>> it was not our call as to whether or not mr. flynn was fired, we were giving them information so that they could take the action that they believed was appropriate. >> on february 14thth after general flynn resigned, sean spicer said, and i quote, there was nothing in what general flynn did in terms of conducting himself that was an issue. do you have any idea what he meant by those words? >> no. i'm not -- all i can say he didn't reach that conclusion from his conversation with us. i can't speak to how he arrived at that. >> let me ask you there was a period of time 18 days that we've referred to during the course of this and during that period of 18 days a number of things occurred. general flynn continued to serve of as the national security adviser for 18 days after you had briefed the white house about the counterintelligence risk that he posed, and during those 18 days general flynn continued to hire key senior staff on the national security council, announced new sanctions on iran's new ballistic missile program, met with japan

division was part of those discussions with the fbi. >> did you discuss criminal prosecution of mr. flynn? general flynn. >> my recollection is that did not come up much in the first meeting. it did come up in the second meeting when mr. mcgann called me back and asked the morning after -- this is the morning of the 27th and asked if i could come back to his office. i went back with the nsd official. there were four topics that he wanted to discussion there. one of those was precisely that. he asked about the a applicability of certain statutes -- >> this was at the white house -- >> the white house. >> with the same two individuals on the following day? >> right. >> you went back pursuant to a phone call request or -- >> yes. the morning of the 27th after our meeting occurred on the afternoon of the 26th, the morning of the 27th mr. mcgann called me and asked if i could come back to the white house. we set up a time and i went over that afternoon bringing the same career official me from national security division who was overseeing this investigation. he had the same associate from the

should be a record somewhere in our system, whether or not an unmasking request was made between mr. flynn and the russian ambassador. if it was made, who made it, and then we can and what they did with the information. is that a fair statement, mr. clapper? >> yes. >> what did you tell the white house? i said there were a number of press accounts, statements that could be made between vice president and other high ranking officials about general flynn's could not dpukt we knew to be untrue. we told them how we knew that this, how we had this information. how we had acquired it. and how we knew that it was untrue. and we walked the white house counsel, who had an aociate with him, thrgh general flynn's underlying conduct, the contents i cannot go through with you today because it is classified. we took him through a tremendous am of detail. what general flynn had done and then we walked through the various press accounts and how it had been falsely reported. we also told how general flynn had been interviewed by the fbi on february 24th. mr. mcgann asked me how did he and i declined to giv

the director testified a few days ago in the full committee that the fbi had interviewed mr. flynn a day before or two days before your meeting at the white house and you just testified that you had told the white house council that the fbi had interviewed flynn and he asked mcgann had asked how did he do? >> right. >> did you have the 302 with you when you were in the white house? did you show it to white house council and had you seen it at the time you went up to the white house? >> no. the fbi had conducted the interview on the 24th. we got a read out from the fbi on the 25th, a detailed readout specifically from the agents that conducted the interview but we didn't want to wait for the 302 because we felt it was important to get this information to the white house as quickly as possible so we had folks from the national security division who spent a lot of time with the agents, not only finding out exactly how the interview went but how this impacted their investigation. >> so did you take that summary with you? do you have any document with you that described the fbi intervie

well the president has expressed his view that mr. flynnas a decent man who served our country he has never asked mr. comey or anyone else to end any investigation including the investigation involving general flynn. this is not a truthful or at portrayal ofurate the conversation between the president and mr. comey. the story gives a little bit of a background to the meeting. here is more from the times, saying "despite the conversation the investigation of mr. flynn has continued. part of the flynn investigation is centered on his financial links to russia and turkey. mr. comey had been in the office that day with other senior officials. went the meeting ended mr. trump told those present to leave the room except for mr. comey. office mr.e oval trump began the discussion by condemning leaks to the news media, saying mr. comey should consider putting reporters in prison for publishing classified information. mr. trump then turned to discussion to mr. flynn. after writing a memo that outline the meeting mr. comey shared it with senior fbi of

