suggesting he was somehow trapped into lying, that he wasn t warned by the fbi that lying to federal agents was a crime. and it s not clear what judge sullivan, the judge in this case, will make of that argument, whether it will lead him to diverge in any way from the government and the defense sentencing recommendation. of course, the other big question looming over all this is what we probably won t hear at this hearing, which is what has mike flynn told robert mueller that has earned him this fairly sweet deal. recall that flynn met with the special counsel some 19 times. he s implicated in a scheme to lobby secretly on behalf of the turkish government. he was paid $600,000 for that. he was not charged in that scheme even though some of his partners were. he s pled guilty to a single count of lying to the fbi. he s going to be a convicted felon, but what has he told special counsel robert mueller, if anything, about russia collusion? that s the big question today. ken, can you sta
early weeks of the administration. at least before he was fired. ten months after that, he admitted he lied to the fbi about conversations he had with russia s ambassador to the united states during that transition. and today flynn will be sentenced for that crime, only after speaking with robert mueller s investigators a total of 19 times. nbc s ken delanian is outside the courthouse. jeff bennett is also with us. give us a sense of what it s like out there. reporter: it s a pretty big media circus. a lot of satellite trucks out here. there s a ritual to these kinds of hearings and a procedure. so what will happen is both sides will talk about the presentencing report for mike flynn, which has been sealed up to this point. then they ll discuss their recommendations. as you know, both sides agree that mike flynn does not deserve prison time. the only wild card here, though, is that flynn s lawyers made that unusual argument in presentencing that he was
telling the truth is worse than the risk of a lie. so that question remains unknown. there s a little bit of a clue that appears in the statement of the offense that was filed at the time of mike flynn s guilty plea where it talks about not only was he talking to the russian ambassador, but he was getting coaching and guidance from people at mar-a-lago. they were referred to as a senior official in the trump transition team and later someone referred to as a very senior official on the trump transition team. we don t know exactly who those people are. some have speculated flynn s deputy may have been one of those people. but who knows who those people are. and that s the piece of it. is there a larger conspiracy here to make agreements with the russians, and what is the larger agreement that s at issue here? that, i think, is what the investigators are after. and that s likely what flynn was asked about during those 19 meetings. right, with robert mueller s team. ben, let me go to yo