President and the fbi. There was nothing to hide. Tea these were the first public comments. Take a look at this from California Democratic ted lieu. This is obstruction of justice. With us cnn boris sanchez, there is new reporting today, tell us about this of the new reporting. This was released a short time ago. It indicates there were some contact between Michael Flynn and the white house that the administration less and forthcoming about donald trump and Company Initially portraying Michael Flynn as he acted independently of the Transition Team back in december when he discussed the easing of sanctions with russian diplomatic Sergei Kislyak. According to emails gathered and as well as documents and interviews submitted in court. It appears that Michael Flynn had contract to the trumps team before and after his meeting of kislyak to discuss actions of interfering of the 2016 election. At the same day, Michael Flynn had the same conversation with kislyak onne december 29th. An email was sent in how he describes it and how the Trump Administration would want to have it with mouscow. The white house Attorney Says mcfarland was referring to the way democrats was portraying her role and not her own believes. After her conversation with s kislyak. Michael fly russia responded of the sanctions that were imposed by russia. Russia took essentially a patie patients stance and did not move against the United States but rather opted to be patient. One last note of the email were forwarded to six other advisers including steve bannon and Reince Priebus and sean spicer so for the white house to claim that they had no idea is now becoming more dubious, an a. The clock is ticking. Lets get straight to our panel. Also with us, former prosecutor and with me here in new york, tim neftali. On january 24th, flynn had the interview with the fbi. He lied of his call in that interview. Three days later, this is a live image right now with the president just coming back from his trip to New York Landing there at the white house. Well keep that up in case he makes a comment. Back to the time line about who knew what and when. We know when the president invited the fbi james comey and asked for comey to pledge loyalty happening after flynn went and testify before the fbi. A couple of weeks later on february 13th after the public learned flynn discussed sanctions, trump fired flynn. The next day on the 14th. Trump asked comey to let the investigation into flynn go. Rinaldo, my first question to you, is that obstruction of justice if trump knew . Lets put it this way, thats good evidence of obstruction of justice. I have to say if i were President Trumps lawyer, i would be telling him that he should remember that he has the right to remain silent. His tweets today, i dont know why he decided that today was the day to reveal to everyone around the world that he knew that Michael Flynn lied to the fbi and calls into question why hes telling the fbi director that flynn is a good guy and he should let it go because good people should not be lying to the fbi. I think that President Trump would be best served not by saying anything else and what will be interesting to see is what evidence, what evidence bob mueller have and Donald Trumps intent and 1505 and also will if he does have enough evidence, will Robert Mueller indict or will he present that to the Congress Room impeachment. Those are huge questions if things go that far. Would it be in the president s interest in this tweet is being in a way that he did not mean it for him to clarify and what he meant. The best thing to is to let his attorney do it. When your Attorney Says something, it cannot be held against you and your lips are not moving. Smart people when theyre under investigation having their attorneys talking. I think the president will do well to let his lawyers doing the talking from now on. Take a look at how congressman adam schiff is saying, he reacted to the president s tweet today writing this. If thats true, why did you wait so long to fire flynn and why did you fail to act until his lies were publicly exposed and why did you direct to director comey to let it go . Valley questions . It is a classic if nothing bad happens or nothing illegal happens, you guys are doing a great job making it looked like there is something there. It is a cover that gets here and seems to be so much thats happening here that people are arrested or charged so far at this case, they are charged and lying with the fbi. They insist that there is for collusion and no collaboration with russia and if that case, why are people lying about it and why is the president of the United States admitting that he knew National Security adviser lied to the fbi and takes these meetings with comey and dropping the investigation. He looks guilty. There were four people who have been apart of the trumps team who are indicted and pleaded guilty. The two people specifically pleading guilty to lying to the fbi. Tim, i want to get you in here, you are the former director of the nixon library. I heard one of the almost yesterday on air saying this is a watergate moment and we also had john dean and Carl Bernstein who were prompt innocent figures. Listen to this exchange. Bob and i were talking today and we asked each other is general flynn going to be john dean . Does he have enough knowledge and was he part of the conspiracy that he admitted, admits to a criminal conspirator, is that what we are seeing, john . I think he has enough knowledge than i did. He was much closer to trump than i was to nixon. I had like 20 meetings with nixon and 39 totals where other people were there. Some 21 on one where flynn was meeting with trump throughout the campaign and throughout the early 24 days of his job