callsmmer 29, mr. flynn -- december 29, mr. ynn calls several times. 26, sally yates tells the white house counsel that mr. flynn has not been truthful about the details of those calls and he could be vulnerable to russian blackmail. fires mrs. mr. trump yates. matt is up next in baltimore, maryland. line for independents. caller: thank you for c-span. there is a decided tone of divisiveness in her testimony. the thing about it is that if you look at the gross results, they were zero. there was no evidence that there forany tampering with votes president trump. byelieve that as time goes and he continues to be as effective as he's been to date, i think all of this will erode wnd the republicans who are no led by a larger man will either disappear or change significantly under new leadership. democrat, a lifelong a world war ii veteran, i'm 90 years old and i listen to all of this trash -- it has to disappear. it makes no sense whatsoever and america is really hurting. who are the specific leaders of the republican party you are

yates, what did you tell the white house about mr. flynn? >> i had two in-person meetings and one phone call with the white house council about mr. flynn. the first meeting occurred on january 26th. i called done mcgann first thing that morning and told him that i had a very sensitive matter that i needed to discuss with him, that i couldn't talk about it on the phone and that i needed to come see him and he agreed to meet with me later that afternoon. i took a senior member of the national security division who was overseeing this matter with me to meet with mr. mcgann. we met with his office at the white house so we could discuss classified information in his office. we began our meeting telling him that there had been press accounts of statements from the vice president and others that related conduct that fl flynn had been involved in, that we knew not to be the truth. and as i tell you what happened here, again i'm going to be very careful not to reveal classified information. >> the reason you knew it was true because you had collected

mr. clapper, mentioned the russian propaganda and we know general flynn attended a gala hosted by, tenth anniversary gala for rt where he sat next to president putin and got paid over $33,000 for that. mr. clapper, given the information provided to the white house, and this is during the january 26 and 27 time frame regarding general flynn, should he have sat in on the following discussions? january 28, he participated in an hour-long call along with president trump to president putin. february 11, he participated in a discussion with prime minister abe and the president at our logout to discuss north korea's missile test. given the information provided, should he have participated in these two instances? >> i can't, it's difficult for me to answer because i was out at that point. >> let's say you were in. >> it's a standard comment, general comment. i don't think it was a good practice. >> i think this comports with some of the concerns raised about the appropriateness or adequacy of the trump administration's vetting process with regard to various disclosures by other members of his adm

once the president was forced to fire mr. flynn, he expressed no animosity or discomfort with the fact that mr. flynn led the vice president to misled the country but rather he was angry of the press for revealing it. sometimes there after, he meets and had dinner with james comey. james comey is concerned whether he can keep his job. and the president when he's asked by the president's account whether he's going to continue during that conversation. the president asks him to drop the investigation of michael flynn. this is the course of the last couple of year ercvents just involving one person within the russian investigation. it under scores the seriousness of this investigation. why we have to ensure it is independent in terms of our over site responsibilities but also in terms of if there are laws that's violated and we have an independent maker at the justice department making that decisions. the commission brings two things. the commission brings an independent body and complete removed from political considerations to give

comey, not to investigate mr. flynn. this raise questions for you about what -- not whether there is some nefarious deal between the trump administration and the russian government, but whether mr. trump has the character or the temperament to make a success of his presidency. >> we know that president trump lacked political experience, experience in governing, did not fully understand or appreciate the rules and laws that are involved when you are president of the united states. it shows in the way that he behaved. it was more the behavior of somebody who operates in the real estate industry in new york city, as opposed to the president of the united states. there are a lot of questions about the behavior that doesn't take into consideration the concerns about violating possible laws here. he was acting more out of the personal concern for what was happening to somebody like general flynn. president of the united states, your first responsibility is to protect and enforce the constitution of the united states and the la

senator whitehouse: did you discuss criminal prosecution of mr. flynn, general flynn? ms. yates: that did not come up in the first meeting but the second meeting when mr. mcgahn called me back the next morning and asked me if i could come back to his office and i went back with the official and there were four topics that he wanted to discuss there and one of those topics was he asked about the politic contact of certain criminal statutes. senator whitehouse: second meeting at the white house in his office? with the same two individuals on the following day? ms. yates: right. senator whitehouse: you went back to a phone call request? >> the morning of the 27 tf after our meeting occurred on the 26th, mr. mcgahn called me asked if i could discuss this further and we set up a time ap i went over that afternoon sm the same career official who was overseeing this investigation more me we talked through issues. senator whitehouse: you coor perhaps have waited until you have seen the agent's 302 of the interview of general flynn, why go ahead of that? why not wait? ms. yates: thi

