Grievances. The president lashing out against hillary clinton, against the former fbi director james comey, against what the president perceives to be fake news. All in an effort to recast the russia investigation on the president s own terms, to undercut the credibility of the special counsel to say in some way that Robert Mueller is biased. Why is that . Because you have an instance, of course, where the president s former National Security adviser is pleading guilty to lying to fbi agents about his contacts with the russians before President Trump took office. Geoff bennett there at the white house. If the president did fire Michael Flynn for as he tweeted yesterday, lying to the Vice President and the fbi, then that raises an interesting question, how did he know about flynns lie to federal agents . After all, details of flynns fbi interview which he denied discussing sanctions with the Russian Ambassador did not become this comes after the president tweeted this morning. We get started with a series of reports from Michael Flynn contacting russians in president ial denials. Reporter what do you think of reports that general flynn had discussions on the russian sanctions before you were sworn in . I dont know about it. This was an act of trust. Whether or not he actually misled the Vice President was the issue. And that was ultimately what led to the president asking for and accepting the resignation of general flynn. Thats it. Pure and simple. It was a matter of trust. Mike flynn, i asked for his resignation and he gave it. I dont think he did anything wrong. We believe that general flynn was compromised with respect to the russians. To state the obvious, you dont want your National Security adviser compromised with the russians. And then this, the bombshell testimony of james comey one day before appearing in front of the Senate Intelligence committee, the now former fbi director revealed that the president asked him to let the flynn matter go just one day after Michael Flynn was fired. I dont think it is for me to say whether the conversation i had with the president was an effort to obstruct. I took it as a very disturbing thing, very concerning, but thats a conclusion im sure the special counsel will work towards. We have our own team of lawyers to break this down. The u. S. Attorney and msnbc contributor barbara mcquaid, author of the constitution today, keila molar, and barb mcquaid, let me start with that date. To what finer focus this comes after what we learned on friday . Well, a couple of things. One is, if theres an obstruction of justice here, there are two key elements here. What we said is to teach our law students, every crime has an act and a mens rea. One of the things we learned on friday is not only did trump know that Michael Flynn was involved in this, but perhaps other members of his administration were also involved in communication with the russians, if so, that adds to his motivation and his intent to commit an obstruction of justice. So it seems like based on the tweet yesterday where he may have inadvertently disclosed that he knew that Michael Flynn committed a crime by lying to the fbi, today he seems to be treating and attacking the other element of the effect, the actus reas to say i never told comey to let this go. So it seems if hes lost the mens rea defense, now hes focusing on the ac turkstus rea defense. Let me ask you about the Justice Department of this inquiry. What do you make of how this conversation shifted again in light of what we learned on friday and in light of the tweet we heard yesterday . I think constitutionally people are getting way ahead of themselves. The president of the quiUnited States is actually part of the criminal justice system. He plays a unique role. For example, he can pardon people, people who are clearly guilty. Even people who are clearly guilty and are his advisers and who did things at his behest. Hes ultimately judged by the electora electorate, by a court of impeachment. I hope we hear soon, but casper wineberger was pardoned by george h. W. Bush. And Richard Nixon was pardoned by gerald ford. If a president of the United States decides, okay, i candon want to pardon someone and want enforcement priorities to be x, y and z for reasons of state, unless theres some specific and corrupt motivation, which is going to really have to be shown in a real way, its okay for a president of the United States to actually have enforcement priorities and even to let clearly guilty people go free if there are perhaps reasons for it, or if not, then we have to talk about whether gerald ford obstructed justice. So whether george h. W. Bush obstructed justice. Or for that matter, president bill clinton who pardoned his own brother on his way out obstructed justice. This goes back to up george washington. People who are clearly guilty are pardoned all the time and not prosecuted all the time. And actually, just think about drug laws or anything else, we do not prosecute all crimes and there are reasons we sometimes dont do that. How familiar is this all to you . Too familiar and its not a happy day. Its not a happy day when aides to the president of the United States or candidate for the president are indicted by the United States government. Its not a happy day. Its not a happy day when a tweet goes out that suggests that the president