Transcripts For CNNW Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer 20181218

Offering a scathing rebuke of the fired National Security adviser, venting his disgust and his disdain about flynns admitted lies, even briefly suggesting they may be treason us. Flynns team agreed to a delay in sentencing after the judge suggested he might not go along with the special counsels recommendation for little or no jail time. Tonight the man who chanted lock her up at the Republican National Convention May have narrowly escaped being locked up himself. This hour, ill talk to Senate Intelligence committee mech jack reid and our correspondents and analysts are also standing by. First, lets go to our justice correspondent jessica schneider. Jessica, it was a jawdropping hearing and it ended with a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger indeed, wolf. No Sentencing Agency we expected. Instead, it was nearly two hours of tough talk from the federal judge who stressed prison time was not off the table, even though thats what flynns lawyers and muellers team essentially agreed to in their sentencing memos. It was a hearing that really went off the rails for flynns team, and now they have to wait to find out exactly what flynns fate will be. Lock her up reporter tonight Michael Flynns sentencing is on hold after a dramatic twohour rebuke from the judge who hinted flynn could end up getting prison time for lying to the fbi. Federal judge Emmet Sullivan scolding President Trumps former National Security adviser, telling flynn, i am not hiding my disgust, my disdain for your criminal offense. The judge even raised the question of treason, asking the special counsels team twice if flynns conduct rises to the level of treason ous activity. He also admonished flynn for his work with the turkish government saying, arguably you sold your country out. The judge later walked back both rebukes saying he wasnt suggesting flynn committed treason and acknowledged that flynns lobbying for turkey did not go on while he worked at the white house. The judge focused his real frustration and confuse on the circumstances surrounding flynns guilty plea, asking why flynn admitted guilt even though his lawyers accuse the fbi of tricking flynn into lying about his contacts with the former russian ambassador, sergey kislyak, during the january 2017 interview at the house. The sentencing memo where flynns lawyers criticized the fbi may have been a major miscalculation and seemed to offend the judge who said, i cannot recall any incident where the court has ever accepted the plea of someone who maintained he was not guilty. Flynn finally admitted he was aware lying to the fbi was a crime when he was interviewed in january 2017, and his lawyer responded no when the judge asked flynn if he believed he was kbrapentrapped by the fbi. The judge gave flynn several chances to rethink his guilty plea, but flynn told the judge he wanted to proceed. The judge asked, because youre guilty of this offense . Flynn answered, yes, your honor. The judge told flynn he should delay sentencing until he is finished cooperating with the special counsel. Flynn has met with mule pers team 19 times but indicated in court he plans to continue providing information. The question is when will Michael Flynns sentencing actually happen. That is still undetermined, but it likely will be sometime next year after the two sides file status reports. Those are due by march 13th, and after that the sides may agree to proceed to a second try at flynns sentencing. So, wolf, we will wait and to be continued. Yeah. He has to wait a few more months to see if hes going to jail or not going to jail. Hes 59 years old. Thanks very much for that. Lets get some more on all of this. We are joined by our chief National Security correspondent jim sciutto, who has been following the flynn case very closely. Jim, it seems the judge was clearly going to give flynn some jail time. Well, it is a remarkable turn of events just in the last week, only a number of days ago, flynns lawyers were suggesting, as the president repeatedly charged, that flynn was entrapped by the fbi into telling lies. Then yesterday we see the accounts of those interviews where it is clear that flynn repeatedly lied, willfully though he was given chances by fbi agents to correct his story. Today the judge calling him before the bench and making him repeat multiple times, no, i was not entrapped, yes, i take responsibility for this crime. And then the judge then the lawyers, rather, for flynn, sensing that as the judge was scolding him in effect with these phrases that jessica talked about, you sold your country out, i am not hiding my disgust, this is a very serious offense, judging that maybe the predictions that there was no jail time coming might be wrong and that it would be best for them to delay, to punt in effect, cooperate more and hope for a lesser sentence at a later date. A remarkable turn, wolf, in just a few days. I suspect the judge was doing him a favor, saying you better delay, otherwise you might be going to jail right now. What is behind, do you think, jim, this judges stunning rebuke after the prosecutor, the special counsels team, actually asked the judge for little or no jail time for flynn . Well, listen, the prosecutors clearly making clear to the judge and to the public that flynn has been cooperating on a number of cases. The judge, however, not impressed possibly with the public charges, not just from outside but from flynns own legal team, that he ended up in this case not because he made a mistake, a miscalculation, broke the law, but that the fbi did something wrong. We got a taste of that yesterday when we saw those records of those fbi interviews. Remember, there was some talk as the judge allowed them to be released that, well, maybe the judge is going to show that, well, there is