statute. it simply means flynn lied to the f.b.i. and the f.b.i. had information that was overwhelmingly clear that was in conflict with flynn s statements. based on the timeline in december it appears at least one of those pieces of evidence is a telephone intercept or electronic communication that showed contrary to what flynn told the f.b.i. this is a very important moment in the special counsel investigation. flynn will become the most senior person within the trump administration to reach an agreement with the special counsel over his actions with russia leading up to the transition in january. bill: does it give us any indication that mueller is closer to concluding or just proceeding? well, flynn is a very senior individual. and one of the things that
we ll need to understand is what attaches to this particular plea. is there any commitment to cooperate further in terms of what flynn knows about others within the trump administration more senior than himself or is this an agreement where there attaches a provision that he has pled guilty to this and in exchange the special counsel will not pursue additional charges or evidence that they uncovered in the course of their investigation? i think we want to be cautious. we don t know which direction it would take. those are among the options. bill: the interview took place in january 24, 2017, that s within a week of the inauguration of the new administration. catherine, thank you so much. we knew about two weeks ago that the lawyers for michael flynn and the lawyers for the white house that had a level of cooperation, that communication had been cut off. we re told that s standard legal practice. it gave some in washington an
this man with an incredible military career lied to the f.b.i. about conversations that could have been completely legitimate conversations. sandra: it s interesting you are reminded of that when you read through the court document. it is detailed, the court has scheduled a hearing for general flynn retired. juan, quick word to you. i think again, i don t think we have to play politics with this. everybody is on the defensive this morning because there is so much we don t know. what we do know is this one count. it seems to most people here in washington that that is at the low end of what robert mueller, the special counsel, could have charged general flynn with, which is what then leads to the larger question again unknown of what michael flynn may be telling the special counsel and how far up the tree it goes. and again, i think everybody is aware we have one president, president trump, and president trump is anxious, rightly so, about this.
michael flynn s attorney sitting in the car parked outside of the courthouse. we have yet to see michael flynn himself. we ll keep an eye on that for you. congresswoman, michael flynn, the charge against him, this is another prominent defendant to special counsel robert mueller s investigation as we know at this point, he is the fourth person charged in connection with the mueller investigation. what does that tell you? what it tells me is that special prosecutors and special counsels are going to go about as they always do pulling back the layers of the onion, seeing what they can find there. we know that the russia investigation is something that is going to have tentacles that will reach some of the democrats. again you look at what has happened with the clinton foundation and uranium one. this is an area that people are
they re waiting to see because they don t know yet the terms of this plea agreement. they have to wait for that to be entered but the president s legal team both inside and outside the white house is working the phones right now to try to get a better handle on all of this. they were clearly caught to some degree by surprise by today s developments. though it should be said after manafort was indicted, they expected that something was going to come down on flynn and then you had the withdrawal of the information sharing agreement which really tell graphed to the president s attorneys that something was about to happen. so not a surprise. i think to the white house and the president s outside attorneys that something like this happened, what does remain, though, unclear is what the terms of this plea agreement are. those will become very clear in the minutes ahead. sandra: with all this happening during the transition period for michael flynn, john, could you sort of take us back? fly