executive privilege. do you have any sense why chairman nunes, through a spokesman, would come out now and say, general flynn didn t ask for immunity before his committee? no, except that maybe they re parsing words here. we do know they ve clearly been having conversations about him getting some sort of immunity. i m not really clear why. the only other thing i would say, in terms of bringing it back to the white house, gloria was talking about, an important point, this is the former national security advisor to the president. when i talked to white house officials earlier today about this, their out ward posture is we don t care. it s fine if he gets immunity. we have nothing to hide and he can say what he wants. it certainly would be a very uncomfortable place for the white house if this were to go
in exchange for his testimony or cooperation in terms of the fbi. those discussions, understanding it happened in recent days, and a statement out from michael flynn s lawyer saying he would agree to testify under certain circumstances and they have had these conversations. his lawyers are saying their concern is not so much michael flynn had something to hide, they re saying he doesn t or something he should be concerned about but that in this political environment he would not be treated fairly. he s asking for immunity from any prosecution to be able to give his testimony and cooperate and not have any consequences should something arise that could be criminally prosecuted. the fbi as well as the house intelligence committee and the senate, the house intelligence committee spokesman for chairman nunes said michael flynn has not asked for immunity.
we re back talking about the breaking news of the report in the wall street about national security michael flynn offering to talk in exchange for immu immunity. i want to tell you something general flynn said on meet the press back in september of last year talking about hillary clinton and immunity. the very last thing john podesta just said no individual too big to jail. that should include people like hillary clinton. five people around her have been given immunity to include her former chief of staff. when you re given immunity, that means you probably committed a crime. that was then. joining us, paul callan. i want to go back to viewers for a second, viewers tuning in, if you could explain what it is you
director of communications for president obama. is this bad news for the trump administration? i don t think it s bad news. it s helpful if he wants to come forward and people will want to hear what this big story is he has. i think there are a lot of questions. as i read the immunity agreements with the five clinton employees involved with the e-mail scandals, there were different times with heather mills they got immunity from the fbi and apparently not from congress. i m not a lawyer, i don t know how it looks, it might be a while going back and forth before an immunity agreement was rea reached. fra frankly, i think it would be good to have him say what is it you know? it seems to be the center of it and not the whole thing but where some starts and stops. it could be, i think, productive. jeff toobin, does it seem like it will be productive in that way?
to tell if they re willing to tut a deal with him and no one has cut a deal with him yet. these conversations are ongoing, going on the last couple of days and continuing. jeff, based on your experience, how do these discussions go. he gets immunity for a day in which he can tell what he would say and they will judge whether they offer him immunity. these discussions, offered by the house and fbi and senate, do they happen in a room together? do they have to all be together? it s almost always face-to-face. one of the things a prosecutor or investigator is trying to decide in whether to grant immunity is whether someone is telling the truth. that s the most important thing. you re not going to give immu immunity to someone you think is lying to you. this is a face-to-face