some evidence that flynn was wrongfooted in those fbi interviews when, in fact, those records show the opposite, that he was given multiple opportunities listen, judges have a lot of power in their courtroom. Though, as weve noted, this judge appointed by reagan, bush, later clinton to various posts, he was not impressed with those excuses and he considered these lies consequential and deserving, it appeared, of possible jail time. Yeah, very surprising indeed. How surprised do you think all of this was to flynn and his family who were in the courtroom . Well, judging by our colleagues who were in the courtroom, their demeanor changed dramatically. At the start of the proceedings, they were smiling. His mother there, other relatives, flynn greeting them with a smile when he entered the courtroom. By the end of it after this upbraiding by the judge, their heads were down, their heads shaking at times, clearly reading the messages from the judge that their expectations might have been wrong, maybe they got bad advice from their lawyers, their lawyers making a lastminute correction there. Certainly in the courtroom, based on our colleagues who were there, they entered with high hopes and they left with disappointment and perhaps some surprise. What do we know about what else flynn needs to cooperate on, jim, and will it be enough for this federal judge . Well, the judge made clear, the more you cooperate, the more advantage you will have when the sentencing actually happens, this now a number of weeks away. It is on two lines of inquiry, one, this case about illegal foreign lobbying that two of flynns former partners have been indicted for. Flynn has not presumably because he has provided information in the investigation. The special counsellor made clear while his cooperation has been helpful, it is possible he could continue to help. That appears to be the strategy Going Forward, not without some encouragement from this judge saying, cooperate Going Forward and you may get a better sentence down the road. Yeah, he needs to be a perfect cooperator over the next three months in order to convince this judge that hes not going to go to jail. Jim sciutto, thank you very, very much. We have more breaking news coming into the situation room in the Mueller Investigation. I want to bring in our crime and justice reporter, she moan prokupecz. We just learned a little while ago details about a mystery case involving the special counsel. Presumably it is a big deal for robert mueller. Yes, it is tremendous here because theyve been trying to get this information from this company. What weve learned based on what has just been filed is that this is a foreign company, a company outside of the u. S. That is trying to argue they do not need to release, they shouldnt be forced to release these information pursuant to the subpoena that the mueller team has given them because theyre protected by their own countrys laws. There are regulation issues and they have been fighting this, in secret, of course, for quite sometime. Now this is a big win for the mueller team. Clearly this is information that is important to the investigation. They have been in court fighting this now for quite sometime and it seems as though unless this company appeals, goes higher to the supreme court, they will be forced the release this information. Yeah, this court of appeals decision says it is a corporation thats owned by a foreign country. The corporation isnt identified, but presumably this corporation has activities going on here in the United States. Thats right. The and whatever is going on, theyre trying to obviously not release the information. This company, when you think of the amount of money it is costing them to appeal this, it is tremendous. So theyre spending because theyre paying a penalty, too. Theyre also paying a penalty. Theyve been held in contempt, so theyre paying a penalty on that. Theyre paying all of these legal fees, so whatever company this is, clearly they have a lot of money and theyre putting a lot of effort into keeping whatever information the mueller team wants secret. They went to extraordinary lengths on friday to keep reporters and everyone else off the floor so no one would know what was going on. They didnt want anyone to see anyone walking out. Are there hints of the name of the country, the foreign country involved . None, nothing. They did. They went through extreme ways to keep things secret. They closed off an entire floor of the courthouse. They wouldnt let reporters on to the floor. Whatever is going on here is very sensitive to the company and probably very sensitive to the Mueller Investigation. There are no hints other than it is country a. In talking to some folks, you see this kind of activity or this kind of fight from companies when it is usually Financial Institutions outside of the u. S. Who are fighting Money Laundering investigations. So it could be and this is pure speculation here just on what weve read in these documents, this could be a Financial Institution. Obviously the mueller team, the special counsel has been looking at money that flowed into the transition, into the time that between the president into the inauguration, i should say. This could be what this is about, but it is pure speculation. It could be a Financial Institution that mueller is seeking information from. Yeah, i suspect a lot of reporters, a lot of people are trying to figure out the name of the corporation and the country involved. I suspect we will figure it out fairly soon. Thanks very much, shimon. We will have more on the story coming up. Right now i want to turn to the other breaking news were following on the Michael Flynn hearing and the reaction from the white house, the president s spokeswoman defending mr. Trump for his continued defense of Michael Flynn. Lets get to our chief white house correspondent, jim