. >> do not see why the white house is covering up for michael flynn, i don't get it. after the president fired him for lying. they should be bending over backwards to help us. there is obviously a paper trail, ladies and gentlemen, there is a paper trail that the white house does not want our committee to follow. these guys are playing games. and when you see mr. spicer you can tell him i said that today. >> congressman elijah cummings also released documents on flynn, showing that the pentagon warned flynn about accepting payments. the documents show he did not report the money he received from turkish interests. what is more, the comments say that michael flynn must have seen the warnings about flynn and cash. >> this letter explicitly warned general flynn as he entered retirement that the constitution prohibited him from accepting any foreign government payments without advance permission. the pentagon's warning to general flynn was bold, italicized and could not have been clearer. >> today, the white house responded by blaming the obama administration, the adminis

it is simply that michael flynn is willing to talk in exchange for immunity. before the break, in our first block tonight, as he often does, jeremy bash spoke english and got our attention when he reminded us any deal for immunity for a guy this big who had such an important office in the west wing, such an important role in the campaign, could only mean that they're trying to punch up in terms of a target about whom he would have useful information. and jeremy, his lawyer's statement tonight contained a bit of language we're not used to in dry legalese. he said his client has a story to tell. that really got our attention. you don't say that loosely. >> i alighted on that comment as well, brian. that refers to the fact that mike flynn has largely been vilified in the press for one date, for december 29th, the day he had the conversation with ambassador kislyak, the russian ambassador, about how the united states and russia would jointly respond to the obama administration's sanctions in retaliation for russian interference in our election process. if he has a

the michael flynn resignation the michael flynn resignation story is not about michael flynn or russia. president trump posted on twitter, the real story is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of washington? will these leaks be considered ideal with north korea, et cetera. >> russia, if you're listening, i hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. >> and all you have to do is take a look at wikileaks. >> this just came out. this just came out. wikileaks, i love wikileaks. amazing how nothing is secret today when you talk about the internet. >> we love wikileaks. boy, they have really -- wikileaks. they have revealed a lot. >> that came out on wikileaks. >> we're back with our panel, jeremy, katy and charlie. jeremy, you and i haven't been around forever but we've been around long enough to be, i think, stunned as the weaponized nature of these leaks, the number of these leaks and where we can surmise they're coming from in the organization. not to impune any of your friends, but perhaps some of them from people you know, people who are in your contacts. s

>>> michael flynn accused of not telling the vice president about his contacts with russia. now we're warned he could be a target for blackmail. the question already being asked tonight what did the president know and when did he know it? and how many people in the trump white house have known about it the whole time? >>> also how a threat with north korea played out between courses as diners looked on at the leaders of the u.s. and japan right there in the restaurant of the mar-a-lago. "the 11th hour" begins now. good evening once again from our headquarters here in new york as we start yet another new week. mondays are difficult around here because there is so much each weekend to get our arms around, and this just the fourth monday of this young trump presidency is proving especially difficult as there are stories on the move right now as we speak. let's start from here. tonight the "washington post" was first to report that nbc news has confirmed back in january the justice department told the trump white house early on that the then-acting attorney general sally yates b

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

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

and michael flynn. can this all be a series of whacky coincidences or do we need to start looking at the white house knowing all of this was going on? >> it can be a receivers whacky coincidences. it sure would be a big coincidence. the thing that i would add to that, joy, everyone that you just named in some way has proven evasive or less than total gal forthcoming about the facts, even jared kushner, let's not forget, failed to disclose his contacts with the russian ambassador on a background check or security clearance form that he filled out during the transition. now, i believe his lawyer said that was an oversight that was quickly corrected but i have not seen verification of that. you know, if nothing untoward is happening here why does everybody suddenly have this faulty memory, inaccurate recollection? you know, carter page's very strange circumstance up low accusings using the passive tense and saying i'm not going to talk about these conversations. it just -- there's -- it just smells really

michael flynn being sworn in was compromised because of these dealings. if they didn't do that, this had to go up higher than general flynn. >> one of the reasons why this is a thing. we've reflected on this a lot over the past few months. out of nowhere, russia was a campaign issue in our election. why? because one candidate, one president-elect, now one president in the modern era has thought of and surely spoken of russia and its former spy leader in a different way. dare i say he has bent over backwards to paint them in a good light. that's why this was a thing. >> nobody would have been snooping around at this if on the day that president obama imposed those sanctions because the administration had felt that russia had been tampering with the election. if on that very day the response from russia would have been as you and andrea were talking about, normal, tit for tat, nobody would have thought anything about it. but we just every day keep on getting amazed further and further by the responses we're getting to things and they started digging. it doe

