Youre watching cnn, on this friday afternoon im brooke baldwin. Thank you for being here. Potential obstruction of the russia investigation. That is what Robert Mueller said was a possible goal of people with ties to the Trump Administration and to congress when they reached out to former Trump National security adviser Michael Flynn. This contact took place a couple of years ago he was deciding whether or not to cooperate with the special counsel. Flynn not only helped mueller with his investigation but as we just learned today, he also turned over a voice mail from one of the people, a personal attorney of his for President Trump in the process. Cnn politics correspondent sarah murray is in washington. And sayre yu, these revelations came thanks to the judge who will be sentencing Michael Flynn, is that correct . And how do he with get here. Michael flynn has not been sentenced and one of the earliest and most valuable cooperators in the Mueller Probe and the judge who will decide flynns fate has pushed for more and more information about what exactly Michael Flynn was providing to the government that was so useful and that is how we learned more about the extent to which people around the president and apparently around congress were essentially trying to sway Michael Flynns testimony. Of course this raises questions about why mueller didnt find anyone else obstructed justice. Perhaps one of the people we know, for instance a member of the president s legal team reaching out to Michael Flynn and say telling us what you are telling the special counsel, it is a matter of National Security. So it is a little unclear why obstruction the obstruction lines didnt follow those people who may have tried to influence flynn. But this judge is still pushing for more information. He said he wants the transcripts of this voice mail between someone in the administrations orbit and someone in flynns orbit trying to sway his testimony. He also wanted the transcripts of Michael Flynns phone calls with russian officials. Remember this is what got flynn in hot water in the first place, talking about sanctions with the then Russian Ambassador and lying about it to the Vice President and to the american people. So we could still learn more about this case going forward. So will the transcripts be something if we hear the voice mail. Sarah murray, thank you very much. Lets analyze. I have ashar rengoppa and frank bruni is a New York Times opinion columnist and a cnn contributor. So welcome to both you. Asha, you first, does what weve just learned, this voice mail and communication, does that qualify as obstruction potentially . It can potentially qualify as obstruction. I think it is important to point out that this is actually in the mueller report. It is in volume two around pages 130, 131. Youre good. Not that i photographically memorized it. But i think it just goes to the volume of information in there. He does say that this could be an obstructive act. He didnt he said in the report that because of a Attorney Client privilege they did not pursue with the lawyer who made this call and left this voice mail whether the president knew about it. That is the key piece. We dont know if the president know about it. The president is shielded because they didnt want to go down that road but i think the lawyer here could potentially have criminal liability and because mueller doesnt decide to include it and might decide that is beyond the scope of his mandate and if he decided that could be pursued as a separate criminal referral, that is still an open question. What about other people, frank bruni. Flynn described multiple times, the quote is, he or his attorneys received information from persons connected to the administration or congress that could have affect the his willingness to cooperate and the completion of the cooperation. And youre great to point that out because were talking about plural incidents and more than one person. And there is one voice mail from john dowd i believe and it is we hear this audio, that is different than hearing a summary of what happened. If it sounds a certain way, this is because the judges said he wanted the transcript but will listen to the audio and will make that public. So there is the flavor that could be meaningful for people and then as you said weve heard descriptions of multiple attempts to get in touch with them to find out what he would say to make sure he knew that he was in good esteem with the president and not to presumably not to change that. Who are these people . What are the other attempts sounding like. If this isnt obstruction it is in the same time zone and probably in the same zip code. And some of the other people may be members of congress. Thats the thing. So i think we start to get to why it is so important for congress to be able to get the unredacted material and also have hearings because of this issue that sometimes hearing it out loud, coming out from peoples mouths or listening to a recording could be very powerful. Nobody will read this 448page report. But also because Congress Needs to know who these people are to take action even if mueller decided not to. They have their internal ethics rules and other there is transparence and accountability issues if members of congress were involved in this. And were talking about transcripts and audio, think about hearing flynn on the phone with the Russian Ambassador, right. How chummy did they sound and what exactly is flynn saying . That is worth a lot more than just knowing that he said dont worry about the sanctions, theyll be taken care of when trump is in office. And to add to this, President Trump said he had no idea flynn was under investigation and couldnt make a staff change because no one warned him and i sit here and i want your reaction first, because no one . Look at the faces on the screen. Former fbi director james comey or sally yates and certainly not former president barack obama. You tell me who else failed to warn him . He has the best memories, brooke. Of anyone youve ever met on the planet. He was warned repeatedly and i think what is happening now is as more evidence comes out, he does what he usually does katie hill is to distance himself and it is not long before Michael Flynn was just a coffee boy and running and getting lattes from starbucks and not the former National Security adviser. So move over papadopoulos, he is the new coffee boy. Yes, exactly. What do you think . Michael flynn . I dont know Michael Flynn. Who is that guy. And why didnt you warn me. Hes always innocent. He reinvents history and everyone is he is blameless and everybody else should take the fall. And bill barr is speaking out about investigating the Russian Investigation and a rant weve heard from President Trump repeatedly. Listen to what he said. Ive been trying to get answers to questions and i found that a lot of the answers have been inadequate and ive also found that some of the explanations ive gotten dont hang together. People have to find out what the government was doing during that period. If were worried about foreign influence, for the very same reason, we should be worried about whether government officials abused think power and put their thumb on the scale. So the fact that you have the attorney fuelling these conspiry theories, furthering spygate on the president s favorite news channel from the release of that ridiculous fourpage summary through this hes utterly consistent and seems determined to protect the president and to feed any narrative that the president wants fed. We know this investigation had basis and there were reasons the campaign and People Associated with the campaign were being looked into and he keeps prom propping up that this was a witch hunt and donald trump is a martyr and hes not. Hes the luckiest man alive. Thank you both very much. And coming up next, Ohio State University released a disturbing internal report that found one of the former team doctors sexual abused nearly 200 athletes. 