acosta. Jim, there was a rare White House Press briefing shortly after flynns hearing. Thats right, wolf. And the white house at that briefing was continuing to claim Michael Flynn was somehow ambushed by the fbi, resulting in his lying to the federal investigators, but it flies in the face of what we heard earlier and what flynn said in court today. Still, the detachment from reality was on full display here at the white house as the press secretary held a rare briefing with reporters, the first one we have seen in weeks. Pro proving that the White House Briefing room is no courtroom and when it comes to the truth just about anything goes, press secretary Sarah Sanders all but accused the fbi of bullying former security adviser Michael Flynn into lying to federal investigators. The fbi broke standard protocol in the way they came in and ambushed general flynn and the way that they questioned him and the way they encouraged him not to have White House Counsels Office present. Reporter sanders made that claim despite the fact flynn just admitted in court that he knew lying to the fbi was a crime when he made false statements to investigators about his contacts with the russians. Whats more, flynns legal team said he wasnt entrapped, but the press secretary was just echoing President Trump. He tweeted earlier in the day, good luck today in court to general Michael Flynn. Will be interesting to see what he has to stay. Despite tremendous pressure being put on him about russian collusion. It is an odd line of attack for the white house as the president once said he fired flynn for misleading Vice President pence about the contacts with the russians. Mike flynn is a fine person, and i asked for his resignation. He respectfully gave it. He is a man who there was a certain amount of information given to Vice President pence, who is with us today, and i was not happy with the way that information was given. Reporter when pressed, sanders tried to put some separation between flynns lies and whether the president colluded with the russians. Maybe he did do those things, but it doesnt have anything to do with the president directly. Reporter sanders also defended the president s recent attacks on his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen t as a rat for turning against mr. Trump. We know Michael Cohen to be a liar on a number of fronts and the president s opinion is extremely clear on that front. Reporter the press secretary later insisted the term rat was more than fair. Using terms like rat and things like that to talk about people who are cooperating witnesses with the fbi, does he people who are dishonest and lie, i mean it seems like a pretty accurate term. Reporter but the president and his team have hardly been honest with the public, like when mr. Trump falsely said he didnt know about hush money payments to his alleged mistresses. Reporter did you know about the 130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels . No. Well, you have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my an attorney and you have to ask Michael Cohen. Reporter as the white house is back on its heels on the russia investigation, aides to the president are signaling they want to avoid a Government Shutdown just before the holidays, hinting mr. Trump wont demand Congress Pass billions of dollars in new spending for a border wall. Sanders made the questionable claim that the administration would somehow find the money without charging the taxpayers. Were not asking american taxpayers for that. The president s asked every one of his cabinet secretaries to look for funding that can be used to protect our borders. Reporter the president didnt close the door on a deal. See what happens. Well, you say that, but too early to say, sarah. Thank you. We need border security. Thank you very much. Reporter now, there was a Significant Development out of the white house on another front, and that is the administration did move forward with a ban on bumpstocks. Those are the devices that allow semi automatic weapons to fire more rapidly and were used in the Las Vegas Massacre last year. As for the administrations plans to find funding for the wall on the border with mexico with money that has already been spent at federal agencies, it should be noted that would still mean taxpayers would be paying for something that the president said mexico would take care of during the 2016 campaign. The press secretary said today the taxpayers wouldnt pay for the wall, but thats not true. It is clear at this point that is exactly what the white house plan is, to have the taxpayers pay for the wall. Wolf. All right. Jim acosta at the white house. Thank you very much. Joining us now, senator jack reid of rhode island. He is a democrat that serves on the intelligence and Armed Services committees. Thanks for joining us. Thanks, wolf. We dont know the name of the country, we dont know the name of the corporation. I assume we will know fairly soon, but the fact that this company, this corporation, this unknown foreign country is going to these extraordinary lengths so they dont have to comply with a mueller grand jury request, a subpoena for information, and that theyre fighting this in rather mysterious ways, what does it say to you . Well, it suggests they have something to hide. Theyre using every opportunity, appealing decisions and using all of their legal rights, which theyre entitled to, but companies that have nothing to fear from disclosure dont go to these extremes. What does it tell you about the Mueller Investigation right now, that theyre going to this extreme to try to get this information, to get this company, this corporation to comply with this grand jury subpoena, and theyre also dealing with all of these other issues including what happened to Michael Flynn today . Well, mueller is following the facts, thats his job. He