as National Security advisers daily and frequently. I think hes much more knowledgeable than i am. If there is collusion and conspiracy, nobody is more likely to know it than he is. Do you agree with that . Oh, first of all, flynn was much there is no question and flynn is much more closer. Flynn is close to the trumps family in the sense. At least once on these issues. So that leads and that raises the question here of the legal jeopardy and not simply for the president and members of his family. Thats different from dean. I want to point out two things quickly. On the time line, i would add january 26th. Two days after the fbi interviews flynn, the fbi tells the acting attorney general that flynn lied under oath. I dont know that. Sally yates went to the white house that says flynn is vulnerable to blackmail. Because he lied to the Vice President. I am sorry, let me say that is speculation and i would suspect that is and in any case, yates, she comes to the white house, saying i believe that this National Security adviser is vulnerable. He knows that sean spicer and he says publicly that the president was informed of all of this. One of the things that investigators will have to determine is whether trump knew on the 26th of january that mr. Flynn had lied to the fbi which is a felony. Thats a big deal. The other point i want to raise is today President Trump under mind his position publicly and he also given us the impression that mr. Flynn did not make a mistake and if no mistakes are made during the transition which means that President Trump believes if it is okay that his team under mind our efforts to play sanctions on russia after russia had intervene of the 2016 campaign. Thats part of the official document that we saw. We know now that mr. Flynn admitted this that he talked to the russians and signals to the russians that the obama approach would not be the approach of the upcoming Trump Administration. Which means mr. Trump believes thats okay. Us going light on putin was the right thing to do. That raises all kinds of questions. One of them, renato, within that guilty plea, we see that flynn was in communication with prominent members of the trump inner circle that were part of the transitions and cnn telling us one was Jared Kushner who was instructing flynn to make phone calls not just to russia but other members of the u. N. Security counsel to ask them not to have this resolution on the israeli settlement. There was not an effort according to flynn to intervene in that way. Is Jared Kushner in legal trouble . Well, it certainly a strong possibility and one thing that i will say about the flynns legal and flynns plea agreement is that he got a good deal. Despite all these rumors that we heard and reports that we heard about the liability that flynn had. He only had a plea of one count of a false statement fbi agent and the guidelines range from zero to six months. When you are looking at a federal investigation and a lot of potential felonies, zero to six months is a good scenario. There is nothing in life is free. Federal prosecutors are not giving out good deals. And that means that flynn has to provide testimony that not only it seems to be truth full but would result in a prosecution of somebody sort of at his level or higher or somebody of a significant figure and Jared Kushner would fit that bill. It maybe another person, time will tell who that person is. One thing for sure is, it is very hard to imagine Robert Mueller giving that kind of deal. Michael flynn giving him to someone else of his testimony. These charges extending all the way to the Vice President. Lets listen. It is acknowledgment of criminal guilt. It is a shattering moment for the trumps presidency. We have a moment similar to watergate with the questions going to be what did they know and when. Not just the president but Jared Kushner and michael pence, the Vice President because they were part of the transition and every other top officials in the Transition Team may be apart of this russian collusion thats involved here. So these Court Documents again showed the flynn talked to members of the Transition Team with these calls. Hence, was the head of the Transition Team. Do we need to know more of what he knew and when he knew it . Absolutely. It was pointed out by the Research Group of american bridge that his signature is putting him in charge of what everyone beneath him doing and what interactions they had and governments. If pences name was on those documents, if he did not know, why would that be and why would people be operating without the knowledge of the person whos in char charge. There is a lot of questions and this is a tight knit circle and it is exclusive and priebus and pence and bannon and jerryd and flynn. The circle of people that could have been involved in this or aware of this is very small. Like the former prosecutors pointed out. Theyre not going to make this deal not just for flynn but his son as well. Pence is also under the microscope. His name is all on the documents. Kirk, before we curt, i havet your shirt. I am a big supporter of saint judes hospital. This shirt saves lives. I wanted to point out that is not a political statement. No, just helping some kids. Good to hear it. Thank you gentlemen. We really appreciate it. We are following the fast moving development as we are continuing to see new fallout from Michael Flynn. Dont go anywhere, next in the cnn newsroom a heart attack doesnt or how healthy you look. No matter who you are, a heart attack can happen without warning. A bayer aspirin regimen can help prevent another heart attack. Be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. Bayer aspirin. Americas Small Business owners. And heres to the heroes behind the