knew that flynn had lied before it came out that he had lied. Its a serious situation. And im troubled that we have a lawyer to the president who said, i wrote the tweet. I made the confession. Im the one who basically implicated the president. The president is not guilty. Thats just nonsense. As far as the pardon power, we are there. But i just want to say this, the president may have the power to pardon people. But if he doesnt, to use the professors term, for the wrong motive for the purpose of obstruction of justice and to prevent justice from being done, then its a crime. It could be an obstruction of justice. Because the president has the power to do it, doesnt mean that he cant be criminal. Let many ask you about that, were hearing from the white house that one of the president s counsel offered the tweet as the president just said. Is this plausible deniability if we are saying here, perhaps the president obstructed justice in the context of the tweet, he can slough it off and say this was my counsel who wrote it . How salient is that argument . Well, i dont want to accuse a lawyer john dowd of making a false statement here, but it is curious a lawyer would go out and Say Something like that. All the extraneous statements are dangerous because they can be used against you at some point. If trump authored the tweet and sent it out and said he fired flynn because he lied to the fbi, that could be used against him later as some evidence, certainly not the only evidence, but some of the evidence against him in an on instruction of justice count. So if it instead can be contributed to the lawyer, then that cant be used as directly against donald trump and he can say, that wasnt me, that was my lawyer trying to help explain the situation to the public. So i think it is potentially a strategy to help minimize the harm that it can do for President Trump. I want to have you response to that, youre toiling in the trenches in new haven with wouldbe lawyers as they work on finding their way around legally, as i read the tweet from yesterday one more time here, i had to fire general flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the fbi. Hes pled guilty to those lies. Its a shame because his actions during the transaction were lawful with nothing to hide. They are using latin phrases there. This doesnt sound like legalese to me as i read it. Well, lawyers do some things. Some of them are prosecutors and my two colleagues here on the panel are prosecutors. And if you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Everything looks like a potential crime. Im a constitutional person that looks at things differently. A sitting president in my view is not subject to ordinary criminal prosecution while sitting. That they are subject to the press, do congressional oversight, which may be vigorous, and to the court of impeachment. If you are talking about the mechanisms for keeping president s in line as a practicality, frankly, we need to think about whether the republicans actually think that anything wrong has happened. Because unless they do, there is no impeachment that will happen. Nothing is going to happen because last time i checked they do control both the house and the senate. Now, theres going to be an election coming up in november. You know, a year from now, and if you want more oversight, definitely vote for the democratic party. Because if the house is controlled by democrats, there will be more oversight congressionally than if the house is controlled by republicans. If you think its a witch hunt, vote for republican. But the things that happened over the last 72 hours suggest its no witch hunt. Heres a little from the interview that chuck todd with the Senate Ranking committee, Dianne Feinstein, and he asked her, in light of what we learned, if things are moving to impeachment. Well look at what the senator from california had to say on that subject. I believe its time for us to finish our investigation. And i dont want to the bias any part of the investigation with premature thinking. Some caution and trepidation there from Dianne Feinstein. What do you make of where we are in this whole process . Did things move forward markedly on friday with the plea from general flynn . Definitely. And just to respond to the professor, im not sure i agree with him, but in any case, the impeachment we went through with Richard Nixon was temperature it inially moved forward by the actions of the special prosecutor at that time. The actions of mueller are critical. The statements of the president visavis are critical to moving the public, which will insist that congress act. And by the way, were talking about obstruction of justice, but another crime came up during water gate where the president was told about a criminal activity, president nixon, and did nothing. And that was called misprisonment of a felony. If that tweet came from donald trump, if he ratified it and knew what it said and sent it out, and he knew that Michael Flynn had lied to the fbi, which is a crime, and he did nothing about it and, in fact, tried to conceal it and obstruct it by catching it a witch hunt, that could be a misprisonment felony. Another crime. All the criminal activities or potential activities will be reviewed by a special prosecutor and create an enormous impotus if that is to happen. Thank you to all of you for joining me. Still ahead, new reports from the emails from the president s inner circle saying a senior aide talked about the thrown election. How the white house is responding to intentions turning to other emails. And the president s tweets about crooked hillary are being receive in the aftermath of Michael Flynns guilty plea. Your body was made for Better Things than rheumatiod arthritis. Before you and your rheumatologist move to another treatment, ask if xeljanz xr is right for you. 