because four days later on january 30th president trump fires sally yates, not mike flynn, sally yates. but it is not until february 13th, nearly three weeks after yates' warning about flynn that flynn himself is forced to resign. in those 18 days between the time the white house found out flynn had been lying and the time he was actually pushed out, that robert mueller is focused on. i want to bring in nbc's carol lee who led breaking this massively important story. carol, explain why these 18 days are so important to mueller's investigation. we have to remind our viewers, president trump, even the day mike flynn left that night, i think it was like 4:00 in the afternoon, kellyanne conway was on tv, saying the president

and they did know because sally yates told them. mike pence says he didn't know but now we know that other officials were coordinating these conversations with kislyak which did take place during the transition, before they took office. and were coordinating the debate over the u.n. resolution. so, yes, absolutely. this explodes the idea that no one in the white house knew and that he misled everyone. so that's the open question. >> right. i misspoke. i meant the conversations with kislyak that took place during the transition. >> yes. >> that that was when the -- that was when his ax took place that he then lied about when pressed and presented with questions about those calls. so i want to stay here for a minute with you because we don't talk very much about jeff sessions and don mcgahn and the vice president as being people that could be implicated. not necessarily russian collusion, but in perhaps obstruction or, in this case, simply knowledge of what flynn had done could now come into question. where will the latter -- i keep h

it was said that sally yates was fired for failure to enforce the immigration ban. i thought for a long time whether that was actually not the real reason she was fired. [ unintelligible ] >> so sorry, michael, we're losing your audio there, but i think we got part of what you were saying. you believe sally yate's firing came more so because of the way she had warned the white house about michael flynn, less so about, you know, her not enforcing the travel ban. we're going to try to re-establish the connection. i don't want to put words in your mouth. i'm feeling like that's the message we got thus far before your signal broke up there. so we're going to try to reconnect with michael as soon as we can. for now, we're going to take a short break. we'll be right back. usaa to me means peace of mind. we had a power outage for five days total. we lost a lot of food. we actually filed a claim with usaa to replace that spoiled food. and we really appreciated that. we're the webber family and we are usaa members for life. at t-mobile, when you holiday together, great thing

yates never did say that flynn was under investigation. after that, january 30th is when sally yates was fired. soon after or around that time, that's when don mcgann told the president he believed that flynn had not told the truth with the fbi or in speaking with the vice president. the source said he did not tell the president that flynn violated the law in his interview or was under criminal investigation. all of this though leads to questions about obstruction of justice. what the president knew when he decided to fire james comey. michael flynn resigned february 13th with the reasoning that he misled the president. one day after that, february 14th is when president trump med privately with the fbi director james comey. that's when the president asked him to drop the fbi investigation of flynn and we know that the investigation wasn't dropped. instead comey was fired in may and the president shortly after pointed directly to the russia investigation when asked why he terminated comey. take a listen. >> in fact when i decided to just d

and trying to determine whether the president fired sally yates for reasons connected to general flynn and not for reasons connected to the travel ban. >> reporter: despite the president's insistence -- >> russia is fake news. russia, this is fak out by the media. >> reporter: evidence continues to grow that appears to point to the contrary. adding to the confusion, trump has also failed to enforce the sanctions against russia, overwhelmingly approved by congress as punishment for the country's 2016 meddling. >> looks like the russians, whatever you think of all these stories, get exactly what they want. they get to meddle in the election, undermine faith in american democracy, and start to get the policy outcomes in terms of a president who's a lot less tough on them than they might otherwise have. >> reporter: so many asking why does the president of the united states have such a fondness for a country that's openly hostile to america? >> this story is a head-scratcher for even staunch allies of the white house. they cannot figure out why president trump seems to have a soft spot for

another thing that yates said in her testimony that's really key is don mcgahn asked her on january 26 michael flynn did in the fbi interview and declined to tell him but it's obvious that this question was on their mind and former formal prosecutors we spoke to and i'm sure jill would say the same thing saying any lawyer in don mcgahn's position would have turned to michael flynn saying, so, did you fly to the fbi? what did you tell them? >> jill, a quick reaction to that point of the white house counsel asking basically the acting head of the justice department how did my guy do in the fbi interview? >> julia has it exactly right. anybody who was in that position as a lawyer would have asked flynn, did you lie? what did you say? and, what is the problem that i have to deal with now that i know that? and i believe that it is also clear that mcgahn would have told all of that to the president. i think there's some evidence that mcgahn did tell the president right after sally yates warned him that there was a compromise going on. and so that the president knew before he fired comey that

