynn case is being run out of the attorney's office in the eastern district of virginia and it's being led by a veteran espionage prosecutor, brandon van grack. the venue of the mike flynn investigation ends up being sort of newly important or at least newly interesting. about the vice president. there are federal prosecutor offices all over the country in every state. there are dozens of u.s. attorneys from sea to shining sea running federal prosecutor offices and handling all sorts of important federal investigations and prosecutions. everything from public corruption to big drug cases to terrorism to organized crime. you name it. so being the u.s. attorney anywhere in the country is a big deal. it means you are the top federal law enforcement lawyer, law enforcement prosecutor

what -- unpack the mike flynn enigma or the mike flynn puzzle.n what his ties are to the bush -- the bush? god. i really am back in a time capsule. to the trump family. jared kushner we know is in sort of a shrinking legal situation, under increased skrcrutiny from the fbi and seems to me if we don't know after he testifies thursday, we'll sort of be back in this fog of the russia question being an unanswered puzzle. >> i think it's going to remain an unanswered puzzle, though, because i think what the former fbi director is going to do is say, he can't reveal much about an ongoing investigation. that would undercut the fbi and its role in this case. and he cares so much about the reputation of his own agency that i really doubt it, but i'm, again, with you, on the shock is still that the president obstructed justice and asked him to pull the plug on an ongoing case. >> this is not going to be his -- >> and comey, we must remember, comey took contemporaneous notes. he went back and wrote down exactly what the president said to him, so i think his

what happened during the 18 days between the time that salary yates warned the white house that mike flynn was vulnerable to russian blackmail. what happened between the time of that warning and the white house fired him. despite concern that flynn could be black mailed he was privy to cia secrets. that tells you a big part of what they're reporting tonight. quote, mr. pompeo was sworn in three days before sally yates went to the white house. he testified last month that he can dp didn't know what was said at that sally yates meeting. by that time c rks airks officials had attended meetings with fbi agents about mr. flynn and reviewed the transcripts of flynn's conversations with the russian ambassador, according to several current and former american suttecurity officials. they knew that they were looking at a quote compromised situation. a situation where the national security adviser could be black mailed from the russians. continuing from the times report tonight, quote, mr. trump waited 18 days from that warning from sally yates before he fired mike flynn. during that period mime pomp

street journ breaking this news and if this bears out and the white house is not commenting and mike flynn is not commenting, this appears to be the first clear reported connection between the trump campaign and michael flynn and the russian attack with this well described, well-sourced effort by american operatives looking to contact the russians who they knew were attacking the united states to try to get stuff from the russians on clinton that they could use here. if flynn is implicated in that effort, that would seem to mean that the trump campaign is implicated in attempting to work with the russians to further the aims of their attack in this country. it's a really big deal. much more to come tonight. stay with us. a millie dresselhaus doll! happy birthday, sweetie! oh, millies. trick or treat! we're so glad to have you here. ♪ what if we treated great female scientists like they were stars? ♪ yasss queen! what if millie dresselhaus, the first woman to win the national medal of science in engineering, were as famous as any celebrity? [millie dresselhaus was seen having lunch today...

- excuse me, that republican operative, if that connection between the republican operative and mike flynn is substantiated, if flynn was also aware of or involved in that effort, that would be the first reported direct evidence of the trump campaign itself trying to collude with the russians in their attack on the election. so that's just broken tonight in "the wall street journal." in addition to that very big new news tonight, here's something about the fight over this investigation. i tried to give a little heads up about this on last night's show. we flagged this letter from the republican chairman of the senate judiciary committee, chuck grassley, and senator lindsey graham, they wrote a letter to the fbi requesting the fbi hand over all its warrants requests, all its draft warrant requests that they issued so far in their russia investigation and in the investigation into whether the trump campaign colluded with russia. they also have demanded to see the response that the courts have given after the fbi has made these requests for warrants. now, as i said last night, what lindsey gr