heroes, who use their expertise to keep those businesses covered. And heres to the heroes behind the heroes behind the heroes, who brought us delicious gyros. Actually, the gyro hero owns veros gyros, so he should have been with those first heroes. Ha ha thats better. So, to recap Small Business owners are heroes, and our heroes help heroes be heroes when theyre not eating gyros delivered by ah, you know what i mean. Ohhhhhh, ou guess what i just got . Uh i used to be spellbound hello again. I used to be spellbound hi. I used to be spellbound thats a big phone. In your arms. [screams] ah, my phone. You built the flame that warms my heart, but lying and cheating has torn us apart and im moving on. President trump is dealing this controversial tweet today and the President Trump turning to twitter hours ago, i had to fire general flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the fbi, his actions were lawful and there was nothing to hide. John dowdie regarding flynns answer, nothing in statements that suggests lying to the fbi was a factor in flynns firing. I want to talk to congressman, they are saying that the president s tweet today was just more or less his lawyer says yesterday. First of all, hes the president of the United States and he speaks for the state and he contradicts himself. The president is wrong. It is not lawful to lie to the fbi so it is difficult for me to accept the fact that the president says that well, what mr. Flynn was lawful and what he did was he lied to the fbi and thats why i had to foir hire h. He had a problem that he cannot seem to keep his fingers off his blackberry or whatever he uses. Hes the president and he can do whatever he wants and it is not smart. Do you think we need to hear from the president in person or should his lawyers who release the initial statement yesterday come out and speak about this . Well, thats problematic especially when the lawyers are obviously also trying to spin politically. Here is the way i look at this, mr. Mueller is using a deliberate approach. Hes doing his job and the president ought to do his. If he has nothing to hide or fear, he should focus his attention on the big problems that we face as a country. If he is nervous about this. I guess i would have to ask why. Why is he so obsessed about it. Why was he so obsessive of getting mr. Flynn off the hook in the first place. Why did he go to mr. Comey. He seems to have an obsession of what Michael Flynn may say and that raise a lot of suspicion. Do you have any concerns of mueller maintaining his position as part of the special counsel investigating the russia interference and potential obstruction of justice and if congress is discussing what needs to happen and to protect this investigation . Well, i think it would be a big mistake for the president or anybody in congress to try to reign in mr. Mueller. The integrity of the federal government and the integrity of our systems of democracy is tested and that would raise a whole question. This is a different time and place and a different president. If either republicans in congress or the president of the United States does anything to constraint mr. Mueller, then i think we have some questions that actually take us to those comparisons in dark terms. They should not obstruct and if we are going of integrity in our system and if there is nothing to hide, they should not fear this investigation. Let me ask you of the big news over night earlier this morning, republicans scoring major victory passing their republican tax plan. You call that plan a stab that it only helps the american corporations. I want to ask you that the fact that republicans have a lot on the line if this plan is a giveaway to the rich. That would not go well with a lot of the president s faiths. Wh why would the republicans be voting after this plan of the risk of their own political futures. In this case, they are being very aware of the interests and the needs of their true base being donors. We heard the republican side actually acknowledging that. Thats those people who would be the greatest beneficiary of this. The problem of this is it is not just something you can put up on the board as a victory. It could be examined. They did not want to examine it before it passed but folks with taking a look a this. What we are seeing is talking to groups and individuals affected by this, if you make less than 100,000, fasten your seat belt. It is a bad bill for you. Your taxes are going to grow up. The people that they say they want to help are going to get hit very hard. They give you an increase, for example, of the standard deduction but take it away with the personal exemptions. They got some explaining to do with the american people. The people who are cheery are those megadonors sitting in their board rooms who saw the u. S. Senate just give them the biggest transfer from the hardworking americans to the people to the top in the history of the United States of america. Congressman dan kildee. Thanks for joining us. Thank you very much. Up nelxt, the president s reaction to Michael Flynns watergate, a former Watergate Special prosecutor will join us live, next. 