but devin nunes canceled the sally yates hearing. got himself taken off the investigation altogether. he's now under investigation by the house ethics committee for potentially having disclosed classified information. that was the house intelligence committee. then it went to the house oversight committee. they decided they'd look into a very specific part of it. 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 news that mike flynn had apparently not disclosed his foreign payments from russia even though he had been told explicitly and in wting that he needed to do that. the department of defense inspector general's office announced that they had start add 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 woul

he received information from sally yates. he was told mike flynn could be a target for blackmail from the russians. based on the president's tweet is suggests don mcgahn, and the tape i justice showed you from the president's comments to lester holt, it suggests the president believes don mcgahn is the person who shared information with him about mike flynn's other potential legal or criminal liabilities. we don't know the extent of that. another name is rick dearborn. there's an article about how these may have been bungled contacts but contact in coordination with russia was attempted. "the new york times" reporting operative offered trump campaign kremlin connection using nra ties. wow. a conservative operative trumpeting his close ties to the national rifle association and russia told a trump campaign adviser last year that he could arrange a back channel meeting between donald trump and vladimir putin. the russian president, according to an e-mail sent to the trump campaign. that aide is another sitting staffer. the staf

sally yates described change in his demeanor between the 26th and when she was called back. it was clear he had spoken to lat of people at the white house. so these conversation mace have spread. flynn may have told mcgahn, and that information could have gotten to donald trump. we don't know exactly what flynn told mcgahn. we don't know what went to donald trump. but that sat the heart of this investigation. and we're sure that mueller wants to get to the bottom of that question. >> well, among his many conversations with ambassador kislyak was flynn's phone call on december 29th last year in which flynn discussed reversing u.s. sanctions on russia. about two weeks later on january 15th, vice president pence publicly denied that sanctions were discussed in that conversation. take a look. >> did mike flynn ever discuss lifting sanctions in any of those conversations? do you know? >> i talked to general flynn yesterday. and the conversations that took place at that time were not in any way related to new u.s. sanctions against russia or the expulsion of diplomats. >> well, th

they knew from sally yates two days after he lied to the fbi they were told by sally yates at the white house what he had done and how dangerous it was done and they didn't fire him immediately. >> that's why it's such a scary day at the white house, when it's talking about senior and very senior transition officials. the fact that these people knew about the calls that michael flynn had. one, it means it couldn't have been a lie to mike pence, the reason for his firing, because they would have known about this already. they were telling him to go ahead and have these calls. it also shows this white house really threw michael flynn under the bus. of course, the president came forward later and said, michael flynn's a good guy but we had to let him go. no, from looking at this document, they directed him to make these calls and fired him to distance themselves from all of this. >> ari melber, when we look at this narrative coming out of this white house, how do you splaish also the president's -- according to senator richard simpur othe burr and others, the president trying to -- >> here

and in the email,'s top attack dog, andrew weissman, told sally yates he was so proud of her, this after she defied a direct order from the president of president of the united states, donald trump, and refused to defend his travel ban back in january. this comes as we are learning more information about peter strzok, the former fbi counterintelligence official we were telling you about last night that was fired from the russian investigation for sending those anti-trump, pro-clinton text messages. tonight, fox news has learned that the department of justice and have a process of over strzok's text messages to the house intelligence committee. it's expected to happen to my strzok is a key player, and he is tied to several of the high profile cases we've been covering, including the russia probe, that means clinton's emails, the anti-trump dossier, the pfizer surveillancp campaign associate. tonight, we will peel back the layers of this very complexse onion. we will expose. it will be easy to see just how crooked and corrupt mueller and his appointed team really are. their conduct is some