the president then returned to the topic of mike flynn saying, quote, he is a good guy and he's been gh a lot. he repeated that flynn hadn't done anything wrong on his calls with the russians but had misled the vice president. he then said, i hope you can see your way clear to letting this go. to letting flynn go. he is a good guy. i hope you can let this go. i replied only that he is a good guy. in fact, i had a positive experience dealing with mike flynn when he was a colleague as director of the defense intelligence agency at the beginning of my term with the fbi. i did not say i would let this go. the president returned briefly to the problem of leaks. i got up and made my way through the large group of people waiting there including mr. priebus and the vice president. i immediately prepared an unclassified memo of the conversation about flynn and discussed the matter with fbi senior leadership. i understood the president to be requesting that we drop any investigation of flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the russian ambassador in december. i d

>> to shut down the investigation of mike flynn. because that is not just asking for a statement, that's asking for fbi to take action and that, i think is much more serious since the president is the boss of the executive branch, which includes the fbi. >> two things i don't want to get lost in what you've been reading. number one, comey's repeated attempts to go to the department of justice and get some assistance from them, whether it's guidance or, you know, insulation in helping him and not getting it. so sessions says i can't promise you i won't leave you alone with the president and in the passage that you just read, that he went to the acting deputy attorney general and said i want your guidance and didn't get any. >> you make a very good point here because one of the republican talking points since this story has come out is if this is so terrible, why didn't you go to sessions? why didn't -- >> he did. >> and he did. several times. >> the other point i want to quickly point out is the emphasis that he did not tell the agen

for example, you know, the conversation about mike flynn. but what we didn't know is jim comey recounting that he stared down the president of the united states, he locked eyes and didn't say anything. you know, in this detail about typing out the memo in the car, this is a man not to be trifled with. he's clearly documented these interactions. now that said, comey will be asked, i think, it's a fair question, if you were so troubled by these events, why didn't you resign? and he will be asked whether he thinks this obstruction of justice. it will. intere be interesting to hear what his answers are to those questions. >> comey writes, "he said to me, i need loyalty, i expect loyalty. i didn't move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed. we simply looked at each other in silence. the conversation then moved on but he returned to the subject near the end of our dinner. he then said, i need loyalty. i replied, you will always get honesty. he paused and then said, that's what i want. honest loy

for his client, mike flynn.ver since mike flynn asked for immunity from prosecution and his lawyer promised that he had a story to tell, ever since then there has been this real live possibility lurking out there that the president could stop attempting to interfere around the edges of the mike flynn investigation and instead just pardon mike flynn. presidents can do that. a president has the power to wipe away a conviction. a president can grant a pardon even to someone never charged with anything whether a president should do that, that's a different question but a president certainly can. the president also has the power technically to fire a special counsel. to fire a special counsel who is leading an investigation into the president's campaign or and his associates or even into the president himself. and whether or not that is a wise decision apparently on the president's side they are now mulling that, as well. >> i think he's considering perhaps terminating the special counsel. i think he's weighing that

is still in the room and they're aware that mike flynn could be blackmailed by the russians?rk contrast from my days in the bush administration when i would live in fear that maybe i'd gone to coffee with a reporter and it was -- the receipt was $21 instead of $20 and so i was in violations of our ethics policy. so strict were the policies back in the day. how quaint that seems now. but with mike flynn in the oval hearing, these briefings, it's not -- at the end of the day, president trump wanted him there. it is president trump's decision to have given mike flynn the highest level of security clearance against the judgment of the intel apparatus. so the buck stops with president trump. and i think ultimately looking at his presidency, you know, in the history books, i think that his embrace of mike flynn is going to be remembered as his biggest error. >> michael lupica, the buck stops with president trump. to elise's point we're living in a whole new world. but president trump wakes up this morning and is only going to double down on russia is a ruse, this is the media out t

