flynn lied and they destroyed his life. will you consider a pardon for michael flynn? i don't want to talk about pardons for michael flynn yet. we'll see what happens. let's see. >> meanwhile michael flynn's brother making a public appeal to had president. in a tweet yesterday which he later deleted joseph flynn wrote about time you pardoned general flynn who's taken the biggest fall for all of you given the ilegitimacy of this confessed crime. later he took a less confrontational approach. i personally believe a pardon is due to general flynn given the apparent and obvious manner in which the so-called crimes he pled guilty to were extracted from him. both of those relatively confusing tweets. and there's no reporting about mueller's investigation picking up steam. in just the last few weeks mueller's prosecutors have begun questioning committee staffers about the party digital operation that worked with the trump campaign to target voters in key swing states. they're seeking to determine if the joint effort was related to the activities of russian trolls and bots and

michael flynn is now a felon. he pleads guilty to the fbi as the russia investigation reaches inside the trump west wing. jared kushner was the very senior member of the transition directing flynn to contact russia. >> also tonight, a west wing taken by surprise. and what this means for donald trump. what stories does flynn have to tell to avoid decades in jay. the 11th hour on a friday night begins now. >>> good evening, once again, day 316 of the trump administration, it's one that will be remembered in history, it's the day president trump's former national security adviser, one of his first real allies in the game, publicly turned on him and agreed to cooperate in the mueller investigation. mike flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi. he walked out of that same course a convicted felon a sign in the crowd today that red lock him up mueller's first conviction against someone who worked inside trump's white house. the plea agreement stems from phone conversations, flynn had with russian ambassador sergei kisly

that loyalty is not extended back to michael flynn and michael flynn is not repaying it. >> chuck, just to under score the staebkes for flynn, today means that he is a wholly owned subsud ya subsidiary of team muller and must answer everything and he best not forget even a tiny detail because if we come to the end of this, and he leaves something out, and they void his deal, he is looking at a whole lot of years behind bars, correct? >> correct. potentially correct. let me explain why i say potentially, brian. in order to establish that he breached his plea agreement and wasn't truthful and forthcoming and full, the prosecutors need to prover that by a preponderance of the evidence. it's rare for a defendant like general flynn not to want to cooperate and not to be truthful and get the benefit of his bargain. so you should expect two things. one is that he will try his darnedarn e est to help them and being truthful and two, that prosecutors want that. they don't want to breach this plea agreement and load up on him and charge him with other stuff. they reached the bargain think think i

it in some ways reinforces a couple of broad things we know about michael flynn. what we now know about michael flynn is that he is so crooked that he needs to screw his pants on in the morning. there's enough evidence now of this guy in addition to what he'd pled guilty to of just the number of scams, money making ventures, corrupt endeavors that he is now tied to, that you look at this guy and think he is generally one of the seediest people to ever been placed in an administration position in our lifetimes. we also know that this is now made very clear. it's like the last piece of a puzzle in some ways. probably not the last, but one of the cementing piece that sanctions were at the center of whatever this story is between this administration and russia. sanctions were the core of it. sanctions were what the russians were after. lifting the sanctions. the quid it seems was russia interfering to help donald trump. the only question we have now is was there a pro between the quid and the pro. >> phil, help me, i didn't take a lick of latin -- >> or legal or law.

. >> he did not mention michael flynn. we have been hearing a lot about michael flynn. there is a "washington post" report out that they are trying to paint flynn as a liar. why not mention? >> the president is very difficult toy interview because he can move very quickly from one issue to the next and the next thing you know you are off on a different tangent. there were so many different issues you can talk to the president about and i tried to get him to talk about north korea because he tweeted about it that day and we didn't get to it. he had gone on about manafort and trying to put distance between himself and manafort. we never addressed the question of a pardon of flynn or anything like that. the president moved quickly with language in a way that i have never seen. >> i understand you on that one. this is getting a lot of pick up. he has the absolute right to do what i want to do with the justice department. in your estimation from this interview, do you get the sense that he believes he could stop this investigation if he ultimately wanted to? >> he seems to h