john yates never quit serving. all he looked for was the ability to serve in the next mission he was called for. and on december 11 this year, john yates went on to his next mission in heaven. we're going to miss john yates. the state of georgia is going to miss john yates, but i stand here today, mr. speaker, to honor one of those true american patriots who stood in the face of battle and faced the enemy face to face, and when he came home he followed that desire to continue to serve and he served until he passed away just a few days ago. mr. speaker, i would also like to just take a moment and recognize another anniversary. six months ago today on a baseball field just a few miles from here, i and several of my colleagues found ourselves in a combat zone of our own. doesn't seem like it's been six whole months since a crazed gun man walked onto our field and started shooting at us, but the reason i want to bring that up today is because every person on that field that day that was shot at is still in this house t

what we know from today and we already knew this from some sally yates' team earlier this year is thatn -- is that michael flynn was interviewed by the fbi on january 24th. on january 24th, the fbi knew that he had lied to them because if what's been reported is right, they listened to the phone calls from three weeks earlier so they knew he lied. even so, even with an aggressive talented team of investigators and prosecutors, it takes ten months to get to a place like this and so to the extent that people like ty cobb are saying this will be over by christmas or by january, that's just laughable. this is going to take a long time as this prosecution team goes through the evidence against mike flynn and other people to figure out what charges can and in fact should be brought or what shouldn't be brought. the last thing is i would say that the idea that you can say now the president is not a subject to the investigation is also wrong. if you add up his decision to fire jim comey and repeated exhortations to comey and cooperation of mike flynn, if you have the draft letter that the pres

mueller's top attack dog told sally yate's he was so proud of heave after yates defied a direct and ared refused to go with his travel man. peter strzok the count counterintelligence official that was fired from the russia investigation for sendings anti trump, proclinton texts. tonight fox learned the department of justice is in the process of turning over strzok's texts to the house intelligence committee. it is expected to happen in coming days. strzok is a key player and tieed several of the high profile cases we have been covering including the rush yap probe. clinton's e mails. anti trump dallas yea the surveillance of a trump campaign associate. tonight we will people back of the complex onion and expose, tell be easy to see just how crook ed and corrupt mueller and his appointed team are. their conduct is something you respect in a bananarepublic not the united states of america. there is so much fake news and misinformation in the news o outlets. we'll set the record straight. get to the truth and explain and we will diagram all of these controversies and the corruption surround

well, remember sally yates, the acting attorney general at the time. on the 26th of january yates made an urgent appointment to brief white house counsel don mcgahn about what she said about the contact with sergey kislyak. she spoke about it exclusively with me though she declined to give specifics. >> when were you first made aware that general flynn was lying about his interactions with the russian ambassador? >> first let me say and i know that this may seem kind of artificial to folks. i can't really talk about what general flynn's underlying conduct was because that's based on classified information. >> can you say when you were made aware about an issue with his underlying conduct? >> it was in the early part of january where we first got some indication about what he had been involved in and then sort of the middle part of january when there were false statements that started coming out of the white house based on misrepresentations he had made to people there. >> two weeks went by after yates spoke to the white house before flynn was forced ou

the dinner between former director comey and president trump happened a day after sally yates went tohe white house and alerted them to what she thought, what she knew were general flynn's false statements. so that's precisely why you construct these time lines as i mentioned, the more you pour into it, the clearer the picture becomes. >> chuck rosenberg, carol lee, thanks so much to you and coming up, speaking out, a group of donald trump's sexual misconduct accusers unite in a new interview with nbc's megyn kelly. megyn joins me right here on "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us. your joints... or your digestion... so why wouldn't you take something for the most important part of you... your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is now the number one selling brain health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember. aleve direct therapy. the only remote controlled tens device that's drug free, wire free for deep penetrating lower back pain relief. get aleve direct therapy with $10 back and extra bucks rewards at cvs pharmacy. tr

sally yates was fired on january 30th.n michael flynn remained in the white house till it became public through "the washington post" that he had lied to the vice president and other senior officials. and then it became public that sally yates had come to the white house and warned them about this orrin january 26th. that was the only point at which the president said enough, he's gone. you have to resign. >> also, the obama administration had warned trump and trump's team about mike flynn. chris christie didn't want to have flynn as a key person in the transition and jared and ivanka were huge supporters of his. it sounds like based on your reporting that at least bob mueller's team is trying to figure out when did president trump know because if the issue is, did president know that mike flynn was lig and still president trump was there when mike ence and other administration officials were told this lie, doesn't that pose a problem? >> you make a great point which is there's another piece that happened in this time fram