, when did the white house, trump transitions trump know about this, did he decide not to remove mr. flynnre were genuine concerns he was a russian agent. >> by the way, it wasn't the idea of trying to quarantine michael flynn off is made very complicated by the fact "washington post" and ap stories said jared kushner in one of those meetings, too. malcolm, do you want to say something? >> yeah. if i was a counter-intelligence team tasked out on watching behaviors of general flynn and thinking there was some suspicion about him or the people around him and that he may, in fact, be manipulated, the one thing i would watch out for is these behaviors when these sanctions were implemented. his immediate behavior was to reach out five times to a foreign diplomat, known intelligence collector, with authorization from donald trump, that would have been proof for me. at that point i would have been rolling this guy up. we would have pulled him in for counter-intelligence polygraph, squeezed his clearance and considered him a turned asset. >> none of that happened. i want to really quickly while i

support, relations between donald trump and mr comey were strained over the fbi investigations into mr flynnhe us election. investigations mr comey insisted would continue. the fbi, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. mr comey was fired by the president last week, but washington has been astounded by the existence of the note he apparently made after their earlier meeting. a meeting which vice president mike pence was reportedly asked to leave. in a week full of revelation after revelation, on a day when we thought things couldn't get any worse — they have. only 2a hours ago, president trump justified sharing sensitive intelligence information with russia's foreign minister, a decision which observers say could have compromised american allies and their sources. for some senior lawmakers, republicans included, this is all too reminiscent of an earlier and dark era. i think we have seen this before. i think it is reaching a point where it is of watergate size and scale, and a couple of ot

i had two in—person meetings and one phone call with the white house counsel about mr flynn. the latest on the release of some of the chibok girls in nigeria. welcome to outside source. this is what we heard today from the president elect of france. translation: i wanted to be in the republican spirit, marine le pen was my adversarial. i know the division of our nation has led to extreme votes, and i respect that. i know the rage, i know the anxiety, the doubt that lots of you also expressed. and it is under my responsibility to hear them and to protect the weak, but weakest, and to organise solidarity better and fight against any form of discrimination and inequality, and making sure in a resolute way that your security will be guaranteed, andi your security will be guaranteed, and i will also guarantee the unity of the nation. emmanuel macron's victory was emphatic. he took 66% of the vote. 34% for marine le pen. there was also cause for concern for him. around 4 million voters spoilt their ballot papers. another 12 million didn't vote at all, together that's well over a qu

>> knew what about mr. flynn? >> well, that he had had a conversation with the russian ambassador about sanctions? >> well, that was late, that was the 29th of december or so as reported in the media that took place. >> january 19th the president was sworn in. how did he get a security clearance? >> he had a security clearance and had one for a long time. a career military officer, and i don't know the specifics of when his -- when his fell due. the system is every five years you -- the current system every five years you're supposed to get a periodic reinvestigation, and i don't know of the details of that. that would probably be done by his old agency, the defense intelligence agent. >> i don't have you to get some additional double secret security clearance to serve of in the white house. >> well, yes, you do, and as i indicated before -- >> could i ask you how he got one. >> the process is -- i don't know how it's done in this administration. >> okay. >> but my -- my own knowledge of how it was done when i ser

