When all in starts right now. Good evening. The former National Security adviser to the president of the United States pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi about his contacts with the Russian Ambassador. And amid the chaos, republicans in congress are going full steam ahead to push a massive Corporate Tax cut through while they still have a chance because youd never know who is going to be indicted on monday. Thats especially true now that we know flynn is cooperating with Robert Muellers russian investigation, bringing it one step closer to the president s inner circle, including his soninlaw Jared Kushner, possibly even the president himself. Flynn is now the fourth member of the Trump Campaign to be charged with a felony. And unlike the other three who all parted ways with the president by the tyime he took office, he is in a position all his own. He frequently traveled with the president on the road and defending him in the press. They grew so close that trump went on to pick flynn as his National Security adviser even after being explicitly warned against it by president obama right after the election. And unlike the other three who have been charged, flynn committed his crime inside the white house. He lied to fbi agents in an interview just two days after being sworn in as National Security adviser. After appearing in federal court this morning, flynn, who once led lock her up chants exited the courthouse to a new chant of his own. Lock him up lock him up lock him up lock him up lock him up lock him up flynn later released his first Public Statement which read in part, my guilt plea and agreement to cooperate with the special counsels office reflect a decision i made in the best interests of my family and of our country. I accept full responsibility for my actions. Under that cooperation agreement, Robert Mueller will soon find out everything flynn knows about what happened during and after the Trump Campaign. If he hasnt already. And theres reason to believe that Michael Flynn know as whole heck of a lot. Nevertheless, the white house tried to protect an air of calm today, at least in public. Attorney ty cobb saying nothing about the guilty plea other than mr. Flynn. But maybe mueller would not make a deal if he didnt think he could deliver a bigger fish. In court documents, it gives clues about who mueller may be angling for. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to investigators during the transition with the Russian Ambassador insisting they hadnt imposed new sanctions against the Obama Administration. The Washington Post broke that story last february leading to flynns resignation. What we didnt know, until today, is that flynn was directed to discuss sanctions with the ambassador by a Senior Member of the president s Transition Team. Someone who, while all this was going on, was with other senior president ial Transition Team at the mar a logo in palm beach florida. That makes it a lot harder to believe what the president said right after flynn stepped down. Did you direct mike flynn to discuss sanctions with the Russian Ambassador . , no, i didnt. Did you fire him because of the information leaked out . No, i fired him because of what he said to mike pence. He was doing his job and it certainly would have been okay with me if he did it. I would have directed him to do it if i thought he wasnt doing it. I didnt direct him but i would have directed him because thats his job. Chuck rosenberg is a former u. S. Attorney and chief of staff under former director james comey and former assistant watergate prosecutor. Chuck, let me begin with you. The significance of this today, what does it mean . Well, its very significant, chris. It means a couple of things. One, mike flynn is going to be a convicted felon. The other is that hes going to cooperate. Thats what he needs to do for a bunch of reasons. One is, they can compel him to tell the truth. The other is he wants to make sure that whatever sentence he gets in the end is as low as possible. So significant, you bet it is. Jill, we have heard all along that there were multiple possible indictments coming for flynn and perhaps his son. One of them was failing to register as a Foreign Agent which we know i think we have her back. One of them was failing to register as a Foreign Agent, which of course we know Paul Manafort and his deputy have been already indicted for. So chuck, what does it mean that those sorts of charges are not present today and instead we have this one charge . It doesnt mean very much, chris. Heres why. One charge, one count will make him a convicted felon and thats a pretty rough way to go through the rest of your life. The other stuff, the other conduct, including either lying on his Foreign Agent registration forms or omitting information or, you know, whatever else he may have done, all of that stuff, a, is known to mueller and his team and, b, will have to be made known to the judge because it will factor in his sentencing. The fact that hes pleading guilty to one count doesnt mean that all of this other stuff doesnt come into play for mr. Flynn. What are the terms of this kind of negotiation and cooperation