after that yates forwarded the email to her personal account., weissmann the very least praising yates for defying the president's wishes. i don't think we can read more than that into this about his realpolitiks. whether that is in any way influenced the special counsel probe but it comes the same week that another fbi or separate fbi official we learned was fired last summer because of these anti-trump texts. melissa: yeah, i mean then there is the agent like you mentioned, one reassigned after sending anti-trump texts to someone reportedly his mistress. what are we learning about this story now? reporter: this fbi senior agent, peter strzok, he is really at all the key points of the clinton email investigation. what we learned today by going back through these february by summaries, it is called the 302, and this one is of clinton's july 2016 interview, he participated in the interview. just three days later when director comey gave his public statement, that clinton was extremely careless, what we know the same fbi agent helped craft that st

because four days later on january 30th president trump fires sally yates, not mike flynn, sally yatesbut it is not until february 13th, nearly three weeks after yates' warning about flynn that flynn himself is forced to resign. in those 18 days between the time the white house found out flynn had been lying and the time he was actually pushed out, that robert mueller is focused on. i want to bring in nbc's carol lee who led breaking this massively important story. carol, explain why these 18 days are so important to mueller's investigation. we have to remind our viewers, president trump, even the day mike flynn left that night, i think it was like 4:00 in the afternoon, kellyanne conway was on tv, saying the president stands with mike flynn, and then the president after the fact said it was the media, we were pushed into this, mike flynn's a good guy. so walk us through this. >> i think you laid it out really well in terms of why these 18 days are so critical. one of the significant things that has come up in our reporting is that people who have been interviewed by mueller's team bel

i'm emily yates and i'm just planning my train journey to birmingham.t requires a fair bit of advanced booking. i'm confident travelling by myself, but i'm not a huge fan of the train, which is actually why i'm making this journey. that equates to around 85 million rail journeys every year. i've heard about an app in development called passenger assist that could be a game—changer for disabled travellers. thank you! i think anybody watching this who's disabled will probably agree with me that you can have some pretty horrific travel journeys if you're disabled. i've been left on the train before, i've booked assistance and somebody has said, "yeah, we're going to come and meet you," and i've been left on the train unable to get off and i've had to go four orfive stops down the line to be able to come back again so i'm really excited to see what this app has to offer. thank you! i've got this new app which is currently in development and i'm just about to fill in my own profile. what's brilliant about this app is it asks things like, "do you need room fo

firing sally yates for not defending the travel ban. two weeks later, mike flynn resigns after the doj again informed the white house that flynn could be subject to blackmail by russia. and the next day donald trump apparently tells james comey i hope you can let this go. i want to add one thing to that timeline. president trump had his first solo of the white house which he seemed to back the communications with the russian ambassador saying i looked at the information and donald trump said i don't think he did anything wrong. if anything, he did something right. ari, what does this timeline say to you? >> me or matt? >> ari, you first then matt. >> got it. just welcoming matt to the conversation then. look. you lay it out, hallie, and you covered this a long time. what we're seeing in the timeline is what you can call the negative space of the painting. the foreground of the painting is what's happening in that courtroom here on our screen which is admitting the lies. the rest of the space which is the case bob mueller and the investi

saying he did know about the fbi through the yates. so they're not going to cover up for him.ith the truth. >> right. and the lesson of history is to the extent that you do cover up because it's politically advantageous, you run yourself squarely within a criminal legal problem, legal jeopardy. that's the mistake that, you know, all white house staffers are subject to and that is you think you're doing service to the country and to the benefit of the president by, you know, advancing the president's agenda and doing what is politically expedient, you do that, however, before fbi agents in the form of an interview or before a grand jury or before congress in testimony under oath and you just put yourself into a major, you know, legal jeopardy and that's potentially a problem. >> you think he's trying to figure out a way to fire mueller? >> not yet. i think he's trying to see how it plays out. he doesn't know. mueller's run a very tight shop, and i think it's going to go on for a while. >> thank you, gentlemen. appreciate your time. >>> when we come back, could paul manafort los