after general flynn resigned on january 13, president trump tweeted that mr. flynn is a wonderful man and it is very, very unfair what has happened to general flynn. under quote. so is this the kind of statement that would be made of a president aware of serious securities concerns about his former national security adviser in? >> i am loathe to comment on the tweets. i suppose honest expression how he felt. >> well, does it sound like someone who knew there were very serious concerns, that he would say mr. flynn is a wonderful man? maybe i should let people draw their own conclusions. >> i don't know what information was conveyed to the president. i have no insight there. i don't know the extent to which he had an understanding what the acting attorney general conveyed. i don't know how much of that made its way to the president. >> precisely. that is a concern that i have. that it sounds like perhaps the president was not aware. and in fact going on in march, the president tweeted that flynn should be given immunity, and the fbi satisfies investigation is, quote,

one of the interesting details is the reason mr flynn lost hisjob interesting details is the reason mrwas about not declaring certain meetings with the russian ambassador in the us but there is no dispute those meetings took place now. there isn't and the reason he lost his job, took place now. there isn't and the reason he lost hisjob, he took place now. there isn't and the reason he lost his job, he was forced to resign by donald trump, was because he misled white house officials about the nature of those discussions and one of those officials he misled it was the vice president, mike pence. donald trump had received warnings from president obama after he won the election, saying not to appoint michael flynn, possibly because of these connections that the obama administration believed he had with the kremlin. he was also on the payroll of the turkish government as well, offering them consultancy. before even donald trump took office there were warnings about michael flynn and of course when he was appointed the national security adviser he did not last a single month in thejob. advis

it came a month after they notified mr. flynn he was under investigation, despite the warning, trump made flynn his national security advisor anyway. flynn's disclosure to the trump transition was january 4th. it was first made to the transition team's chief lawyer, don mcgann, now white house counsel and that conversation shows the trump team knew about the federal investigation of mike flynn far earlier than previously reported putting a much finer point on the question of why they hired him and why they didn't fire him until 18 days after the justice department came to the white house with their proverbial hair on fire saying your national security advisor has a russia problem. they knew he was under federal investigation when they named him national security advisor and now under the probe of possible conclusion with the trump campaign and russia and nbc describes he's a subject in the investigation and means he's technically suspected of committing crimes. the pace of the investigations have intensified in recent weeks with

once the president was forced to fire mr. flynne expressed no animosity or discomfort with the fact that mr. flynn led the vice president to mislead the country. rather he was angry at the press for revealing it. sometime thereafter, according to the president's own account, he meets and has dinner with james comey in which comey is concerned about whether he can keep his job. and in the context of that dinner the president wants to know whether he's the subject of that same investigation. and the president, when he's asked by the president's account whether he's going to continue during that dinner conversation to keep comey on, he says, we'll see. now it is reported that subsequent to that dinner, at another meeting with director comey, he asked others in the room to absent themselves, to leave the room. he then has a conversation where the president asks him to drop the investigation of michael flynn. this is the course of the last couple of years events just involving one person within the russia investigation. and i think it u

mr. flynn's testimony or both. remember, mr. ynn denied his testimony and denied subpoena requests from the senate intelligence committee, and that committee could be considering contempt of court, contempt of congress, excuse me, for michael flynn, a rarely invoked process that should lawmakers choose to pursue it, could result in criminal citation. that in the "new york times" this morning. back to our calls and our healthcare discussion. anna from texas. good morning. go ahead. caller: good morning. i don't think people understand what single payer is going entail. in canada, my daughter lived there for seven years. yes, they had good medical insurance, could come over here, my son-in-law had to have surgery, they could come here, bills paid. but then also, americans should get ready that your taxes will increase, because it's part of it. 50%. people don't understand that. that when you have single payer a friend who just lost her job because of -- she's out a lot, breast cancer, the affordable care, $21 a month. so she can ge

mr flynn was forced to resign in february after lying about phone calls with the russian ambassador. researchers in britain say hiv patients can now expect to live close to the same age as the general population. their findings represent a ten—year increase in life expectancy since drug treatment became widely available, two decades ago. real madrid are on the verge of more european history, after reaching another champions league final. real went through 4—2 on aggregate, despite losing their semi—final second leg to atletico madrid. now it is time for world business report. snapjudgement — investors punish the firm behind snapchat. as the messaging app's results disappoint, its shares plunge 23%. plus: borderline anxiety. businesses in northern ireland fear for the future on britain's post—brexit frontier. welcome to world business report. i'm tanya beckett. also coming up: a strong year forjapanese tech giant softbank. but first: we start with snap, the company behind the messaging app snapchat. in case you aren't familiar with it, it lets you send photo messages which disappear a

