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.
secret foreign agent. at least you would think. but this guy who was under consideration for that job, he came to the trump transition. he warned them about the fact he was under active investigation for that, and the trump transition, the incoming trump administration, they decided they would hire him anyway. they would hire him despite that, and that is how we got michael 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 was being led by a veteran espionage prosecutor named brandon van