is an extraordinarily good prosecutor, and when obvious or at least suspect violations of the law occur he will pursue those and he is pursuing them. At this point he is trying to gagt information. It looks to me some people thought it would be over with by the end of the year, but it looks like it could stretch on. It keeps going and going, and i think thats because when someone like mr. Cohen, not directly with direct to mueller, but in the Southern District of new york makes his plea, pleads guilty to crimes and suggests, indeed, that the president might be involved, that expands it when the onwner of the National Enquirer seem to suggest theyre involved, that expands it. It is an investigation where it has to be pursued until all possible crimes are investigated. The white house today, the press secretary, Sarah Sanders, said that flynns activities, the former National Security adviser what he said, the lies and all of that, had nothing to do with President Trump at all. Whats your reaction to that . Well, he was the National Security adviser when he made those misstatements about his contacts with the former russian ambassador. In fact, as the president indicated previously on he in fact did not candidly tell the truth to Vice President pence. So there was an involvement here, whether it was in any way directed, inspired or encouraged by anyone else in the white house, thats still probably being determined or investigated by mueller. Your committee, the Intelligence Committee, youre an exofficio member of the Intelligence Committee, they released two stunning reports yesterday. Weve gone through them. Im sure you have gone through them, talking about russians penetration, involvement in the 2016 president ial election. The president hasnt responded specifically to those two reports that the Intelligence Committee released, but this morning he did tweet this, and i will read part of the quote. Facebook, twitter and google are so biassed toward the dems it is ridiculous. Does that lineup with what your Committee Found in these two reports . No, it does not. It looks at russian influence operations in the United States during the 2016 election and found that there was a consistent pattern as they favored President Trump. They would try to increase literally the turnout of Trump Supporters and decrease the turnout of potential clinton supporters. They did this very very sophisticated techniques, looking at the algorithms, looking at how they could get them to work for the russians, and their consistent theme was to increase the president s vote and decrease secretary clintons vote. You know, another huge embarrassment to the president of the United States today when he was forced to shutdown his charity, the Trump Foundation. The new York Attorney general writes this. She says, our petition detailed a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation, including unlawful coordination with the trump president ial campaign, repeated and willful selfdealing and much more. This amounted to the Trump Foundation functioning as little more than a checkbook to serve mr. Trumps business and political interests. What is your reaction to that . First, it has been uncontradicted by the president or anyone else. Closing down the foundation suggests theres a lot of truth there, and it is a stunning attack really and rebuke of the president. If he was using a Charitable Foundation for his selfinterest, it is contrary to the law and contrary to what we expect of charitable institutes. Senator, thanks for joining us. Thanks, wolf. Jack reid of rhode island. More breaking news just ahead. Will a judge ignore robert mule pers recommendation and send former National Security adviser, mike an flynn, to jail. If so, how long . The new mystery emerging today, what is a Company Owned by a Foreign Government and why is it now being ordered to comply with the special counsels grand jury subpoena . Welcome to britbox. The biggest streaming collection of british telly ever. Enjoy loved classics from the bbc itv, and discover exclusive new shows fresh from the uk. And with a britbox annual gift subscription, a year of joy comes with two months freeits the brits that keep on giving this holiday, indulge in some Great British telly. Give the gift of britbox today, at britbox. Com tap one little bumper and up go your rates. What good is having insurance if you get punished for using it . News flash nobodys perfect. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Switch and you could save 782 on home and auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty mutual insurance. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. [narrator] meet sharks newest robot vacuum. It powerfully cleans from floors to carpets, even pet hair, with ease, and now for cleaning surfaces above the floor, it comes with a built in shark handheld. One dock, two sharks. The shark ion robot cleaning system. Whetor surprise pizza,aco night, zantac works when you need it. It relieves or prevents heartburn in as little as 30 minutes, and lasts up to 12 hours. Zantac. Eat your way. Treat your way. ™ were following breaking news on the delay in Michael Flynns sentencing after a federal judge unloaded, declaring his disdain for the fired National Security adviser because he lied to the fbi, knowing that it was a crime. Also breaking, a win for the special counsel, robert mueller, tonight in a case shrouded with a lot of mystery and secrecy. A court has ruled an unnamed Company Owned by a foreign country must comply with a grand jury subpoena issued in the russia investigation. Lets bring in our analysts. Michael ze micha michael zeldin, we know this unnamed Corporation Owned by a Foreign Government, an entire floor of a Federal Building was shut off so no one would see lawyers walking in. How does it fit into the puzzle, the enormity of the mystery