yates, what did you tell the white house about mr. flynn? >> i had two in-person meetings one phone call with the white house counsel about mr. flynn. the first meeting occurred on january 26th. i called done mcbegan first thing that morning and told him that i had a very sensitive matter thievd discuss with him, that i couldn't talk about it on the phone and i needed to come see him, and he agreed to meet with me later that afternoon. infield i took a senior member of the national security division who was overseeing this matter to meet with me. we met in his office at the white house which is a skiff so we could discuss classified information in his office. >> again, it is remarkable here that this is not even one week into the new administration. swearing in was a friday, this is the thursday after the inauguration. this is six days into the new presidency. and the serving attorney general, the act attorney generally, has gone to the white house counsel's office which has a sensitive kpartmented information facility a skiff where they can

understanding how mr. flynnake a personal exception, take the fifth and we will let he and his attorneys decide if that's the appropriate thing to do. >> we know he had contact with the russians as part of the trump campaign. he was fired by president trump for being dishonest for what he talked to the russian ambassador about, the issue of sanctions before president trump was in fact in the white house. so if flynn has something to tell, which it seems like he does, would your committee consider granting him immunity in order to hear that? >> that's a very technical legal issue and it would depend on the legal jeopardy he is facing but we want him to talk to us and to tell his story. this is a tragedy in a way because mr. flynn served his country so admirably so many years and with such integrity and like you said there's allegations of collusion but no evidence of that. what we have is him not being honest with the vice president, which is a very different things that colluding with the russians and we would h

had been press accounts of statements from the vice president and others that related conduct that mr. flynnhad been involved in that we knew not to be the truth. >> did you discuss criminal prosecution

i don't know what happened, but i would say to mr. flynn, please, mr. lynn, come forward and work with us. don't make us pull everything out tooth by tooth. >> marco rubio was just on. he said i'll tell you what concerns me, it is not just these reports but their sources. could compromising national security, could make foreign leaders not want to work with us. what has come out that has compromised national kosecurity? >> i guess the old saying that loose lips sink ships and people are concerned can they trust us. >> but that applies to the president. he's the one that may or may not have leaked sensitive information in the media. not the media, not for these leaks. >> the media? >> who knows whether or not the white house would have operated on michael phone line. we wouldn't have heard about these conversations with the dni and the nsa. are the leaks the problem here? >> the those people who have this information that the so-called leaks are coming from, come and leak it to the intelligence committee. come and leak it to the staff that has the ability

there are some documents that his attorney feels either may implicate mr. flynne mere fact he has those documents would there's something in mr. flynn's possession that the government might want and what flynn ask his attorney are likely going to be seeking is something called act of production immunity. immunity so that their act of giving up the incriminating document can't be used. >> so i was talking to very smart attorneys last hour. they were saying, hang on. he could plead the fifth, but that wouldn't apply to those documents. you're saying what you just explained, that can be protected. >> if the document would implicate you, i would give you an example. let's say you were being charged with possessing particular classified information. or being investigated for that. the government subpoenas you for the information that says that it's investigating that you have. the mere fact of you produce in it would tell the government that flt of the crime. so what would you would want is immunity from the government because the mere act would be communicating somet

and i think, again, this is a fight for the soul of our democracy. >> well, mr. flynn flynn knows everything you're trying to answer. he has the answers in his head right now as he watches. this is fascinating stuff. thank you so much u.s. congressman elijah cummings of maryland. >>> up next, more on hillary clinton's interview today and the reason she gave for the loss in 2016. she blamed the comey letter -- fair enough -- and misogyny. we'll talk about that which is defined by webster's dictionary as hatred of women, especially by men. hmm. that's ahead. you're watching "hardball," where the action is. will your business be ready when growth presents itself? american express open cards can help you take on a new job, or fill a big order or expand your office and take on whatever comes next. find out how american express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open.com. ...one of many pieces in my life. find out how american express cards and services so when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my long-term control medicine. i talked to my doctor and