flynn. so here with me tonight cnn's david gergen nia-malika henderson, mike ana in a varieso, and van jones. we're walking through the critical february 14th oval office meeting. comey says president trump asked him to let flynn go, he's a good guy. fbi director comey now had a difficult decision. should he report this conversation with the president to the attorney general? the fbi leadership team agreed with me, he writes, that it was important not to infect the investigative team with the president's request, which we did not intend to abide. we also concluded that given that it was a one on one conversation, there was nothing available to corroborate my account. we concluded it made little sense to report it to attorney general jeff sessions, who we expected would likely recuse himself from involvement in russ russia-related investigation. he did so two weeks later. the role was then filled in an acting excise by a united states attorney, who would also not be long in the role. after discussing the matter, we decided to keep it very closely held, resolving to figure out what to do with

did the president tell the fbi director, james comey, to kill the mike flynn investigation or did he not dthat? did he try to kill the flynn investigation or didn't he? that's what it boils down to even if the russia things never happened. the president has a new private sector lawyer now. as soon as james comey's testimony was over today, that lawyer went into a press availability and denied this claim, denied that the president ever tried to shut down the flynn investigation. he denied it on the president's behalf again in no uncertain terms. they are declaring essentially that this is the hill they want to die on. >> the president never in form or substance directed or suggested that mr. comey stop investigating anyone, including the president never suggested that mr. comey, quote, let flynn go. >> president in form or substance did not direct or suggest, everyone told the fbi director to let the flynn investigation go. this is it. this is the nut. if there's only one thing that everybody on earth is going to remember about this -- this is what it's boiling down to. on the one hand

grandfather clock closed and we were alone, the president began by saying, i want to talk about mike flynnquote he is a good guy and has been through a lot. he then said i hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting flynn go. he is a good guy. i hope you can let this go. comey then says, i replied only that he is a good guy. i did not say i would "let this go." if the president did ask the director of the fbi to let an ongoing fbi investigation go, for whatever reason, and again we've had these allegations from unnamed sources and people close to comey before supposedly what he described in these memos he has supposedly written but we've never seen it's all been reported out, this is comey saying it now. if what he is saying is true, we have the president saying, stop that fbi investigation for whatever reason we are already in unchartered territory in terms of presidential behavior. i realize everybody is talking about nixon too much. nixon got nailed for talking about asking the cia to pressure the fbi about an investigation. get rid of all the middlemen and talking ab

he talks about the oval office february 14th when the president brought up mike flynn. omey said i did not understand that the president to be talking about the broader investigation into russia or possible links to his campaign. he asked him to let the flynn matter go. i could be wrong, but i took him to be focused on what just happened with flynn's departure and the conversation about his phone calls which would seem to shoot down the reporting or speculation that the president was asking comey to drop the entire investigation into flynn and russia. comey does go on to say though, quote, regardless it was very concerning given the fbi's role as an independent investigative agency. he said the fbi leadership team agreed that it was important not to infect the team with the president's request which we did not intend to abide. he said they did not bring it to the attention of the attorney general because they knew that he was going to be recusing himself in connection with the russian investigation. comey said after discussing the matter, we decided to keep it very close

to l off the mike flynn part of the trump/russia investigation. again, notnly ying that the president had told him that, but saying crucially that contemporaneously at the time he had made a written note of it and told other people that the president made this wildly inappropriate request to him. we knew that about james comey. now yet another senior official in the trump administration apparently went through the same thing and told people contemporaneously that the president had directed him to try to stop the fbi investigation. just a remarkable advance in the news. we started this week waiting for the comey testimony. waiting for james comey to testify on thursday before the senate intelligence committee. everybody parked at the edge of their seats waiting to hear what the former fbi director will say these reported claims that president trump asked comey to call off the investigation into flynn. friends and colleagues of comey say he described contemporaneously to them requests to stop the trump/russia investigation. on thursday morning, jame