like, chuck . Well, the terms of this plea agreement are pretty standard. Ive seen a thousand of them and it doesnt seem all that different. The fact that they are letting him plead guilt to one count as opposed to many is not all that unusual. In some ways it seems quite standard, chris. Jill, you obviously have experience with watergate and one of the key things there was john dean. John dean was someone who knew a lot and who did flip and that sort of broke things open. How do you compare what happened today with that . I think we have every reason to believe that mike flynn is a knowledgeable person because of the fact that trump has gone so far out of his way to protect him. He wouldnt have been doing that if flynn didnt know things that would hurt him and his family. That is, trump and his family, his son and soninlaw. So i think the fact that hes cooperating is really bringing us closer to the truth and also i think its important that the information that he pled guilty to specifically said that he talked to and was guided by a senior person in the president ial transition. And, of course, were hearing rumors today that that was Jared Kushner but it could have been pence. It could have been sessions. It could have been any one of a number of people. All very high up who are now in jeopardy and who will also have information that if they are called upon to choose between going to jail and testifying, may testify and give us even more evidence to sort of draw the final loop around the white house. Chuck, it does seem notable that mueller included in that plea document, that he was directed to do this by a Senior Administration official. Theres a little bit of contradictory reports about who that is that directed to make this contact with kislyak and afterwards talked to senior officials. The entire line from the white house, for months and months and months, which is we have no idea Michael Flynn lied appears to be true. So the mueller team is slowly shipping away at the truth. Youre seeing another piece of it today. I have no conclusions about who it is and how far it will go. Heres what i do know, chris, they are getting at it and they are getting at it in an extraordinarily and deliberate and professional way. What about the pace, jill . My colleague Lawrence Odonnell said it was going so much faster than watergate and it does seem like the pace of this is going at quite a rapid clip. It is going rapidly. I would like to draw one analogy, which is when john dean pled guilty, it was friday, october 19th. Saturday, october 20th was a saturday night massacre. And there is some link between the fact that he was cooperating and testifying and the fact that we were denied the tapes, had the press conference and thats what led to a huge public outcry that really reversed how the public saw the watergate investigation and im hoping that something from today will get through to most of the people who are currently supporting the president and make them see what the real facts are and that real crimes are being committed by the people in the white house. How serious a crime is it, chuck, to lie to the fbi . Its a felony. There are two types of crimes, basically, felonies and misdemeanors. This is a felony. Its a serious crime. I want to be clear about something, chris. It doesnt really matter all that much which felony they picked or which lie they picked to charge as part of the felony. Its a serious crime. Its as simple as that. Chuck, jill, great to have you here on a pretty momentous day. My next guests, congressman mike quigley, member of the House Intelligence Committee and congressman ted lieu who sits on the house Judiciary Committee. Good to have you both, gentlemen. Congressman quigley, were you surprised given that you have access to information that we in the public do not have, were you surprised by todays development . The timing somewhat. Its hard to imagine that after last weeks announcement that mr. Flynn had stopped cooperating with the Trump Defense team that Something Like this wasnt going to happen. It was clearly an indication that there was cooperation, which is more likely than not leading to some sort of a negotiated plea. So i think i felt this was going to happen. It was hard to imagine that the general didnt have a lot of exposure. But as suggested, it has gained in momentum. Congressman lieu, theres a side part of this and it has to do with essentially the president ial transition conducting Foreign Policy during the transition and we should note that its not unusual for incoming administrations to be in contact with foreign governments and talking about things. But theres both the example of the sanctions and this other example in which it appears that Jared Kushner directed Michael Flynn to call different governments and attempt to block what the Obama Administration was trying to have happen during a u. N. Security council vote, essentially undermining the current Foreign Policy to the u. S. Government. What do you make of the seriousness of that . Thats very serious, chris. Thats why theres a federal law against it called the logan act. We have one president at a time. You cannot conduct your own