support, relations between donald trump and mr comey were strained over the fbi investigations into mr flynninterference in the us election. investigations mr comey insisted would continue. the fbi, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. mr comey was fired by the president last week, but washington has been astounded by the existence of the note he apparently made after their earlier meeting. a meeting which vice—president mike pence was reportedly asked to leave. in a week full of revelation after revelation, on a day when we thought things couldn't get any worse — they have. only 2a hours ago, president trump justified sharing sensitive intelligence information with russia's foreign minister, a decision which observers say could have compromised american allies and their sources. for some senior law—makers, republicans included, this is all too reminiscent of an earlier dark era. i think we have seen this movie before. i think it's reaching a point where it is of watergate size and scale,

but there's a large gap of several years where we don't know what mr. flynn was doing. >> i was watching the testimony today and there was a lightbulb moment for me about collusion and cooperation. you've been clear about your skepticism of open collusion and cooperation. brennan said this thing that il thought of conversations we've had in that regard. take a listen. >> i've studied russian intelligence activities over the years and i've seen it, again, manifested in many different of our counterintelligence case and how they've been able to get people, including inside of cia, to become treasonous and frequently individuals who go along that path do not even realize they're along that path until it gets to be a bit too late. >> how does that relate to your awareness of how russian intelligence or any intelligence agency operates in terms of cultivating people without them even realizing they're being cultivated? >> that's right. the russians are so sophisticated when it comes to this, and i would call it the romance phase. there's this part, and i was deali

mr. flynn's legal woes?l, it's trying to rearrange the chairs before we have some hearings next week, which could be far more significant than just inside baseball. let me explain. it is quite likely that sally yates, the former attorney general, will testify next week in a closed-session hearing that she, too, warned the administration that flynn was susceptible because of his contacts with the russians, including the discussions with the ambassador, sergey kislyak. now, that's not going to look good, so i suspect that many in the trump transition team and administration are trying to distance themselves from flynn. look, we had nothing to do with this. he spoke off of his own accord to the ambassador. he went rogue. but here's the problem. when flynn spoke five times on december 29th, before trump took office, with kislyak, he spoke specifically about new sanctions that had been put on moscow by the obama administration. question -- did flynn go to kislyak and talk about what might be done to limit those s

>> well, we do know, i believe, that mr. flynn said he one did not have conversation with the russian ambassador, and two, when he had to admit they had conversations that they were not about sanctions. we know that was not true. and so just in and of itself, that lie, if that's what we want to call it, the misstatement that he didn't engage with the ambassador and didn't discuss sanctions in which i expect nsa wiretaps or cia wiretaps or fbi wiretaps picked up is reason enough for us to understand why he was separated. so i'm not sure that we're missing what the lie was. that there were secondary lies or misstatements or mistakes, i don't mean to impugn general flynn by any means but he didn't register as an agent for the government of turkey. seemingly did not disclose to the defense intelligence agency paying for his speech and did not report that on his financial disclosure statements. those are a lot of things substantive which when sally yates said to white house counsel, you got to be careful here, and when the president of

had been press accounts of statements from the vice president and others that related conduct that mr. flynnad been involved in that we knew not to be the truth. we were concerned the american people had been misled about the underlying conduct and what general flynn had done. additionally, we weren't the only ones that knew all this. the russians also knew what general flynn had done and the russians also knew general flynn had misled the vice president and others. that created a compromised situation, a situation where the national security advisor essentially could be blackmailed by the russians. i remember mr. mcgann asked me whether or not mr. flynn should be fired? i said that was not my call but thought it was critical we get this information to the white house. in part because the vice president was unknowingly making false statements to the public and because we believed general flynn was compromised with respect to the russians. to state the obvious you don't want your national security advisor compromised with the russians. >> in the hearing, still unanswered including whether the