right now . We have a situation where theyre seeking to obtain records from a private Corporation Owned by a Foreign National foreign state that is not subject to an extradition treaty with us or a mutual assistance treaty. That implies russia. It is one of the future countries that doesnt have that, that has touchpay points with the Mueller Investigation. Also it seems we dont know it is russia . No, im just also from the reading of it. It also seems as if the nature of the documents being sought are financial records. So one could speculate this is a russianowned Financial Institution that may have relevant Financial Data for the Mueller Investigation, and it is under the foreign sovereign immunities act which prevents these sort of suits. So it is a big deal to try to breach the sovereign immunities. They seem to have done it and theyll get their records and we will learn a lot from it. We will see if they do because the district sided with mueller, now the court of appeals sided with mueller. It is a big win for the special counsel. It is a great win. I dont bet on football, but i would like to see the odds on this one. As a National Security guy, im with michael. You are looking at this and looking where the crumbs and where they go. These cases that mueller has brought time and again involve money and they involve illegal interactions with Russian Companies including, as we know, Russian Companies that were involved in the american election. So i look at this, put two and two together and say mueller is trying to get information on companies, for example, that might have been trying to buy space in the social media area during the election or that had interactions with people who were under investigation from mueller. A big win for him. What it does underscore, sabrina, is how much we still dont know about what the going on behind the scenes in the Mueller Investigation. Right. Right now were dealing with an unnamed Company Owned by an unnamed foreign country. There is no specific reference to the special counsels office nor is there really any reference to who is prosecuting this case at all. You know, as both michael and phil point out, there are some signs that could point to russia, but investigators have sort of been looking at this broader web of foreign money that was targeted at both the Trump Campaign as well as the transition and the presidency in an effort to influence both him as a candidate and then his administration, not just by russia but by as many as half a dozen countries. So there are a lot of possibilities and a lot that we simply dont know at this particular point in time but perhaps we will learn in the coming weeks and months. Jamie, all of this unfolding on this extraordinary day. We thought Michael Flynn was going to get his sentence, the prosecution, the special counsel recommending little or no jail time at all for the president s former National Security adviser, but it exploded in that federal courtroom today and the judge in the end delayed the sentencing at least until march. Right. Drama upon drama. What we saw today, this afternoon, we know that this judge is very tough and he has a history like that, but he really gave i think Michael Flynn a hall pass today. But it took them a couple of tries to get there. He kept saying, i think you might want to wait, you might want to delay sentencing. Finally they seemed to get the message. They came back. But there seems to be no question, if they had gone today he was going to give him jail time, which was not what the prosecution had suggested. I also think that one of the points of frustration for the judge was that flynns attorneys had argued leading up to this that part of why he lied to investigators is because he was not warned by the fbi that that is a crime. I dont think the judge, certainly special counsel wasnt buying it nor do i think the judge is because flynn is a retired three star general, a former director of the dia. It is not plausible he would be unaware that lying to investigators is, in fact, a crime. It seems the judge did not appreciate his teams effort to down play the severity of what he had done. Let me bring in jeffrey tube into weigh in on this. I want you to weigh in on the other matter of this mystery surrounding the grand jury subpoena that an unnamed Corporation Owned by an unnamed foreign country is now being forced to comply, jeffrey toobin. Well, you know, in terms of this subpoena issue, you know, i went to a very fancy law school, and one of the things i learned there is it is better to win cases than lose them. Mueller won this case. Now, i dont know who the case was against. I dont know which company it was, but the fact is hes going to get these documents and thats a good thing. You know, as for the flynn case, you know, i think, you know, the fact that we cover these cases every day and we sort of become inured to the facts and the circumstances, you know, it is sometimes good to be reminded from an outsider like judge sullivan in this case, this is outrageous. This is a National Security adviser to the president who looked the fbi agents in the eye in the white house and lied to them. You know, it is important i think sometimes in the criminal Justice System to maintain an ability to be outraged, and judge sullivan clearly has preserved that ability. Now, i dont think at the end of the day flynn is going to wind up going to prison, but i think it is a useful reminder that, you know, some of the stories we cover all the time we actually sometimes downplay because weve heard them a lot. Judge sullivan hasnt heard them a lot and he was pretty outraged. Michael zeldin, you have worked in the federal government, you understand the proceedings. It is pretty extraordinary not completely out of the question for a federal judge to react the way he did given the recommendations of the special