200, for nearly two decades. Hear the University Response to accusations that they did nothing to stop this alleged abuse. Plus a powerful moment on the floor of the Missouri State house. 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In 1996 doctor strauss was removed from his role following an investigation. He died by suicide in 2005. And when accusers started coming forward last year, i talked with michael desabatto a ohio state wrestler and one of the athlete as abused by strauss and this is what he told me one year ago. They were conversations with a group of athletes who were complaining on a regular basis. Not only about dr. Strauss, but the conditions within lock and tall which forced us to take showers with not only dr. Strauss but other University Faculty members and professor who had access to our shower facility and on a daily basis were involved in lewd acts that included public masturbation, excessive soaping of their groin area and dr. Strauss was one of those that took a lot of showers and soaped himself a lot. Cnn Paula Sandoval is reporting this for us and cnn legal analyst criminal defense attorney joey jacks is here with analysis. But i remember talking to mike a year ago and i know that there are so many complicating factors around this but what your learning . So before we get to what is in it, let me tell you about. This report is an independent one that details sexual abuse against at least 177 former student athletes and it is important to point out, brooke, it also gives credence to accusations made by dozens of former Ohio State University students that were sexual abused by the team doctor and the university a according to the report failed to do anything about it and os uconn colluded that School Personnel know about complaints that dr. Strauss was sexual abusing students as early as 1979 and failed to investigate or act and he was retired in 1998 two years after the university fired him from the job at a student clinic and also the Athletic Department following students allegations that surfaced back then. But we should point out he was never actually prosecuted. He also took his own life in 2005. Along with todays report, current osu president Michael Drake sent out a letter of apology to the University Community and said every person abused deserved that apology and the institution at the time failed to prevent years of abuse and called it, in his own word, unacceptable. So this report is really the end of a yearlong investigation and it included hearing from various survivors, including one who spoke before School Trustees in november. This is what he had to say. I cannot get the image of the predators face out of my head. Him standing over me while he sexually assaulted me in that clinic. You may also remember ohio congressman jim jordan and how he potentially ties into this. You remember that he repeatedly denied having any knowledge of any sort of inappropriate behavior during his time as an assistant wrestling coach at osu and despite several victims saying that he knew. The report does not name him specific by but said investigators could not conclusively determine each and every allegation made about a particular coachs knowledge, specific portion of that statement reads, quote, the investigators concluded what we have said from the beginning, that congressman jordan never knew of any abuse and if he had he would have dealt with it. We should point out this report found that strausss behavior as an open secret is how this report refers to this kind of behavior, especially as it looks at it now. Again, decades after the allegations began to surface, many victims now hearing what they were hoping to hear from the university. Just to think that this all apparently goes back to you mentioned 1979. Decades of inaction, joey jackson. What does accountability begin to look like . It is difficult based on the timing anding that decades long and how do you hold people accountable and have they moved on or passed away as this has and there are teachable moments in life and this is a hard lesson to learn. You remember the larry nassar case . I was just thinking because there are so many parallels. He was alive and able to be prosecuted and gone away for a long time both federally and state and hes serving consecutive sentences. It is like 140 years or something. And so the reality is that what do we do . We know that we have this title nine that protects supposed to protect students and certainly University Officials or mandatory reporters when it comes toing ha to having kno of this and to the point of teachable moments, what do we do to prevent this. There is a couple of things. The first is the independent report that polo talked about and walked us through in terms of the findings, compelling, shocking, very disturbing. But think it is a wakeup call to schools, universities throughout the country that you need to be in line. Now we also know, secondly, brooke, that we have the civil lawsuits, the many civil lawsuits that are pending against osu. And i think this report corroborates what is in those civil allegations. And so, look, the only mechanism the legal system has to compensate people is money. And thats it is a short coming and most unfortunate and that is all that is there. And to the interview that you did and we just watched, how do you begin to repair . How do you begin to pay someone to just it is an awful thing. 177 victims. But lets just hope moving forward, right, that we address and effect the people who have been affected but that universities are in compliance and they address the issues and that this doesnt happen. It is just stunning. Like all of the different stories. I watched the heart of gold document on larry nassar last week and the pattern is that people are speaking up and people are aware. Thank goodness. And nothing is done until the very end. Weve got to go. Well read more about your reporting, polo sandoval. Appreciate you putting this in the spotlight for these men. In the 2020 race, recent polls show joe biden with a huge lead. But behind him senator Bernie Sanders seems to be droppin