whatever don mcgahn got from sally yates, he already knew that.event donald trump didn't know what mike flynn was doing it seems don mcgahn explained some of the rammi ivifications m pretty quickly. that was sort of obvious from sally yates' testimony to congress but this new reporting reinforces that. don mcgahn was researching the laws that mike flynn may have broken, including the logan act which says you're not supposed to negotiate with a foreign country if you are a private citizen and including statutes like lying to the fbi. mcgahn alerted the white house, a top white house official, as soon as sally yates talked to him about this. it does raise the question again, what did the president know and when did he know it? >> mark, you've covered white houses and white house counsels. it's a peculiar thing to do on your first day. the white house counsel often spends on their first hours and days getting lists of fantastic people who would reshape the judiciary into the white house's credit, they've also been able to do that but to learn that it

to sally yates for defying the white house. anti-trump diatribe and look at his actions. do you have any doubt if people wonder if they have an agenda here? >> absolutely incredible. the peter strzok stuff. people have opinions, whatever. when you fold that in to the pattern of his behavior. and larger pattern of the behavior of everybody involved in this and all of the conflicts of interest from the lowest level to the highest levels, it really does raise serious questions about the integrity of this investigation. the purpose of this investigation and, quite frankly, as we have see more and more it becomes more and more apparent that a lot of these allegations are falling away and the smoke clears it, raises the original question which is what actually launched this investigation in the first place? why did the obama administration first begin spying on paul manafort and the trump organization? a political opponent in the height of a presidential campaign? it raises serious constitutional questions. brian: of course, this guy

january 26th, anyone-acting attorney general sally yates warns white house counsel, don mcgahn, that flynn was lying about calls with kislyak. we now know that after some point after that conversation, mcgahn told president trump he believed flynn lied to the fbi and to vice president pence. february 13th, flynn is force the ed to resign but the president continues to defend him. just three days later blaming flynn's resignation on his lies to the vice president, never mentioning the fbi. >> he didn't tell the vice president of the united states the facts and then he didn't remember and that just wasn't acceptable to me. >> now the vice president -- now the president, i should say, tweeting this this weekend. "i had to fire general flynn because he lied to the vice president and the fbi. he has pled guilty to those lies. it is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. there was nothing to hide." president's personal attorney telling cnn he wrote that tweet, a claim that has raised some eyebrows from skeptics given the president's seemingly endless tweeting. then

which deemed bias against donald trump, explain that. >> inyuiding sally yates has to be viewed but context very political decisions from the tarmac meeting with loretta lynch and bill clinton to hillary clinton no charges to then the opening of the russia collusion investigation to the flynn leaks, there's been all the politicized actions and now we are seeing and that's what's come out in the last week or so, the very senior-level people already have a clear proclinton antitrump bias, in the case of sally yates, it's not that there's something that's i don't think in someone praising yates, wiseman, senior doj guy. it shows a leftist antitrump proclinton, prodemocrat bias, so just adds to the perception that this thing is rotten from the top down. rob: refusing to impose the travel ban. that's where it came from. you look at all this, the obsession with the russia collusion investigation within the media and by democrats and all of a sudden we see just a few people at the fbi could have been working against this election to try and fix this election. i mean, it's incredible to see

deputy attorney general, sali yates, step forward and say, i'm going to take on the role of president and justice and legislator and tell you i'm not going to defend this law because i have judged it it not to be up to my standards. well, she was wrong. she was wrong then and she's wrong today as she talks about issues even after her judgment is shown to be so flawed as the supreme court has. and i know the travel ban was changed somewhat, but, still, from what the supreme court has indicated, the president had the power to do what he did to protect americans despite what justice sali yates said, without her black robe on, when she defied orders and defied the constitution and refused to carry out her duties. . that's a bit of good news but sarah carter has another great story today that she got hannity.com.und on .b.i. supervisor booted from mueller probe, fluid mike flynn. the special agent under scrutiny after being removed from mueller's special counsel's bureau'sso oversaw the terviews of the agency's interviews. lynn pled guilty to one count. f.b.i. agent was one of two f.b.i. a

