president and his inner circle. michael flynn and this plea agreement now faces up to five years in prison. but if he had been charged with every count of lying listed in the court documents friday, he could have faced 35 years in prison at least pamela brown, cnn, washington. president trump has yet to publicly react to the plea deal, the president welcoming the libyan prime minister to the white house. one source telling cnn the president and the staff are in denial about the seriousness of the russia investigation. they believe flynn s plea means it s wrapping up. they also say they are, quote, totally in a bubble. let s bring in troy sladen, troy, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor joining us from los angeles. it s good to have you with us, troy. thanks for having me. let s talk about, let s talk about this legally.
administration authorized flynn s conversation with kislyak, but a former obama administration told cnn that claim from the trump white house is, quote, laughable. jim acosta, cnn, the white house. let s bring in troy sladen, troy, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor joining us us from los angeles. let s talk about this legally. mr. flynn has pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi. it is described to have a good deal for him, all things considered, which leads to the question now is there there an expectation that mr. flynn has a story to tell? absolutely. both by the terms of the plea dealist as well as general flynn s public statement. and he had a lot of criminal exposure. each count of highing to the if fbi carries with it a maximum of five years in federal prison. now, what they did was they
policy. so the allegation here is that flynn, in speak background the sanctions, asking them to not taking any action and to delay a u.n. vote that was coming at the time, that the incoming administration, the trump administration was conducting foreign policy before they took the helm, before the inauguration. and so that could be a theoretical violation of the logan act, but that s not what is being alleged here. and even that, even if there was to be an allegation that the logan act was violated, that doesn t go to the heart of what the special counsel was constituted for, which is to look at whether or not the trump campaign was colluding with russia in order to defeat hillary clinton and get donald trump elected. troy sladen, we appreciate