mr. trump knew that general flynn had rar incriminating information on mr.mp having to do with the russia investigation and made this request of mr. comey in order to keep mr.-- general flynn quiet, that would be obstruction. >> yang: because that would-- that would satisfy the acting corruptly? >> that would be an improper purpose, yes, to keep a witness quiet. >> yang: in this discussion, can a president mjeffress, can a president be indicted? >> not while he's sitting. that seems to be settle. he can be impeached and could be indicted after being impeached if-- once he's removed from office. >> yang: so, michael, this becomes not-- then becomes a question of not so much a legal question of what the law says but he becomes a political question, does it not, of what congress says, what the house says in of drafting a bill of indictment and what the senate would say in whether to convict on that bill. >> i do think that's exactly right. you had, for example, during watergate, the grand jury then named president nixon as an unindicted coconspirator, but the r

yates, what did you tell the white house about mr. flynn? >> sally yates speaks out. >> we believed that general flynn was compromised with respect to the russians. >> for the first time ever, former acting attorney general on what she told the white house about michael flynn. >> the underlying conduct that general flynn had engaged in was problematic in and of itself.

would have profound concerns about mr. flynn becoming a top national security aide. it goes on to say that flynn's name came up about personnel. the concerns were largely about his mismanagement. he goes on about warning trump about flynn. here is sean spicer today. >> it's true that the president, president obama made it known he wasn't exactly a fan of general flynn. it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, given that general flynn had worked for president obama, was an outspoken critic of president obama's shortcomings. if he was truly concerned, why didn't he suspend general flynn's security clearance? why did the obama administration let flynn go to russia for a paid speaking engagement? >> i think what we are seeing is the white house pushing back on the narrative. that they thought flynn wasn't going to be a good actor for them. we start with what donald trump was trying to tweet. >> bret: general flynn was given the high security clearance by the obama administration with the fake news, talking about that and then the

so it is ironic that it is mr. flynnnvoking the fifth had amendment as we get deep entire the russia investigation. >> i want to ask you about james comey. he is expected to speak with jason chaffetz today on the phone about comey likely or possibly testifying the week before, after memorial day. chaffetz' question, the memos even exist. let's listen. okay. we don't have that. what is your sense about jason chaffetz wondering about james comey's truthfulness? >> well, listen, to me, just make sense. it doesn't add up. i agree with the ranking member, elijah cummings. it is important for anyone in the committees, hopefully an independent commission that will look at this to get any and all dpomts m documents that he has kept. er the best way to find out whether he has them or not is to get him to subpoena them and have him produce them and have them that a public forum very soon so we can get to the bottom of the truth and the facts of what has taken place during this investigation. >> good to talk to you. thank you. >>>

and mr. flynn didn't put down his meetings either. i think we're not going to have an issue of not getting to the fire and finding out what's going on here for some time. these people have been engaged in a lot of questionable, dubious activities. >> before we go, i know we're out of time, but the fact that jared kushner, mike flynn, jeff sessions, all missing information on those security forms, we've heard rumblings that, well, the person they were working on it with, the fbi people said you didn't need to share that necessarily. does that hold water based on your reporting? >> we need to let the investigation run its course. these are complicated and there are technical issues here. 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 im

had been press accounts of statements from the vice president and others that related conduct that mr. flynn had been involved in that we knew not to be the truth. >> did you discuss criminal prosecution >> my recollection is that did not really come up in the first meeting. it did come up in the second meeting. >> the senate panel is one of three congressional probe since russian meddling into the presidential election and possible ties between trump associates and moscow. the trump administration insists there is no collusion with russia and is calling on lawmakers to investigate alleged weeks by the obama administration officials. >>> so just who is sally yates and how did she get in this position? she first became mainstream with big attention in 2010 when president obama appointed her to run the u.s. attorney's office in atlanta. the first woman ever to do that. in 2015 she was confirmed as deputy attorney general and later promoted to acting attorney general. in january of this year, she informed the white house that national security adviser michael flynn had misled them about the nat