sally yates should not have been congratulated.rote an op-ed piece saying that when you are the attorney general -- >> sean: how about withholding exculpatory evidence? in other cases, what can only be deemed as beyond aggressive tactics to get convicting all my convictions. >> is a civil liberties lawyer, i am appalled when they withhold exculpatory evidence, whether republicans or democrats. we have to defend the several laboratories of all americans, starting with the president. there are so many pardons out there who say, we are civil libertarians, but we got to get rid of this president, so let silva liberties bay put aside. that is with these emails address. they were prepared to be put aside. that's a bias. >> sean: what about this one particular text message? we only have less than 400. they are only 2,000. you can wait for the rest of them. i want to believe the path that you throughout for consideration in auntie's office -- i believe they are talking about andrew mccabe -- it's a guess -- i haven't confirmed it, that the

flynn. >> as yates testifies she's troubled by the disconnect between how flynn described his phonei's recording of them. >> so what you're saying is that general flynn lied to the vice president. >> that's certainly how it appeared, yes, because the vice president went out and made statements about general flynn's conduct that he said were based on what general flynn told him and we knew that flat wasn't true. >> she thought mike flynn was subject to blackmail because he hadn't told the truth. >> you don't want your national security advisor compromised with the russians. >> though there's no apparent response from the white house concerning flynn, the president fires sally yates on january 31st for refusing to follow his executive order on immigration. nine days later "the washington post" lifts the vail on flynn's talked. >> michael flynn discussed sanctions before trump took office despite denials officials say. >> i don't know about it. i haven't seen it. what report is that. >> on the morning of february 14th, the administration publically supports flynn. >> flynn does enjoy t

and the fbi investigation of which sally yates was not providing any greater details, but what they did know was that flynn had in don mcgahn's mind, he believed that flynn had misled the fbi and had lied to vice president pence. >> why is there -- it seems to be lack of clarity when it comes to whether mcgahn would have advised the president over whether this was breaking the law. i would expect, but perhaps this is ill-conceived that don mcgahn would say to the president this may be a violation of law. he could be in big trouble, but we don't know that that happened. >> we don't. what we do know is at the time of that first conversation they did not have any information other than what they had learned from sally yates and what he had perceived or interpreted of what she had said. they later learned a week later they had a transcript of the conversation that mcgahn had rut led him to believe that the statements were inconsistent, but mcgahn never told the president as far as our sourcing that flynn had broken the law. >> and flynn misled the fbi, but they really could only compare the

we understand that he relayed that to the president, that sally yates, the acting attorney general did not, you know, confirm any information to him, but that was his belief and he shared that with the president at the time in late january before -- weeks before he was fired. >> so do we have a sense of whether the president understood? certainly he should have understood that that is an offense, right? misleading the fbi is -- that is a major problem. is there a sense that he understood that? >> that's not as clear. what we understand from our reporting is that don mcgahn did not tell the president that he believed he committed a crime because there are more elements that go into lying to the fbi, you know, such as the intent and the conversation. we also know that mcgahn's office, they don't have a copy of the transcript of the fbi interview. they don't know what was said. so it was really their impression they did not think, they did not tell the president that he had lied, but that he'd committed a crime, but they certainly felt that he had lied. >> such important knowledge for the

mcgahn, as you just saw in that testimony, asked sally yates how flynn did, and she wouldn't say how he did. she didn't think that was appropriate. but it is obvious that was of interest to the white house, and most lawyers would tell you that mcgahn likely then went to flynn and said, so, did you lie to the fbi? that is key, if mcgahn and then trump knew that flynn had lied to the fbi, especially at the time that president trump then pressured jim comey to drop the investigation into michael flynn, that could be a key that mueller could use for an obstruction charge against the president. >> and, jeremy bash, at the risk of repetition, what are all of the ways donald trump could have learned that mike flynn, his guy, had lied to the fbi and underscore for our viewers what it would take to put together an obstruction case here. >> well, the president could have directed mike flynn to lie. that's first. he could have learned that mike flynn lied from don mcgahn. he could have learned that mike flynn lied from mike flynn. and possibly what really happened across those 18 days, brian, w