counsel, the federal prosecutors, that this guy has done substantial cooperation, he has been a great help, he has testified under oath for hours and hours and hours, and he deserves little or no jail time. Thats right. And i think what may have set this judge off was that in the flynn sentencing memorandum, he said, while we accept what the federal prosecutors have said, we want to give you some additional information, and then he went into this i was set up by the fbi trope. I think the judge had, you know, saying to him essentially, are you accepting responsibility or are you not accepting responsibility . If youre not accepting responsibility and you want to withdraw your plea, here is the time. I think that whole giveandtake set in motion what led to the ultimate dismissal of the sentencing and pushing it off to the future. I mean did you see what just happened over the past week . We have the lawyers for flynn, who has repeatedly agreed willingly that he lied, saying, oh, maybe he was bullied. Then we finally get the transcript where about ten times in there the feds say, did you really do this . No. So he needs a lawyer in room to say, hey, by the way, when the fbi asks you a question, like when the nuns asked me a question in the third grade, the right answer is maybe the truth. Thats why he needs a lawyer in the room. They gave him a dozen chances and every time he said no. Jeffrey, was it a major blunder on the part of flynns lawyers to bring up the whole issue that maybe he was tricked, he didnt fully understand that you dont lie to the fbi, he didnt fully understand that he didnt get a miranda warning, if you will . I think it obviously was a mistake because it almost got him locked up. I mean it looks like, you know, he will not be locked up, but, you know, one of the rules particularly because of the way the sentencing guidelines which came in in the 1980s, you know, they are very specific about certain acts that a defendant must do to get credit. One of them is called acceptance of responsibility. If you accept responsibility you get a certain amount of credit for and likely a lower sentence, but you have to really accept responsibility. You cant say, well, you know, i sort of accept responsibility but i was tricked. You know, this reminds me of this whole discussion that Rudy Guilliani has been leading about, you know, what if theres a perjury trap. I dont even know what a perjury trap is. You just tell the truth and things work out fine if you talk to the fbi. You know, it is the same issue with flynn. Well, the fbi agents, they didnt give him the miranda warning. Just tell them the truth and everything would have been fine, but instead he is a convicted felon. And the president , you know, it is pretty extraordinary. He calls Michael Cohen, his former lawyer and fixer, a rat, but he has only praise for Michael Flynn who basically did the same thing, lie under oath, lie before to the fbi and is about to go to jail. He was the our National Security adviser. I mean you have the good fellows on the one hand, and then you heard Sarah Sanders come out today and say that the president s comments were, quote, perfectly acceptable to say. I have to wonder, is there still a dangling of a pardon out there for flynn. Is that why hes playing nice with him right now . But there is no donald trump has flipped and flopped back and forth on these things over and over again. Sabrina, i just want to read that first sentence in trumps tweet today. Good luck today in court to general Michael Flynn. Well, the president continued to defend Michael Flynn even after he was fired as National Security adviser, and there have been these conspiracy theories on the right that flynn is sort of a martyr and that he was, in fact, entrapped when there is, of course, nothing to substantiate that claim. It is interesting that the president is still taking his side even though hes now met with prosecutors 19 times and been cooperating for more than a year. Perhaps it is because we dont yet know what information he has, in fact, shared with the special counsel, and perhaps as we know more about that substantial assistance that he has provided to these ongoing investigations that mueller has pointed to, the president s tune may well change. And lets not forget, one of the reasons the judge said today, would you like to wait for sentencing until march is theres more cooperating to come. So what else is Michael Flynn going to cooperate, and donald trump has to be worried about every one of those meetings. If he wants to avoid going to jail, he has to cooperate enormously over the next three months. Everybody stick around. Theres more breaking news we are following on the russia investigation and a dramatic new legal defeat for President Trump. His Charitable Foundation now accused of shocking, shocking illegality and that charity, that Trump Foundation is now crumbling. This holiday season, families near you need your help. Visit redcross. Org now to donate. Were back with our analysts following breaking news on a major legal defeat for President Trump. His foundation forced to shut down in the midst of a lawsuit accusing the charity of financial misconduct. The new York State Attorney general suggesting the foundation is little more than a checkbook for the president s personal and political interests. Lets get the latest details from our National Political correspondent m. J. Lee. What is the latest . Reporter well, wolf, President Trump has agreed to shut down the Trump Foundation. This is his familys charitable organization, and this news coming in the middle of an ongoing lawsuit against the foundation from new york state ags office. They allege that rather than being a real charity, as you said, the Trump Foundation has been more of a checkbook, serving President Trumps own interests. Heres just a couple of examples from the