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Michael flips guilty plea for lying to the federal government was considered by many in the National Spotlight to be a huge deal. Tune in tonight at 9 00 p. M. Eastern time. Heres a preview. President trumps former National Security adviser Michael Flynn has just pleaded guilty to a charge of lying to the fbi. Michael flynn at one time Donald Trumps most loyal Foreign Policy adviser now pledging full cooperation with the president s antagonist special counsel Robert Mueller. Todays news may change the calculus for the president , legally and split you cannily. He has information about President Trump, he has information about the former campaign manager, paul manafort, maybe about Jared Kushner and donald trump jr. A former lieutenant general. I thought to myself, this is the best intel officer i ever met. That could now implicate his commander in chief in the russia investigation. You joined donald trump in these intelligence briefings. You didnt learn from any of these briefings that it was russia . Those issues did not come up. And thats the extent of what i can talk about. This is the first time that this investigation has gone into the white house. From insurgent battlefield to political mine field, the complicated journey of Michael Flynn. He goes from a pinnacle of helping defeat our enemies, now hes mired in this political mail storm that we dont know how its going to end. All right. Well go to retired u. S. General barry mcafter frcaffrey. You said he was the greatest intel officer you ever met. What did you see in him . What did general mcchrystal see in him while he was in iraq . Look, the guy is smart,ic plaquable, experienced, courageous, mono focused on pursuing jihadists. Mcchrystal and flynn and the joint special Operations Command are a major reason we didnt have another dozen 9 11s. And by the way, they stayed overseas fighting for a better part of ten years. So i understood that. Now, subsequently, though, i think you got a Defense Intelligence agency, he started to act erratic by all accounts. He selectively read material to determine the course of action he already wanted to come out. Then finally when he got into the Trump Campaign and acting in a very bizarre manner. And the military guys say, dont do that. Its a sad day for general flynn and for the people that have worked for him and admire him. I want to go back to the moment when he was at the Defense Intelligence agency. I imagine you and others had high hope for him in that position. What went wrong or why wasnt it a good fit for him . I dont know. I talked to a fourstar having said by the way publicly how much i admired him when he was in afghanistan. I had a 100 briefing with him and he knocked my socks off with how smart and capable he was. They wondered if he had a Mental Health problem. And that could be an explanation, by the way, tremendous anger at the obama team. He was right and said isis was coming to get us. And the isis team said you are fired. By the way, justifiably so, but anger consumed him and everyone that was part of the ball that brought him down. A lot is Human Emotion that led him down the wrong path. Let me ask you about the relationship he developed with then President Trump. How did it come about . And why did he hit it off so quickly . Well, by all accounts, you saw general flynn being interviewed on fox tv multiple times. And like the aggressive inyourface manner with which he was talking about these issues and right into the family, and the family said, lets anoint this guy and bring in. I said multiple days having dealt with three white house administrations, there is no way a National Security adviser one giving hourly updates. They call them at night and wake them when there is an issue. He has to explain who knew what about the contacts and why would he have lied to the fbi . They have toen cover what they were trying to figure out. Positions customarily held by civilians, are you still concerned about that . Have you concerns about that lessens approaching the oneyear term by the way, i think all of us r us, understand the armed forces and wont seek war. So i almost come in at the opposite hr where this should be a relief for the american people. General, thank you. You can watch headliners tonight at 9 00 on msnbc. And President Trumps Transition Team is raising some red flags. If you have moderate to severe Rheumatoid Arthritis and youre talking to your rheumatologist about a medication, this is humira. This is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further irreversible damage. This is humira helping me reach for more. Humira has been clinically studied for over 20 years. Humira works for many adults. It targets and blocks a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. 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