investigation and instead just pardon mike flynn.presidents can do that. a president has the power to wipe away a conviction. he can grant pardon to someone who's never been charged with anything, whether presidents should do that, that's a different question, but presidents can. they also have the power technically to fire a special counsel who's leading an investigation into the president's campaign or into his associates or even into the president himself. and whether or not that is wise decision, apparently on the president's side, they are now mulling that as well. >> i think he's considering perhaps terminating the special counsel. i think he's weighing that option. i think it's pretty clear by what one of his lawyers said on television recently. i thk it would be a significant mistake even though i don't think there's a justification. and even though -- here you have a situation. >> you don't think there's a justification for -- for a special counsel in this case. but also robert mueller, there's real conflicts. he comes from

twice. >> do you sense that the president was trying to obstruct justice or just seek a way for mike flynn to save face given he had already been fired? >> general flynn at that time was in legal jeopardy. there was an open fbi criminal investigation of his statements in connection with the russian contacts and the contacts themselves. and so that was my assessment at the time. i don't think it's for me to say whether the conversation i had with the president was an effort to obstruct. i took it as a very disturbing thing. very concerning. but that's a conclusion i'm sure the special counsel will work towards to try and understand what the intengtion was there. >> do you believe this arises to the obstruction of justice? >> that's bob mueller's job to sort that out. >> that's bob mueller's job to sort that out. the special counsel will work to understand whether the obstruction intent was there, whether that's an offense. so that's the first obvious reason we believe that the special counsel, bob mueller is now investigating whether anyone potentiay including the president might have tried

that, do you sense that the president was trying to obstruct justice or just seek for a way for mike flynnto save face given he had already been fired? >> general flynn at that point in time was in legal jeopardy. there was an open fbi criminal investigation of his statements in connection with the russian contacts and the contacts themselves. >> i mean i guess that's not surprising, but still it was something to hear that confirmed. >> right. yeah, especially because if you remember, you go back to comey's march testimony, he said there was a counterintelligence investigation. >> right. >> that had begun in july. so this is the first time that he or anybody from the government has explitly said aspects of this turned into a crinal inveigation. so that was a significant answer. >> yeah, and i want to now get your feedback on the exchange over the dossier because one of the things that's sort of hardest to deal with it this dossier. the steele dossier. it is infamous. it contains salacious parts, it contains parts that appear to be flatly false. here was the response of comey on the infamou

. >> do you sense the president was trying to obstruct justice or just seek for a way for mike flynn to save face given he had

, and that was pretty clear for mike flynn, and that was pretty clearfor me at mike flynn, and that wasnst the idea that this was some kind of order thatjames the idea that this was some kind of order that james comey was the idea that this was some kind of order thatjames comey was given, it was gently asking. that doesn't seem to be how james was gently asking. that doesn't seem to be howjames comey took was gently asking. that doesn't seem to be how james comey took it. we are in this rather and such —— unsatisfying position where we will have days of litigation over who is telling the truth. 0ur have days of litigation over who is telling the truth. our previous gassed said that he thought james comey was not always truthful —— our previous gassed. i suspect you will have a couple of days of james comey supporters saying that it happened —— previous guest. if there are those tapes that come out... lordy, i hope that there are tapes come i think he said. jeff sessions, it has taken the white house 48 to say that the president has faith injeff sessions, the attorney general. he is cle

yestday tce. >> do you sense the president was trying to obstruct justice or just seek for a way for mike flynn to save face given he had already been fired. >> general flynn at that point was in legal jeopardy. there was an open fbi criminal investigation of his statements in connection with the russian contacts and the contacts themselves. so that was my assessment at the time. i don't think it's for me to say whether the conversation i had with the president was an effort to obstruct. i took it as a very disturbing thing, very concerning, but that's a conclusion i'm sure the special counsel will work towards to understand the intention there. >> do you believe this will arise to the obstruction of justice? >> i don't know that's bob muller's job to sort that out. >> the special counsel will try to work to understand whether the obstruction intent was tlft that's the first obvious reason we believe the special counsel, bob muller is investigating whether anyone potentially including the president might have try to obstruct justice in the russia investigation. first reason we think that is blu