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Thats why Xfinity Mobile comes with your internet. You get up to 5 lines of talk and text at no extra cost. So all you pay for is data. Choose by the gig or unlimited. And ask how to get a 200 prepaid card when you buy any new samsung device with Xfinity Mobile. A new kind of network designed to save you money. Click, call or visit today. Just one day after flynn pleaded guilty of lying to the fbi. He s President Trump set up a storm on twitter. Some key members of congress are taking issues of the front part of that tweet. Trump admits to obstruction o f justice in that tweet. Joining us now someone who knows a lot about watergate, cnn legal, analyst, richard, do you agree of President Trump admitted to justice of obstruction in this tweet . I dont think he admitted to obstruction of justice but his actions recording general flynn have changed dramatically since flynns guilty plea. What puzzled a lot of people and myself included was his defense of flynn after he fired him. So he had this ambivalence all along regarding the flynn and now it appears that hes repaired to throw him under the bus. However, there is a few things about the guilty plea and the agreement that went along with it that i think are worth mep mentioning. Two things, one is flynn agrees to be polygraphed in terms of truthfulness. He agreed covert methods if called upon. It is unlikely that covert methods would be used prospect activi ively. If they took the precautions of tape recording conversations with others who maybe involved and directing him throughout the transition to do certain things. And, has those tape recordings. Those would be valuable to flynn and mueller, of course, if flynn anticipated that some day he would be hung after dry and made to be the pacsy here. Last night we heard from john day that flynn was much closer to trump than he was to nixon. The parallels are uncandid. Could flynn be trumtrumps stro dean. We wait to see what flynn had the offer mr. Mueller. His actions and mr. Trumps action in defense of him after he found to have lie to the fbi and lied to the Vice President and mr. Trump and chief of staff, mr. Priebus and they pointed to some reason why he wanted to be defending general flynn and light of his statements to the fbi. The documents that were tied to the Michael Flynn plea deal implicates Jared Kushner, the president s soninlaw, carjacking officials from russia of how they would vote to influence those governments to delay the vote or defeat the resolution. This is tied to that u. N. Security vote on israelis settlements. We learned the person that instructed flynn to have conversations with foreign leaders was Jared Kushner. There is been talks now and the president s ability to part kushner or flynn. Can he do that and what do you think of that . Well, you know, since he brought on watergate and one of the things that president nixon did covertly in watergate was to signal the burglars. That he may be receiving clemency in connection with his criminal activity that was in run for the silence. It all depends on the intent of the president in providing president ial pardon or clemency which is unfed or accept if it was corruptly given. I want to give your take as you just take a bigger look at how special counsel Robert Mueller conducted this investigation and what we learned so far from it. What do you make of ut and what do you think is next for him. Mueller is just about the best person in the United States th that have received this assignment. Hes gone on building case and a wall of evidence and brick by brick quietly and professionally and determined while all these twitter storms go on and all these divergence from the investigation. Hes doing as far as a plesplen job and well see the results. I am confident that he will conclude his work without fear or favor or without any political influence what so ever. Do you have any reason to believe that hes at the end of the investigation or any sense of where hes at . It is sauch wisuch a wide rae of target risk opportunities with so many different aspects, springing from the initial russian connection, Money Laundering and foreign corrupt practice act violations and fair of violations and the list goes on and on. And so it is not possible to think at this point where i think to determine how long it will be until he concludes the investigation but you can be sure that hes keeping his eye on the ball. He hes not wasting time and hes proceeding efficiently and professionally as far as i can determine. Richard benveniste. Thank you for your take. We appreciate it. Thank you. The New York Times have a new reporting that dispute the account and journalists just broke that story this afternoon, he will join us live with the details. You are live in the cnn newsroom. Dont go away. Breaking news at this hour. A single tweet adding to the twist as and turns of Michael Flynn. President trump says he knew flynn was lying. I want to get to scott shae. The president at the white house have continued to say this was all on flynn. He acted alone in these conversations with russia but your new reporting today mercedes agree otherwise. Tell us about it. Thats right, my colleague Michael Schmidt got a hold of emails from december of 29 of last year. It was the day that flynn called Sergei Kislyak and talked to him. It turned out about the sanctions that the Obama Administration had put on russia in retaliations for the russia interference of the u. S. Election. The white house has suggested for, you know ever since basically the Trump Associates suggested that flynn was operating on his own and the president says hes a good man but that he was essentially freelancing at that time what the email shows and what flynn uplo pleaded guilty was that all top officials seem to be aware that he was going to make his call to the Russian Ambassador briefed on what happened during the call afterwards and they were focused on russia and how to improve relation relation with russia. What stood out the most to you in reading or what you have learned about these emails . We were given one email in exchange and other emails were described and the ones that were giv given, what stands out is comment by kt mcfarland who was going to be deputy National Security adviser under Michael Flynn. She says