good to be back. it s great to you have here. do you remember the name brandan van grek? as i have memorable name. if not, the circumstance of which you first heard it? but if you are like me and the first time you heard the name brandon van grabbing is the first time you heard the word he is spee naj formerly associated with the presidency of donald trump. espionage as in the espionage act, not just spy movie stuff, as in u.s. law. we were only about four months in to the trump administration when the new york times was first to report that the then brand new trump administration had made a very unusual hiring decision that ultimately implicated the work of a veteran espionage prosecutor at the u.s. department of justice. it was very early on. may 2017. you think about that for a second, trump was inaugurated at the end of january. this was less than four months later in may of that year, less than four months into his presidency, we learned of the new york times
all a very, very good night. from all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thanks for staying up late. i will see you at the end of tomorrow. let s do at home joining us this hour. it s great to have you here. do you remember the name brandon van grack? it s a very memorable name, so you might remember the sound of it. if not, the circumstance in which you first heard it. but if you are like me, in all likelihood, the first time you heard the name brandon van grack, it was the first time you heard the word, espionage, formerly associated with the presidency of donald trump. espionage as in the espionage act, as it not just spy movie stuff but as in u.s. law. but we are only about four months in to the u.s. trump administration in the new york times first reported that the then brand new trump administration had made a very unusual hiring decision that ultimately implicated the work of a veteran espionage prosecutor at the u.s. department of justice.
of that plot in the spring of 2017, that veteran espionage prosecutor that led the flynn investigation who we just learned about in the spring of 2017, brandon van grack, he has left the justice department. he left government service. he started his justice department career as a trial attorney in the national security division and prosecuted cases on cyber attacks and money laundering and theft of trade secrets and, yes, espionage. a spy for china out of michigan. a guy who was rubbing the high-tech sanctions on iran. a hacker from kosovo. he gave isis personal information on more than 1300 u.s. government and military personnel. he gave isis that kill list effectively of u.s. government and military personnel. brandon van grack helped
flipping over the seriousness of this thing. it s one thing to feel like oh, there is some shenanigans, there is maybe not the best people. there is some incompetence, there is some cavalierness, some stuff to worry about here. but when it s the espionage prosecutor that has to be working on the case involving the new national security adviser, that s bad. right? your country is put in a bad situation. if a new president, a new administration is playing games like that. if that s how it s starting, you can be sure it s not going to end well. and it s likely not going to end for a long time. things like that have long tails. even if the, you know, veteran espionage prosecutor in question has the fan vas tick member of brandon van grack, him income the news in first four months of a new administration and it being about somebody who has the job of national security adviser, that s bad.
flynn as national security adviser for approximately five minutes. while he was under investigation as a potential foreign agent of the nation of turkey, and before he started lying to federal investigators about his communications with the russian government. when we all read in the new york times in may 2017 that they had hired him anyway, even though they knew, even though they had been warned, and we learned that the investigation into the matter is being led by a veteran espionage prosecutor, named brandon van grack, and remember, just my stomach flipping over the seriousness of this thing. there is one thing there is some shenanigans, there is some maybe not the best people, there is some incompetence, there is some cavalierness, some stuff to worry about here, but when it s the espionage prosecutor that has to be working on the case involving the new national