if he said lay off mike flynn, he could have pardoned mike flynn with the stroke of a pen and ended it that. i mean nothing he did is criminal or anything. maybe it is politically -- maybe senators are going to make some hey over it, but that's about it. >> page, i saw you nodding your head a few times on that. also the issue is, sometimes it is not the crime, right? or the alleged crime but it is the cover-up that then thereby leads to something criminal. >> right. there is a lot to unpack there. congress can certainly request whatever tapes they want as part of their oversight responsibility. the president can push back on that. if there are tapes and can say, look, you can't have everything. some of these discussions i'm having in the oval office, they are protected by executive privilege. but, steve is right -- a special counsel can come in, maybe not with a search warrant but with a grand jury subpoena and say, look, i want to have these tapes. i don't know if there is a crime here or not -- yet. that's why we need to hear the tapes. that's why we need to compare what you've said,

that the president pressed him to drop the investigation into mike flynn but the fact that he continues to dangle whether or not there are actually tapes, that is the most striking part about all of this. if he wants to prove james comey wrong, then the question is, why not release those tapes which presumably would back up his case? he still hasn't done it. still hasn't corroborated that there actually are tapes and a lot of people think if there were tapes and he wanted to prove james comey wrong, he would have released them by now. clearly this fits into his reality tv persona. he is building the drama, he says we're going to get an answer soon. we'll have to wait to see if that happens. >> kristen, du he seem to have awareness of the history and now loaded this idea of tapes in the oval office is? do you have any sense that any of them are students of past political scandals ands understand in the context of watergate, dangling the word, "tapes," out there, is so loaded? are. >> reporter: well, there's no doubt about that. i think he's aware of that and hi staffers are aware of that

fox news confirmed that this virginia grand jury issued subpoenaed for mike flynn and his business dealings with turkey. flynn registered as a representative working on behalf of the turkish government, but he did it after he got paid $500,000 for work that he did last fall during the campaign. reuters is reporting and we're working to confirm that the russia special counsel robert mueller is wrapping in the virginia grand jury proceedings to the special counsel investigation of russia meddling and if there's links to associat associates. >> shepard: thanks, catherine. >> you're welcome. >> shepard: ahead, how much comey will be allowed to say. we'll hear what to expect next week. vladimir putin says a 3-year-old could have hacked the u.s. election. did he have a 3-year-old do it? we'll hear what else he had to say coming up from the fox news deck. when i look in the mirror everyday. when i look in the mirror everyday. everyday, i think how fortunate i am. i think is today going to be the day, that we find a cure? i think how much i can do to help change people's lives. i may not benefit fr

the president turned to the topic of mike flynn, this is comey saying this, saying he's a good guy, and he has been through a lot. he repeated that flynn hadn't done anything wrong in his calls with the russians but had misled the vice president. he then said, "i hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting flynn go. he is a good guy. i hope you can let this go." comb said, he is only a good guy. where account president be in trouble on that nancy? >> in the details comey has provided he took very interesting action after that conversation. first of all he once again documented the conversation and then he says he prepared an unclassified memo about the conversation and discussed it with fbi senior leadership. he says routinely, in this statement, that he didn't just keep this to himself, that he shared it with senior leadership, within the fbi, and at one point even went to senior leadership at the department of justice and asked them what he y wanted to do about this. the senior leadership when they discussed this it was important not to infect with the president's i