lawsuit of how the organization appears to have used its donations to benefit trump or his business. First off, it says trump bought a sixfoot portrait of himself theres a photo of it at a Charity Auction using Charity Money. The lawsuit also says 100,000 of Charity Money was used to settle legal claims against trumps maralago resort in florida. Similarly, the lawsuit also says another 158,000 of Charity Money was used to settle legal claims against the Trump National golf club in 2008. This incident allegedly involved a holeinone tournament. Let me also reid part of a statement from new York Attorney general barbara underwood. She said, our petition detailed a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation, including ununlawful coordination with the trump president ial campaign, repeated and willful selfdealing and much more. This amounted to the Trump Foundation functioning as little more that a checkbook to serve mr. Trumps business and political interests. Now, the ags office says it will review which charities will receive the remainder of the Trump Foundations assets. Wolf. Mj, the lawsuit against the foundation will continue despite the Trump Charity now shutting down. What comes next . Reporter thats right. Even with the Trump Foundation shutting down, this lawsuit is still ongoing. The new york ags office would like to see two other thing happen. First, they want 2. 8 million in restitution plus additional penalties. Second, they also want to ban trump from serving as a director or trustee of a new York Nonprofit for ten years. Similarly, they also want other Board Members of the organization, the trump children, to also be banned for serving on a nonprofit for one year. I should also note, white house spokeswoman Sarah Sanders would not comment on the Trump Foundation news at the press briefing earlier today, but a lawyer for the Trump Foundation called the ags announcement misleading, saying the foundation has actually been planning to dissolve since trumps election in 2016. The lawyer also said the lawsuit was politically motivated. Wolf. Mj, thanks very much. Lets go back to our analysts. Michael zeldin, how significant is this . Well, it is significant inasmuch as it says there is a pattern of illegal activity that the Trump Organization has engaged in. That pattern of illegal activity we see again in the lawsuits that involve the inauguration, domestic and foreign contributions to the inauguration for the trump benefit, and also for the emoluments case where they are saying that theyre profiting off of their time in office. So you see a pattern here of lawsuits, some by the government, some private sector, which says this essentially is a corrupt group of people running their operation for their own financial benefit. You know, jeffrey i have a somewhat go ahead. I have a somewhat different view. I think it is significant because the evidence makes you want to puke. I mean this is i mean think about this. This is a charity. You know, he gets Tax Deductions for putting money into this charity. This is like giving money to the red cross or the American Cancer Society which give money to solve diseases, and what do they spend their money on . Buying a portrait of donald trump . I mean is there clearer evidence that the trump enterprise is just a grift, that this is just a way of preserving and maintaining and making money for the Trump Organization . I mean this is a charity. I mean it is one thing to you know, to make money in a business enterprise. I mean thats what people are supposed to do. But the whole point of a charity is to give money to do good works, and this is the trump idea of good works. Jeffrey is not only correct, but i would take it a step further. I think this is a nightmare for donald trump, because what has he always said . Dont get into my business. This is the red line. The Trump Foundation, next the Trump Organization. Lets remember remember omarosa when she left the white house . We found out she had been tape recording all of her conversations. How does this relate . I would say a word to the wise. Live every day as if omarosa is recording you. We know that Michael Cohen has one recording that has been used. I suspect there are others. When you get into the Trump Organization, allen weisselberg, the cfo, was given immunity in the Michael Cohen, the Stormy Daniels case. He is supposed to have the keys to the kingdom. And the attorney general of new york state implicating not only donald trump but his children as well. You can only imagine how the president is reacting to that. And i think this gives us a clue about not only this case but the flynn case, the way the president has dealt with both so differently. What does flynn not know about . Money. What is the president concerned about, whether it is paul manafort, whether it is cohen, whether it is this case . Dirty money. I think the president is so concerned about Michael Cohen simply because and it is not about Stormy Daniels. It is because he knows about family money including the kids going back years. Also, when you get the fbi raiding his offices that is Michael Cohens offices, you get a lot of documents about dirty money. I think thats why hes worried about cohen. I suspect it is only just beginning, but go ahead. I want to point out that the portrait of trump, the charity doled out 20,000 to purchase it and theres no question that he used the charity to bolster his own interest. The largest donation according to the Washington Post was more than a quarter of a Million Dollars towards the central park conser conser conserveancy in 1989 and it was used to restore a first tee outside of the trump hotel. Theres been no charity involved with the Trump Foundation. I think theres a concession though within the settlement by trump himself that there was merit to this case, which he once decried as a partisan