professionalism drew a very quick response from the person who represents fbi agents, who i m sure clint knows well, drew response from mike rogers, former fbi agent. i just feel as if for trump, though, it must feel as if this is closing in on him week by week. and that s the only thing that can account for these strange tweets. just stand back and look at this. the person who trump tried to protect from investigation, mike flynn, is now been investigated, made a plea agreement and is cooperating with the investigation that trump hoped that comey would, quote, let go. so that s where we are. and this is part of michael schmidt s report in the claims that michael flynn acted alone. but the new york times reports that e-mails show that flynn was in close touch with other senior
what was the decision process like? it was very methodical. it was very calm. it was not rushed at all. sometimes they would spend the entire day, one witness, with the special counsel s teams. carol lee? this is a really fascinating story. one of the things i m wondering, you talk a lot about how questions are focused on the interplay between kushner and flynn. did you get any sense of why that is, what thaerp looking for? did anyone you talk to talk about what specific meetings they were focused on or anything like that? kushner s lawyer, abby lowell, has said that he has cooperated and just because questions are being asked about jared kushner doesn t mean he s a target. that being said, people involved with these interviews, that participated either as witnesses or lawyers, questions are being asked about swrard kushner s role with michael flynn. how did general flynn work to set up meetings? what was the process like for
flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi about what he told russians during the 2016 transition. single charge trump allies say it s much ado about nothing. this is good news for team trump. what flynn lied about is not a crime. the lowest possible charge they could get. flynn has been knee deep in controversies. president trump s former national security adviser michael flynn. mueller s charge didn t even mention flynn s failure to disclose payment from russia s state-owned tv channel, a payment he denied to investigators. unbelievable. nor did it mention his late filing as an agent for turkey, with the erdogan regime about a big payday for capture and rendition of a turkish dissident residing peacefully in the united states. wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. not a word about flynn s part
people believe for good reason, inspired the assassination of a member of parliament. what s your reaction to that? my reaction is that we re at a real testing time for this country when people are going to either speak up and stand up and challenge the president of the united states or they won t. the white house is a very heady place, power is a very powerfully addictive drug, and donald trump is a very formidable personality. somebody has to stand up to him. i hope my republican colleagues in the senate will take the lead on this issue and also on obstruction of justice. there is a credible case of obstruction of justice against donald trump. argue it for us. what is it? well, if you take the president s own statement, his tweet, that he knew michael flynn was lying to the fbi when he fired him, which means that
national reporter for nbc news, carol lee. special agent clint watts. associate editor for the washington post, david ignatius, and joining the conversation, former justice department spokesperson now an msnbc justice and security analyst, matthew miller. matthew, tamerlin tsarnaev a i have to ask you off the top. when the president of the united states says he had to fire michael flynn because he lied to the fbi, what did that immediately say to you? it immediately said he s admitting to obstruction of justice. it s important the important was admitting when he asked jim comey to back off of mike flynn, it wasn t just because he was a good guy or because he thought flynn hadn t broken the law. it was because he knew at the time that flynn had committed a crime. and that s damming enough. it s also damning in context.