we also learned that mike flynn is probably in pretty deep stuff. we also learned there's more that we don't know why sessions recused himself. but at the end of the day, the fbi director talked about how he lost his job because he was investigating russian interferen in our democracy, in our election. and he worked for a president, the leader of the free world, never once asked him about russia's role in that election. >> one of the most powerful quotes about the russians, they're coming after america. if any americans were helping russia do that to us, that is a very big deal. ari melber from the legal side, same question. >> this is not a drill. this is not a tv show. this is a former fbi director laying out in very clear factual detail that he says he was fired, as nicolle was mentioning because of the russia investigation that the white house lied and defamed him. in the fbi, a legal word "defamed." and fired him at the heart of this. and ironing wh think what jim c is provide more basis for that, without using that word. he basically gave two

grandfather clock closed and we were alone, the president began by saying, i want to talk about mike flynnhad resigned the previous day, the president began by saying flynn hadn't done anything wrong in speaking with the russians, but he had to let him go because he had misled the vice president. he added that he had other concerns about flynn, which he did not specify, then specify. the president then made a long series of comments about the problem with leaks of classified information. concern i shared and still share. after he had spoken far few minutes about leeks, reince priebus leaned in through are the door by the grandfather clock and i could see a group of people waiting behind him. the president waved at him to close the door. saying he would be done shortly. the door closed. david axelrod, this is a significant moment here. why did the president need to have a private conversation with just james comey and no other presidential aids present? >> look, i think there are a lot of things about this story that if you were a defender of the president you would say, well, look, comey t

he wasn't loyal to newt gingrich or rudy giuliani, but he can't quit mike flynn. s this business or the larger investigation? >> i think the business thing is a piece of it. but you see it with flynn and with cory lewan dusky. the two people trump has let go of who he's upset -- >> pining for. >> he's upset that he was put in a position to have to fire them or to get rid of them. i mean, it's not just that flynn was at the top surrogate or national security adviser on the campaign. >> he was on the short list for vp. >> in spite of -- >> he got asked about abortion. >> don't appoint this guy, trump -- >> well, when it came to lewandowski he didn't kick the attorney general out of the room and ask the fbi director to go easy on him. he did that with flynn. >> one point -- >> i want to give nick the last word here because it's his piece that got this conversation going. where do you think the flynn story goes from here? >> a great question. i'm curious if there are consultants or consultancies or contracts or work that was pitched, but not accepted that we haven't he

the 24th, the fbi interviews mike flynn. sally yates goes to the general counsel and implores the white house on the 26th and even the morning of the 27th concerned about mike flynn and this idea he could get black mailed. and then all of a sudden, the dinner invitation comes. and then all that happened in 72 hou hours. >> the fact law enforcement officials, if they want a formal meeting with the president, they would do a formal meeting. and then he says in the letter that he only talked to president obama twice one-on-one. and he said what else jumps out? the fbi director felt the repeated could not twrakts so concerned that he didn't want one-on-one contact with the president at all. all of this against the back drop of what we know it was the assertion that he would fire comey anyway, the other leadership, the attorney general and deputy attorney general put together this letter of the handling of the clinton case. so i think what we're seeing as a preview of tomorrow, a time line that's very problematic for the white ho

, about the problems with mike flynn. she has testified she said mike flynn could be blackmailed. this is when the white house learned mike flynn was in serious legal jeopardy. the next day the president invites comey to dinner. >> ken answering some of those questions for us. appreciate it. >>> it wasn't just president trump's conduct that concerned james comey, he raised questions about her independence saying it was one of the main reasons he decided to go public will hillary clinton's e-mail investigation. >> at one point the attorney general directed me not to call it an investigation, but instead to call it a matter, which confused me and concerned me, but that was one of the bricks in the load that led me to conclude, i have to step away from the department if we're to close this case credibly. we were getting to the place where the attorney general and i were both going to have to testify and talk publicly about it. i wanted to know if she would authorize we had an investigation. she said, yes, but don't call it t