was it that day that sally yates spoke to don mcgahn? or was it someday between then and now in the many months since? we don't know the answer to that question and we don't know what happened on the day that that tweet was sent. but i think most people reading that tweet is that no lawyer dictated or wrote a tweet that included the word pled. >> right, because he said pleaded. let me ask you, this is also surreal. it feels like only donald trump would have a legal team that implicates him as someone who gives us more proof points to the potential case that he obstructed justice in his effort to defend his own client. there's something in axios that i thought was pretty apt. the donald trump survival plan, the trump fog machine blows daily, the idea is to taint the critics. trump is playing not for a court per se, but the court of public opinion. do you think they really see an impeachment proceedings a foregone conclusion? >> i don't know. what i do know is everything that's been said here and all that has transpired you could also inte

we also have that which sally yates acting attorney general had said. she had told don mcgahn not consistent with the statement either. >> i think we need to spell out something important. what did michael flynn plead guilty to lying about. his contacts with the russian ambassador during the transition about key policy matters when he seemed to try to undermine the obama policy but it wasn't just michael flynn, he was coordinated with jared kushner, the senior transition official and key members of the trump team were aware of flynn's actions which apparently he lied to mike pence but and we don't know what trump was aware of. and a story in the new york times suggest that there are e-mails that further cement this idea that key members of the trump team were aware of flynn's actions that he later lied about. >> thank you all. we'll have to leave it there. >>> it is a busy 24 hours as you could tell for the trump white house and on the same day as michael flynn deal, republicans move a step closer on tax reform for the republicans. after a break, a clos

mcgahn has not said whether or not he took up yates on her offer for him to view the contents of the conversations between flynn and kislyak. and my repeated requests for comment about whether he ever did have gone unanswered. >> julia, this period that has emerged as a focus is in some respects a little surprising because so much focus was on the campaign and so much of what we're learning now is about the transition and the early days of the administration. although it makes sense in a certain way. you have a great piece in the atlantic everyone should read about the sort of russian perspective on this. which is it's after the election that what started as maybe mischief or a prank or an attempt to undermine hillary clinton suddenly became an avenue to actually get some asks done by the russian government. >> well, it seems like the russian government or people affiliated with the russian government had been reaching out through 2016 either to the trump campaign directly or his surrogates. and then trump won. and it was unexpected for americans, and it was certainly unexpected for

he was the first person in his family to grad yate from the -- graduate from high school. as our colleague senator cornyn said at the judiciary committee committee hearing, his life will reflect the best of texas and the best of america. from these humble beginnings, justice willett has led a remarkable career. after graduating from duke law school he clerked for judge williams. he has now been nominated to the package to join. he spints a short time in private practice before entering public service and then -- and then governor george w. bush's administration as a legal policy advisor. when president bush entered the white house, justice willett joined him as a special assistant to the president. in that role he helped shape the domestic legal policy of the bush administration, especially in the president's efforts to increase charitable activities in neighborhoods across the nation. the next year he became deputy assistant attorney general in the justice department's office of legal policy. there he oversaw both civil and criminal policy initiatives, including what beca

telling him based on his conversation with yates he believed that flynn had not told the truth in the interview with the fbi. we dough know it happened in january. this means that when the president allegedly asked james comey to go easy on flynn he may have known or at least had reason to believe that flynn had committed a felony. and that means this tweet on saturday could provide additional evidence he obstructed justice. which may explain why the white house especially the personal attorney john doud has been doing damage control regarding that two-wheel .doud first saying that the part in the tweet referring to lying to the fbi wasn't a new admission was merely par phrasing what was in white house attorney ty cob's statement about general flynn's guilty plea. then there was another explanation. doud said he not the president was the one who wrote the tweet acknowledging it was sloppily worded process today the he didn't wrietd it nar fif the new narrative isn't only that president trump didn't obstruct justice it's to baier o from richard nixon four decades ago that a president c

the attorney general, sally yates went to the white house concerned about some of those contacts and concerned that michael flynn was compromised and because of those contacts and because he lied to the vice president about the contacts. no matter what, the president before even this tweet knew that michael flynn was under investigation. just to back up what michael just said, look, our reporting has been that sally yates, the former attorney general when he went to the white house never characterized how that interview went. how michael flynn's interview went with the fbi, whether he lied. i think she said she did not want to characterize it to them. there was indication to people we talked to at the time that the fbi didn't feel that he was lying. whether or not the president knew there was an investigation, we don't believe that he necessarily knew that michael flynn lied to the fbi. that's what i think was sort of the surprise in that tweet. >> so then michael, to your premises that perhaps the president was mistaken and he didn't know because the fbi would never reveal to him th