rogue Foreign Policy and thats exactly what the Trump Campaign was doing. But also, keep in mind, you have multiple Trump Officials not only lying about the russian contacts but lying about the russian person ambassador kislyak. Michael flynn lied, Jeff Sessions lied and Jared Kushner lied as well and this is important because kislyak is, as mike quigley knows, is a pie spd spy recruiter for russia as well. Congressman, one of the key items is this was the day when the Obama Administration was essentially delivering their punitive measures for what russia had done to donald trump. What does it mean if the trump transition is essentially telling them its going to be okay . I mean, look, theres a reason we have one president at a time. Leave it to the Trump Administration to bring out the logan act. I dont know if anyones ever been prosecuted under the act. Its an extremely old law and leave it to them to make this relevant again. Clearly this is a long pattern in history of abuse and an extraordinary flow of connection primarily with one country, russia, to benefit russias Foreign Policy and, unfortunatelily, in a coordinated basis with the Trump Administration. Croongressman lieu, do you suspect this goes up to the president of the United States . Well, first off, today is a dark day for america because were now seeing evidence of criminal behavior at the highest levels of our government and i think we can draw a strong inference by todays plea agreement. Im a former prosecutor and you wouldnt do a plea agreement, such as this one, if youre trying to get lower level people. The only reason you are charged Michael Flynn with one count as opposed manafort with a whole laundry list of counts, you want him to give incriminating information on those above him, Jared Kushner, mike pence, donald trump jr. Or the president of the United States. Congressman, quickly, i want you to respond to one of those senior people is the Vice President. The Vice President was in maralago that day. The Vice President the story has been that flynn lied to the Vice President , that the Vice President had no idea. Heres what he had to say on january 15th about that phone conversation. Take a listen. I talked to general flynn about that conversation and actually it was initiated on Christmas Day he had sent a text to the Russian Ambassador to express not only christmas wishes but sympathy for the loss of life in the Airline Crash that took place. It was strictly coincidental that they had a conversation. They did not discuss anything having to do with the United States decision to expel diplomats or impose a censure against russia. We now know thats definitively not true but are you satisfied that the Vice President was telling the truth, that he did not know that it wasnt true . I think when we do an investigation like this, its important not to draw any assumptions. I think we have to follow the facts wherever they take us. This is an investigation like many others. It begins at the periphery and moves towards the center. That momentum obviously increases dramatically when people start flipping. I encourage the American Public when they ask questions about the Vice President and anybody else in the administration, your patience is starting to pay off. Lets let mr. Mueller do his job. Lets certainly let the house and Senate Investigations take their course. So im not going to presume or assume that i know anything about what the Vice President knew or didnt know. Obviously there are questions about the entire administration. Let us do our job. My concern today, number one, is that this is going to panic the white house and theyre going to enhance their existing efforts to either halt the investigations taking place or at least impair them. Don jr. Is headed to your committee next week. Does this change at all your approach to questioning him . We have a habit of not talking about who is going to appear. Obviously it makes the news sometimes before we even know it. I think theres a lot of questions for trump junior and i look forward to being part of that when and if he appears before our committee. Congressman lieu, on the Judiciary Committee there, are you confident in your republican colleague or democrat colleagues will take steps to protect Robert Mueller if it appears that his job is threatened . I am. And keep in mind that what brought Richard Nixon down was obstruction of justice. That was the first article of impeachment and it was a saturday night massacre where he filed all of these Department Justice officials. So donald trump can try to do that but if he has any recognition of what happened in history, i dont think hell do that. You have republicans such as trey gowdy who has said you should let Robert Mueller do his job and let the facts go as they should. Appreciate you taking the time tonight. Thank you. Still ahead, a rush to pass Corporate Tax cuts and what Michael Flynns flipping means to the president and his plan to shield Robert Mueller from being fired in two minutes. No one in the white house today knew Michael Flynns plea deal was coming and reporters began dealing to meet with the Prime Minister of libya. The pool reporters bega