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

interestingly michael flynn sr.'s lawyer when i asked him whether -- what his response was to accusations of collusion with russian, he said no comment. whereas others have said that they deny that who we know that the investigation is focusing on. broadly, you know, this really raises the stakes for michael flynn sr. in the sense that his son is now involved and, you know, to the extent that robert mueller, the special counsel, can get him to cooperate with the investigation, this is just another tool that he has. >> ken, if you have the clarity and the distance to look back a whole couple of days, what have we learned about the mueller effort this week thus far that perhaps we didn't know this past weekend? >> well, certainly that there is a great focus on these people who are no longer involved in the trump administration. flynn, flynn junior, paul manafort and that there is a focus on their activities that don't necessarily relate directly to the core motivation of this investigation, which is to find russian med

flynn but also his son, michael g. flynn. now, the significance of this, you know, is that this is the first, as we all know, michael flynn served in the white house, and this would be the first time this investigation is moving that close to somebody who had served inside the white house. the other key piece here is that we know that the special counsel is not just looking at things that you would expect like did michael flynn lie to the fbi, did he properly disclose his contacts with foreign officials, but also what he did while he was serving those 24 days inside the white house specifically as it relates to his dealings with turkey. and that opens up a whole other avenue that hasn't so much been zplord as some of these other things that we know michael flynn did, such as not registers as a foreign agent when the justice department said he was doing work that would have benefited a foreign government. so we don't know exactly where this is going to go. the reason why we've worded our story so carefully is because th

michael flynn, sr., as we know has been under investigation. investigators are looking at his connection with former governments including russia and turkey. and michael flynn, jr., was deeply involved in whatever his father was doing. he traveled with him to moskow in 2015 for that dinner that's become so famous, where flynn senior gave a speech or he sat at the same table with russian president vladimir putin. and flynn junior basically served as his father's chief of staff and basically his right-hand man. so investigators want to know everything he knows and what everything he was doing was basically what they said he was doing. whether he was acting as a foreign agent without registering, there's a lot of questions. >> jarmmy, tonight i need the jarmmy bash who's a harvard educated lawyer. and answer me this, what's the legal exposure to flynn june, or is that barking up the wrong tree is this squeeze play? >> well, carol's reporting used the word subject. as well as a mere witness, someone who witnessed a crime. and i don't think we know

. >>> breaking tonight, news that michael flynn was warned by his own team about contacts with russia. trump transition officials so worried about flynn's ongoing contacts that they reached out to the obama administration for help. >>> also breaking tonight, does this sound familiar, an establishment candidate hacked on the eve of a presidential election. potentially giving an advantage to the candidate putin might prefer to work with. "the 11th hour" begins right now. good evening from our headquarters here in new york. i'm nicolle wallace. brian has the night off. day 106 for the trump administration, and again tonight, more breaking news on the cloud of suspicion hanging over this white house and its contacts with russia. the "washington post" was first to report tonight that ousted national security adviser michael flynn was warned by top officials from the trump transition team about talking to russia's ambassador, sergey kislyak. officials were so concerned that flynn didn't understand the motives of russia's ambassador they asked the obama administration for their background in

. >>> plus the news today that barack obama warned donald trump not to hire michael flynn as national security adviser but he was hired anyway. and why is jared kushner's family company apologizing after his sister tried to win over investors in china, all in the name of kushner "the th hour" begins now. >>> as we start a new week, good evening once again in our headquarters here in new york. day 109 of the trump administration. this afternoon we were live on air with what turned out to be a dramatic day in the u.s. senate. at the center of it, a 27 year veteran attorney general named sally yates. a 27-year public servant promoted along the way by republicans and democrats alike. sally yates was the acting attorney general, running the justice department in transition, waiting for jeff sessions in effect to be approved as the new attorney general back in january. but there came a day during just the second week of the trump presidency when she called the white house and asked the president's lawyer if they could meet. she said she had something important to tell him. now we know it wa