witch hunt as well. The president forced to shut down his foundation because of lawsuits. Earlier he shut down Trump University because of lawsuits. I can only i kl only imagine how he feels about all that. Theres more news were following. Russias Vladimir Putin is issuing a new threat to the United States. Hes promising to build and deploy new missiles if President Trump goes ahead and withdraws from a key nuclear treaty. The kremlin also is disputing new reports conducted for the u. S. Senate on russias election interference. Our Senior International correspondent Fred Pleitgen is joining us live from moscow right now. Despite moscows efforts to help mr. Trump during the elections, tensions with russia seem to rise. Reporter well, youre absolutely right and the kremlin absolutely annoyed by the fact that these reports of the senate came out, of course, outlining the trolling activity both before the 2016 election and afterwards as well. At first the kremlin didnt want to comment on them at all. Today, we finally did get a comment from them. Heres what they said. Tonight, an annoyed response from the kremlin to the Senate Report outlining Russian Online troll activity against the u. S. Both before and after the 2016 u. S. President ial election. Vladimir putin spokesman denying moscows involvement translator somebody is very critical of u. S. Social issues and we are blamed for it . What does russia have to do with this . Its not described. I can only repeat that we once again disagree with this. We think these are totally baseless statements. Reporter moscow also engaging in tough military talk against the u. S. In a year end meeting with his military leaders, Vladimir Putin saying russia is moving fast to beat the u. S. Missile Defense systems. Translator it is necessary to quickly switch over to modern weapons that possess the enhanced capabilities of breaching the advanced Missile Shield defenses. Next on the agenda are the serial production and the delivery of the avantgarde global range missiles to the troops. Reporter earlier this year, russia announced the development of what it says is a hypersonic Nuclear Capable missile with a global range called avantgarde. Putins defense minister says widespread deployment will begin next year. Translator in 2019, the ministry of defense is facing a number of defensive tasks, which need to be fulfilled. Regarding our Strategic Nuclear forces, we need to deploy 31 launchers with the intercontinental ballistic missiles. Reporter tensions between moscow and washington are increasing despite President Trumps stated goal of improving relations with Vladimir Putin. The u. S. Saying it will pull out of the inf treaty which bans medium range nuclear weapons, claiming moscow is breaching the agreement. Putin today threatening to deploy new weapons if america abandons the deal. Translator if that, which they keep trying to frighten us with, happens, well, we will have to respond accordingly. And as you understand, it wont be too big of a deal to do the appropriate research and development and put them on the ground if necessary. Reporter as the kremlin continues to lose faith in President Trumps ability to salvage relations between russia and the u. S. , moscow is beefing up its forces, even announcing they will hold Strategic Nuclear forces drills next year. And some of the other forces, wolf, that the russians are going to beef up is their air Defense Forces in the arctic. Thats one of the other things they announced today, part of a massive program, upgrading airfields, building new military bases in the arctic, an area where the u. S. Is really lagging behind. Very Significant Developments indeed. Fred pleitgen in moscow, thanks for that report. Much more news right after this. Mokes hey kurt, are you watching the best of geico . I sure am, linda. Theyve been saving folks money for years. And now theyre reairing some of their alltime greatest hits. With classics like. Hump day. Caveman airport. And even. Celebrating squirrels. This crudite is great, but those geico ads are even better. But thats not all. 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The United States Postal Service makes more holiday deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. With one notable exception. Finally, tonight, we remember Penny Marshall, who was in a league of her own. She died last night of complications from diabetes. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight were going to do it give us any chance, well take it Penny Marshall shot to fame in the late 1970s playing brewery worker laverne in the hit tv series laverne and shirley, a spinoff of happy days produced by her brother, garry har shamarshall. We did take no from one guy who sicked his dogs on us. They were just little tiny poodles. Poodles are mean, shirley. Penny marshall went on to direct major films in the 1980s and 90s including big. She became the first woman to direct a movie grossing more than 100 million. She followed it up with a league of their own. Those are just some of the memorable films that are part of her legacy. Penny marshall was 75 years old, a truly Great American woman. We will all miss her. May she rest in peace and may her memory be a blessing. Erin Burnett Outfront starts erin Burnett Outfront starts right now. Captions by vitac www. Vitac. Com outfront next, the white house insisting the fbi ambushed Michael Flynn even as flynn himself admits he lied. And drops all his attacks on the fbi. Plus the Trump Foundation shuts down amid allegations trump used it as a personal piggy bank. Are the walls closing in . And the outgoing interior secretary ryan zinke accuses sitting congressman on twitter of being a drunk. Congressman raul responds in his First Television interview about that ugly attack. Lets go outfront. Good evening, im erin burnett. Outfront tonight, ambushed on