addition to that, you say the president was trying to obstruct justice or just seek for a way for mike flynn to save face given he had already been fired? >> general flynn at that point in time was in legal jeopardy. there was an open fbi criminal investigation of his statements in connection with the russian contacts and the contacts themselves. and, so, that was my assessment at the time. i don't think it's for me to say whether the conversation i had with the president was an effort to obstruct. i took it as a very disturbing thing, very concerning, but that's a conclusion i'm sure the special counsel will work towards to try and understand what the intention was there and whether that's an offense. >> and one question that might be at the heart of all of this -- >> why do you believe you were fired? >> i guess i don't know for sure. i believe -- i think the president fired me because of the russia investigation, something about the way i was conducting it the president felt created pressure on him he wanted to relieve. i didn't know that at the time, but i watched his interview. i've rea

and these -- i mean, i went back out the day after mike flynn resigned. oh, my god, do you care? trump fired him. they don't care, do they? >> i think this is one of things that we misunderstand so much. a lot of times when we cover the trump administration we cover washington right now, and you hear in the press and from his opponents he said drain the swamp during the campaign. look at the lobbyists he's sort of entangled with or look at kushner. i'm not saying these aren't issue but he's making a mockery of drain the swamp. what that term drain the swamp is has nothing to with his entanglement with russia, it's whether the liberals are saying he's changing the culture of d.c. that tells them that something big, something different, something new is happening. and i believe that reads in those places as you know what, he's draining the swamp. >> and the truth is, he beat 16 republicans who had never -- well, maybe a couple of them, but they never would have blown up all of these norms. steve's right. to his voters, these are assets liabilities. >> people are voting on pocketboo

they had that over mike flynn. they could cohearse and behave in ways that's not good for the united states. after the warning, they remained today of a lot of questions of the white house basically having no response of warnings for several weeks. the white house did not correct the record on any of the things that flynn or the white house had been lying about. they apparently did not limit his access to highly secret and highly sensitive information despite of what they have been told about him. they allowed flynn to sit in on a call between the president and the united states and vladimir putin. this is after the white house had been warned thatt flynn had been compromised by putin. so there is a lot of questions of flynn's ties to russia. 18 days after, the washington post exposed the warning had been delivered to the white house and the white house had not acted on it. 18 days that flynn did finally resigned. it was mid february and then the month after that in march, flynn registered as a foreign agent. he re

new reporting that special counsel bob mueller may take over the criminal investigation into mike flynn. >>> nbc news tracks down the russian banker the rev was just talking about who reportedly met with jared kushner. what's his side of the story? new bikes aren't selling guys... what are we gonna do? how about we pump more into promotions? ♪ nah. what else? what if we hire more sales reps? ♪ nah. what else? what if we digitize the whole supply chain? so people can customize their bike before they buy it. that worked better than expected. i'll dial it back. yeah, dial it back. just a little. live business, powered by sap. when you run live, you run simple. for finding relief can seem sualmost as painful.ck pain finally the search is over. drug-free aleve direct therapy®. a tens device with high intensity power that uses technology once only available in doctors' offices. its smart wireless design lets you control its intensity for deep penetrating relief at the source. the power of relief is in your hands. aleve direct therapy. find yours in the pain relief aisle. for years, centurylin

>> or at least got a message to mike flynn that he should stay strong. we're not exactly sure -- no, you're exactly right. who knows. you know? it could be that he's trying to be loyal to a friend and somebody who was extremely loyal to trump during a campaign and at times where trump had a lot of po of people fleeing his orbit when he made some pretty big mistakes. and michael flynn did not do that. now, on the flipside, i totally agree that donald trump doesn't generally just offer what seems to be almost unconditional support and loyalty just out of the goodness of his heart. there might be something else there that we gijust don't know about. but that is why the concept or notion of flynn potentially talking to the feds in order to get, you know, to get either immunity or a lighter sentence for whatever it is that he may have done, may have done, that is criminal is a big red flag for the white house and for the president himself, potentially. >> i mean, just quickly, do you think the president might be nervous? >> do i think so? >> yeah. this possib