and the russia investigation, a "wall street journal" article out ton brings michael flynn's >>> and the russia investigation, a "wall street journal" article brings michael flynn's name back in the news as we are covering "the 11th hour" that gets under way. >>> well, good evening, once again from our msnbc news headquarter here. 161 day of the president's administration. and the cell phone, and the damage it can cause. today it was a personal attack aimed at the anchor at this network. this is what the president wrote early this morning. quote. i heard poorly rated morning joe speaks badly of me, don't watch any more. then how come crazy mika along with psycho joe. she was bleeding badly from a face lift. i said no. later in the afternoon, sarah huckabee defended the indefensible, saying the president hits back when hit, saying the media has been unfairly mean. >> did the president go too far with this tweet and in its deeply personal nature? >> i don't think so, i think the president has been attacked mercilessly on many accounts on that program. i think he has been very clear whe

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

paul manafort and michael flynn. manafort is small guppy compared to michael flynn in terms of what he can do for this investigation, and this interview with kushner just amplifies and clarifies to the extent that's true. >> so, philip, we heard the big fish theory put another way thrown down here. does flynn in effect the way headline writers like to view it get you the closest to the oval office to date? >> i think certainly if you're comparing flynn to manafort and rick gates and papadopoulos, the three figures we had the indictments for last month. flynn was actually in the oval office working. he was the national security advisor at the white house, the most important national security job in this government. and was at the president's side throughout the ansition period. i think it's important to note this meeting jared kushner had with the special counsel team this does not indicate this is going to be only meeting he's going to have. his lawyer has indicated they're going to be participating fully and meeting

we know michael flynn didn't either on behalf of turkey or russia. couple other statutes he may have violated by continuing to work on behalf of foreign enterprise even once he was national security adviser. we have to separate out the actors. today was not a good day for michael flynn. today was not a good day for jeff sessions. reasonable folks will disagree how bad a day it was for donald trump. i think it was a good day for director comey. >> is there any there there on these charges? >> he admitted himself he leaked his contemporaneous notes through an intermediary, in law school to the "new york times." is there any there there on charging comey as a leaker? >> no. this conflation of what is standard operating procedure around washington where inside information that's not classified gets to the media is not a crime. there is no credible allegation that former director comey did anything that falls anywhere in the criminal realm. it's very different than what we have seen a significant degree of over the last several months which has been actua

retired michael flynn. reporting from nbc news indicates there were five people from the trump campaign raging in role met with or talked with the ambassador during the campaign or during the transition in addition to flynn they include gordon, jared kushner, attorney general jeff sessions. who is this ambassador to the u.s. from russia. our panel is back with us. michael crowley is the perfect person to ask. michael, i botched his name in the first segment what does the audience need to know about this man? >> this is vladimir putin man behind enemy line, so to speak. he has been russian ambassador to washington since 2008. for some of that time, relations were okay. now, obviously, he is on hostile territory. he came of age in soviet russia. he 66 years old. did a tour in washington in the 1980s. he is a guy fluent in english speaker. he is tough. he is intelligent but le is not here to freelancech he is promoting the kremlin aggressively. he is a harsh critic of american politics. it's important for peop

but there is a michael flynn connection here, too, as michael ikov told chris hayes earlier on the. >> february 13th, michael flynn resigns, he rye signs about the blow up about his secret meetings with kislyak and misrepresenting the fact that he was talking about easing of sanctions. >> on this issue. >> on this very issue. so it became politically tax toxic. i talked to a senior white house official today about this, making clear there is still an ongoing policy review about sanctions. >> right. >> these options are still on table. >> the state department veteran named in that report, dan freed, also appeared on this network earlier tonight. >> a number of colleagues came to me, and i heard indirectly that still more colleagues were concerned that the trump administration, the incoming team, was going to unilaterally rescind the sanctions on russia. it was further said by these people that there would be no -- there would be no action required from russia. that it would be simply a unilateral american cave after a few days and couple of weeks, i had heard from enough people that i