in terms of mr. flynn, i'm not really interested in relitigating that. i think it's pretty clear.e whether they'll admit it or not, i bet the white house will, too, that hiring mr. flynn was a mistake. doesn't mean that the folks who hired him are bad people. just means that they're human. you don't generally not make a mistake when you have to fire somebody. what i am also interested in though is bringing this back home to the real issue, and that's the russian influence in america's election. we got to get to the bottom of this. that's what our investigative agencies are doing. i'm hoping to turn over every rock. i hope they do it quickly. i hope they present the facts to the american people and we'll let the chips fall where they may. frankly, i'm ready to move on. we've got other issues besides russia's involvement in the election. because guess what? they've been trying to become involved in our elections back to the nixon race. >> maria: exactly right. that's why i'm questioning you about it. you say let's get to the bottom of it. they've been working on this for a long time

i had two in—person meetings and one phone call with the white house counsel about mr flynn.

so i think at some point, mr. flynn compelled to turn over those documents and you start talking about immunity. >> what is usually happening when you get to the point legally when you're throwing a hail mary pass? what could be happening? what could they be responding to? what kind of pressures could be bearing down on their team? >> a couple things, first of all, right now, nicolle, the government has enough information to charge mr. flynn. reportedly he lied to the fbi when he told them he didn't have any conflicts or any communications with the russians. >> and paul, would that be like a perjury charge? what would he be charged with? >> yeah, it would be false statements. 1001, used to bring those cases all the time when i was a public corruption prosecutor. his lawyer also says he has a story to tell, he wants to snitch. now, that story's only significant if he can deliver someone higher in the food chain than he was. he was the national security adviser. so we're looking at the president, the vice president or top

support, relations between donald trump and mr comey were strained over the fbi investigations into mr flynnference in the us election. investigations mr comey insisted would continue. the fbi, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. mr comey was fired by the president last week, but washington has been astounded by the existence of the note he apparently made after their earlier meeting. a meeting which vice president mike pence was reportedly asked to leave. in a week full of revelation after revelation, on a day when we thought things couldn't get any worse — they have. 0nly 2a hours ago, president trump justified sharing sensitive intelligence information with russia's foreign minister, a decision which observers say could have compromised american allies and their sources. for some senior lawmakers, republicans included, this is all too reminiscent of an earlier dark era. i think we have seen this movie before. i think it is reaching a point where it is of watergate size and scale, and

mr. flynn's theer, they knew about investigation far earlier than previously reported. if you did not have a chance to call in, you are welcome to do so in half an hour. we are going to be joined by doug collins to discuss the latest news and efforts to mentalhen the u.s. health system. that conversation is next on "washington journal." ♪ >> this weekend on american history tv, saturday on real rod cast with robert kennedy and ronald reagan, taking questions via satellite from students in london. >> and there is a great movement for legislation against racial segregation. would you like to comment on that? >> a we are dealing with a heritage of 150 years. we have just begun to recognize it and we are starting to deal with it. 8:00, brian taylor on the military strategy and political goals of emancipation during the civil war. precedent in a sectional war over slavery and rebellion of the southern states line have the authority to emancipate slaves as a military measure predates the civil war. it is articulated john quincy adams on a number of occasions. talks about the

i had two in—person meetings and one phone call with the white house counsel about mr flynn. we've all the premier league, it better news if you are a chelsea fan, than middlesbrough. and also, the grudge match at the madrid open. whatever your politics, it is impossible not to look at the rise of macron, as remarkable, former investment banker, and you may remember, he resigned last year, from the cabinet of francois hollande, to form his own party. the choice of a country, desperate for change. part of the establishment but never before elected. one of the fresh faces, but who is emmanuel macron? to supporters, the political messiah, from outside the establishment who has worked to power. here is a new man to politics. hoping to get new solutions. a new face. but he went to one of the most prestigious schools, met powerful people, and made millions from investment banks. one of his former colleagues has said that it is partly down to charm, butt out his heart he is secretive. he tells people what they really wa nt secretive. he tells people what they really want to hear. he