. >> he did not mention michael flynn. we have been hearing a lot about michael flynn. there's a "the washington post" report out that the trump legal counsel is considering trying to paint flynn has a liar. why no mention of him? >> the president's very difficult to interview because he can move very quickly from one issue to the next. and the next thing you know you've been off on a different tangent and we didn't have a chance to focus on flynn. there's so many different issues to talk to the president about and trying to get him to talk about north korea. he tweeted about it that day and didn't get a chance to talk about flynn. he went on about manafort and never really addressed flynn or the question of a pardon of flynn or anything like that. but the president again moved quickly with language in a way i have never -- >> i understand you on that one. he also told you, and this is getting a lot of pickup right now, that he has the absolute right to do what i want to do with the justice department. in your estimation, from this interview, do you get the sense that h

and then there is the subsequent reporting that he was indeed told that michael flynn lied to the fbi before, weeks before he fired him, and before, the consequential part, before he asked james comey, according to james comey, to let this thing go with respect to the michael flynn investigation. all of these things are just little -- more drops in the bucket that fills up, that gets closer and closer to what could be an obstruction charge. and keep in mind, we don't even know everything that robert mueller and his investigators know. >> more than that, we know a small portion of what robert mueller knows, and yet to her point, jonathan, it feels to lay people like tightening. so, how are trump's allies and associates taking all of this? >> it's actually a great schism right now in trump world. his legal team is still preaching confidence. ty cobb, john dowd, they suggested this was going to wrap up shortly. there was one prediction this would be over by thanksgiving. >> where are they getting -- >> by most, people outside observers suggest, no, this process has a long way to go. for

president trump then pressured jim comey to drop the investigation into michael flynn, that could be a key that mueller could use for an obstruction charge against the president. >> and, jeremy bash, at the risk of repetition, what are all of the ways donald trump could have learned that mike flynn, his guy, had lied to the fbi and underscore for our viewers what it would take to put together an obstruction case here. >> well, the president could have directed mike flynn to lie. that's first. he could have learned that mike flynn lied from don mcgahn. he could have learned that mike flynn lied from mike flynn. and possibly what really happened across those 18 days, brian, was that there were numerous conversations inside the west wing about how precisely to thwart the fbi's investigation into the russia matter because they came from mike flynn, that surely meant they were going to come interview others. they were probably going to come interview steve bannon. they were probably going to interview kellyanne conway, reince priebus, others, maybe even the vice-president, maybe even the

like george papadopoulos and former national security adviser michael flynn. this new reporting comes as the president's allies on the right including friendly media are escalating their attacks on the special counsel, his team and the fbi. >> we may now have proof the investigation was weaponized to destroy his presidency for partisan political purposes. and to disenfranchise millions of american voters. now, if that's true, we have a coup on our hands in america. >> there's nothing to this investigation. the president has been emphatic. the rest of us know there has been nothing to do with russia or any of it. it's a made-up fantasy. >> it just seems like there's a specific, intended purpose to undermine the president. there's nothing to hide. there is no collusion. >> the special counsel's team has also come under fire as recently as this weekend simply for obtaining access to thousands of e-mails sent and received by trump officials during the transition. the lawyer for the transition has said the documents were not illegally obtained, something mueller's

the newsroom is like michael flynn is cooperating so we are just getting under way. >> so uconn cyou concur. >> we have been hearing similar things that the president's lawyers are telling him that mueller could exonerate him by the end of the year. it seems impossible of that case. why would his lawyer be telling him that and telling media that. it is raising this expectation that's unrealistic. i find it a bit puzzle. >> thanks to michael and ken thomas and general ter rogers. >> it is been called the special relationship be with just his cell phone. how much damage has the president done to america's friendship with the u.k. will rex tillerson be the next to go and who would take over as secretary of state? the latest from the west wing and beyond when the "the 11th hour" continues. alright, off you go. casual fridays at buckingham palace? surprising. what's not surprising? how much money nathan saved by switching to geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. >>> his case is a much more than a business executive. >> do you want rex tillerson on the job, mr. pre