in kacharacterizing an it appears to be her characterizing how this will look says that russia had thrown the usa election to donald trump thats something that the president denies that everyone in the white house thinks it is an impression they want to avoid. Miss mcfarland says she was only characterizing how democrats would sort of portray the russian interference that the democrats would claim that russia had thrown the election to trump. There it is in the email so i think that was quite striking to see that they were certainly considering that as a possibility the other thing i have been wondering all along first when we saw the plea agreement documents and some of the conversations were discussed in those documents and other members of trumps team and the Transition Team specifically. There is no mention of the president paragraph part of any of these conversations. The emails that you have read and that you have been describing, any indication that the president knew about these conversations or was involved . No, that remains uncertain. Michael flynn was briefing him frequently and if not everyday. There was a call involving president elect trump and all these aids scheduled for 5 00 p. M. On the 29th of december. Whether the call took place or not, we are not certain. There was a call scheduled. Whats significant about all this and i think a lot of viewers mind may boggled of all the details evolving russia story. They may remember President Trump urged james comey, the fbi director to shut down the investigation on Michael Flynn. When comey declined the do that, he was fired. The big question lingering behind all these was why did the president want to shut down the investigation of flynn and why did he fire james comey when he did not shut the investigation down. What was it that bothered mr. Trump so much about the investigation . We still dont have an answer to that question. Such a big question. Scott shane with the New York Times. Thank you for that. Thank you for that. Coming up, my name is Cynthia Haynes thank you for that. Coming up, and i am a senior Public Safety specialist for pg e. My job is to help educate our First Responders on how to deal with natural gas and electric emergencies. Everyday when we go to work we want everyone to work safely and come home safely. I live right here in auburn, i absolutely love this community. Once i moved here i didnt want to live anywhere else. I love that people in this community are willing to come together to make a difference for other peoples lives. Together, were building a better california. Voting is under way for the cnn hero of the year. At age 17, mona patel lost her leg. She was hit by a drunk driver. And today shes helping other amputees on their own journey. Were so much more than just a body part. We can either lay down and let our circumstance overtake us, or we can stand up and take charge. Age 17, i was struck by a drunk driver. I vowed that once i got back on my feet, i would start a support group. 30 to 60 amputees get together once a month and share stories of strength and resilience. Doctors, case managers, call me to provide individual support. And then also we will provide prosthetic limbs to those that have no access to any other options and resources. I met miss mona the day before my surgery. Can you stand and put pressure on it . She tells me what im going to be able to do what im done and somehow she climbs mountains with one leg. She is like a superhero. She is walking we are stronger than any circumstance that comes our way. Truly. You can vote for mona or any of our top ten heroes now at cnn heroes. Com and im ana cabrera in new york. Thank you for being here, ill be back at 8 00 eastern live in the cnn news room. At 7 00 dont forget David Axelrod sits down with actor tom hanks. But first, smerkonish up next. They appear out of nowhere. My secret visitors. Appearing next to me in plain sight. Hallucinations and delusions. These are the unknown parts of living with parkinsons disease. What stories they tell. But for my ears only. What plots they unfold. But only in my mind. Over 50 of people with parkinsons will experience hallucinations or delusions during the course of their disease. And these can worsen over time, making things even more challenging. But there are advances that have led to Treatment Options that can help. If someone you love has parkinsons and is experiencing hallucinations or delusions, talk to your parkinsons specialist. Because theres more to parkinsons. My visitors should be the ones i want to see. Learn more at moretoparkinsons. Com give a little bit give a little bit. Hello. Give a little bit. Of your love to me oh, haha. Theres so much that we need to share so send a smile and show that you care ill give a little bit of my love to you upeace of mind. S 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. Were the webber family and we are usaa members for life. We thats why at xfinityic. Weve been working hard to simplify your experiences with us. Now with instant text and email updates youll always be up to date. You can easily add premium channels so you dont miss your favorite show. And with just a single word, find all the answers youre looking for. Because getting what you need should be simple, fast, and easy. Download the xfinity my account app or go online today. Im Michael Smerkonish in philadelphia. We welcome viewers in the United States and around the world. Robert muellers investigation seems to be getting closer to the white house gates. Former National Security adviser Michael Flynn pleads guilty to lying to the fbi about his communications with the Russian Ambassador. And is cooperating with mueller. He seems to be implicating Jared Kushner and where is this he