abraham yates, i need to be quick.i like abraham yates because he gives a perspective on the times in the war and what was on steak. going back to the 16th century and what the american revolution represents, it's was a street-level fighter. he was the ninth child over lecture man. he was half dutch and his mother was dutch from albany. early on in life he's against elites. initially these powerful dutch families that control politics and the economy. he teaches himself the law and becomes a sure of albany county event deals with british soldiers and abusing the people of albany. he begins writing legal briefs and he is one of the first people to call out the americans to turn on the british. so during the war he holds several different titles and offices in new york politics. the battle for new york he's corresponding with george washington trying to round up soldiers and finding arms and dealing with wireless. after the war, he stops and pivots because what he sees as the american elite are becoming a homegrown versi

>> well, and he'd been warned by president obama, by sally yates.e'd been warned by a lot of people about mike flynn. but the proof that his own counsel had looked into this and tried to protect the president and that the president may have ignored that and then gone to comey, it's problematic. and i think it's politically problematic because they're trying to paint a picture of a renegade organization that's on this witch hunt. and the fact that there are documents in this case that may come out, that may prove this, is important because the public, when every fact and element of this case is going to be contested, there's an importance in having documentation, in showing your work. and i think that's something that when i talk to people around the president, people who are outside the white house who are trying to soften the ground, to soften up mueller a little bit and say look, this is a witch hunt, this is bad, he's friends with comey, all these things to get the public not to believe the findings, this is why. i hear them talk about an obstruc

if you go back to the testimony of sally yates.r she brings flynn situation to the attention of the white house's counsel right after the fbi interview. she tells him that flynn has been interviewed by the fbi and according to her testimony, mcgahn asked her how did flynn do. i just checked the transcript in her testimony was, mr. mcgahn asked me how he did and i declined to give him an answer to that. so she did not tell him that flynn had lied to the fbi. she was talking about his overall conduct that he had the conversations with kislyak and that was contrary to what the nature of the conversations to advice president pence had said. the white house knew that flynn is under the fbi investigation. they don't know if there is any conclusions that flynn had lie. trump's tweet today had to be taken with a little bit of a grain of salt that it is not the evidence of obstruction that some people are suggesting. >> okay, i suppose it is also possible. you have reported how they were like family members because they got so close to the

but dowd's account is at odds with what yates said during his testimony in may. >> we also told white house counsel that general flynn had been interviewed by the fbi on february 24th. mr. mcgahn asked me how he did and i declined to give him an answer to that. >> now, during her testimony, she appeared to confuse the day the flynn's testimony. it was january 24th, not february. "the washington post" also reports today that, quote, people familiar with yates' account say she never discussed any part of the fbi investigation with the white house. for more, barry mccaffrey joins us, tim carney and danny, msnbc legal analyst. does dowd need to go? is he doing the president any favors here? have you seen a lawyer who basically acknowledges that maybe he just -- maybe he got his client into more legal trouble than he was already in, potentially? >> well, the question is, is he a guy who's falling on the sword for his client and will that work or is he a guy who fires off tweets that get his client into more trouble? and, frankly, if you remember, sha sean spicer used to say the president's

and yates' warning became public in "the washington post." the president explaining his decision. >> i fired him because of what he said to mike pence. >> reporter: but also blaming the media. >> i think he's been treated very, very unfairly by the media, as i call it, the fake media, in many cases. >> reporter: later defending flynn in an interview with lester. >> this man has served for many years. he's a general. he's, in my opinion, a very good person. >> reporter: now flynn becomes the most senior person on a list of at least three other former trump campaign associates and advisers who have either been indicted or pled guilty in the mueller investigation. and tonight congressional investigators reacting to the flynn plea deal. >> in terms of his contacts with the russians, we see this constant pattern one after another. >> reporter: former fbi director james comey, who was fired by president trump, weighing in tonight, tweeting a verse from the bible that reads in part, let justice roll down like waters and righteousness. a source close