all of this after president trump said last february he didn't know of anyone aside from michael flynn who had contacts with russia. >> can you say whether you are aware that anyone who advised your campaign contacts with russia during the course of the election? >> no, nobody that i knew of. how many times do i have to answer this question. russia is a ruse. i have nothing to do with russia. to the best of my knowledge no person that i deal with does. >> susan page's washington bureau chief for u.s.a. today. republican chair of republican national committee and the president and ceo of voter latino as well as msnbc contributor. you write front page coverage for u.s.a. today which is kind of opinioniated. the wall is still there. let me ask you about this compairson to water gate. i see this step by step the way he seems to be coming forward in a john dean way. we haven't seen a tape yet of president trump cutting deals with russians. >> i think it's potentially much more serious because it if volves a hostile foreign government affecting our election and that's a more serious set of c

>> yes, i know steve bannon, michael flynn. >> everything he was doing was with the knowledge of those official snz. >> as far as i know, absorolute yes. >> the president, will the president be happy with the story george tells? >> i don't -- i mean, i ten he tried to dismiss george as a copy boy. so there are consistent evidences he was not a copy boy. >> interesting stuff. let's turn to our leadoff panel on a friday night. former chief of staff at cia and pentagon and a national security analyst. nbc national security reporter and bureau chief for the washington post and a political analyst. what would mueller's team have to talk to hope hicks about over two days? i hasten to add borrowing the title of clark clifford's tone, she was present at the creation. >> she knows just about everything the president has known, conversations he's had. and three things that struck me about the fbi having warned hope hicks early on in the administration. it shows the russians were working every single angle to mike sure they got a full return on their if vestment. second, it shows the fbi doing th

. >> on monday when the president became aware that michael flynn lied to the fbi, you referred her to john dowd. john dowd is not engaging on that. that's a knowable fact in this building, not a legal matter, not for the attorney to say. can you just tell us when the president became aware of that? >> the attorneys feel differently and feel this is a question that should be answered by them. i'll have to refer you back to john dowd again. >> does the white house believe that the fix was in, that robert mueller's probe was biased from the beginning? >> look, we are fully cooperating through this process. we're going to continue to do so. as i said a few minutes ago, we certainly felt like some of the political leadership at the fbi was problematic. we're glad that director wray is there. we feel like he's going to clean up some of the messes left behind by his predecessor. >> and in the meantime, new polling numbers are out tonight. pew research asked people whether they thought senior trump officials had improper contacts with russia during the campaign. 59% said definitely or probabl

flynn and his son. >> as we're having this conversation, i'm remembering, on my broadcast we had julia ainsley of nbc news talking about her exclusive, peter baker of "the new york times" and robert costa of "the washington post." >> republicans are enthused at this late moment because president is in the corner of roy moore, trying to rev up his base in that state. the stakes are enormous and at this point it's a jump ball. >> more often than not that resembles our first segment. we throw out stuff that we can't handle in our hour. there's so much news now, this network is all about covering it. >> they're competitive, i'm sure. but there's camaraderie to covering not just donald trump and the unconventional ways that he has turned the presidency on its head, but covering this moment. you just think of all of the people sort of bringing us these stories day after day after day. it's an embarrassment of riches. >> we also sit here knowing that this christmas season, meryl streep and tom hanks. >> i've heard of them. >> in this movie called "the post." >> 7,000 pages detailing how the w

bannon, michael flynn. >> so you're saying had he communications with top levels the campaign? >> yes. >> everything he is doing is with the knowledge of those officials. >> as far as i know, absolutely, yes. never took an initiative without the blessing of the campaign. >> but the president from which you know, will the president be happy with the story george tells? >> i -- i don't -- i don't know. i think they try to dismiss george as a coffee boy so i'm sure not to be happy to read that. there are consistent evidence that he was not a coffee boy. >> interesting stuff. let's turn to our leadoff panel for a friday night. a busy one at that. jeremy bash, former chief of staff at cia and former council for house intelligence. ken dilanian, nbc news intelligence and national security reporter, and philip rucker, white house bureau chief for the washington post and msnbc political analyst. jeremy bash, what would mueller's team have to talk with hope hicks about over two days? i hasten to add borrowing the title of clark clifford's tone, he was present at the creation. >> she kno