flynn businesses that we are aware, michael flynn intel, llc, and i think flynn intel, inc.. while we disagree with general flynn's lawyer's interpretations of taking the fifth. it is even more clear that a business does not have a right to take a fifth if it is a corporation. those subpoenas, one has been served, one is in the process of being served. and we keep all options on the table. we think the committee has moved forward aggressively. >> flynn's lawyers are saying their client is the subject of outrageous allegations. let's bring in our panel before we delay too much. nbc's mike very kara who covered it all today on capitol hill. rick stengel is here with us again. former undersecretary for public diplomacy and deposit apairs in the state deputy the obama administration. also the former editingor of "time" magazine. and the host of deadline netw k network. nicole i'm going to begin with you, i'm going quote you back to you from your broadcast today. you had a moment where you u quoted the cell phone commercial "can you hear me now". essentially to your fellow republi

she has important information the public ought to hear about what led to the firing of michael flynn. that testimony involves flynn's secret conversations with the russian ambassador on the subject of sanctions. those sanction dealt with russian hacking of our elections designed to help donald trump. sally yates can shed important light on that. i think for that reason the white house does not want her to testify. let's bring her in. let's hear what she has to say. >> today's open hearing was postponed by chairman nunes along with a closed hearing with fbi director comey, nsa director rogers. and today the "washington post" reported that the trump administration was in fact seeking to block sally yates from testifying on russia at all. the post report details the back and forth through both letters and meetings between the justice department and yates' own attorneys. the doj reportedly considers, quote, her public testimony including on the firing of former national security adviser michael flynn for his contacts with the russian ambassador to be offlimits in a congressional hearing b

and the russia investigation, a "wall street journal" article out ton brings michael flynn's name roaring back into the news that we are covering as "the 11th hour" gets under way. >>> well good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 161 of the trump administration. another day dominated by the president's cell phone and the damage it can cause. today it was a personal attack aimed at an anchor at this network. this is what the president wrote in the early morning hours, quote. i heard poorly rated "morning joe" speaks badly of me. don't watch anymore. then how come low-i can crazy mika, along with saiko joe came to mar-a-lago three nights in a year around new year's eve and insisted on joining me she was bleeding badly from a face-lift. i said no. later in the afternoon sarah huckabee sanders deferred the indefensible saying the president hits back when hit and the media have been unrelentingly mean in the coverage especially the morning program on this network. >> did the president go too far with his tweet in it's dopely personal nature? >> i don't thin

tooimz reports it focused on a meeting between kushner and michael flynn. back with us to talk about all of it, philip rucker, tamara keith, jonathan swan, john whileman. john, what do you infer from this? i have come to believe largely two things about the mueller effort. number one, we never know more than 5% to 10% and they never tell graph their next moves. >> i agree 100%. again, to focus on your first point, we don't really know what it means. and they are letting us know what they want us to know about this. and to extent they want us to know anything, they're letting us know michael flynn is important to this investigation. not exactly breaking news. most defense attorneys would not have their client go in for such a meeting if they were the target of the investigation. that doesn't mean jared kushner is not a target in the future, but this meeting seems to have revolved around flynn. and it's been clear for a while, but it's increasingly clear every day but even more so just the degree to which how important michael flynn is to robert mueller. and

. >> 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

back to michael flynn. michael flynn was the reason pence had reservations and could be flynn that could undo this presidency and push pence and lawyer and campaign team into the white house. it will be very interesting to watch. >> our thanks to former congressman ford and thanks to former congressman jolly. we will take one last break. up next the ball game that was much more than a ball game tonight in washington. we are back right after this. when it's time to move to underwear toddlers see things a bit differently thanks to pampers easy ups while they see their first underwear you see an easy way to potty train pampers easy ups our first and only training underwear with an all-around stretchy waistband and pampers' superior protection so you'll see fewer leaks and they'll see their first underwear pampers easy ups, the easiest way to underwear. pampers with tempur-pedic.t our proprietary material automatically adjusts to your weight, shape and temperature. so you sleep deeply, and wake up feeling power

why is president trump ignoring his lawyers and contacting michael flynn? new questions about whether the

all questions go back to what nicolle wallace said, michael flynn. flynn was the reason pence had reservations about this administration when he was lied to early on. it could be flynn very well that could undo this presidency and push pence and his lawyer and campaign team into the white house. it will be interesting to watch. >> our thanks to former congressman ford and jolly. >>> up next, the ball game that was much more than a ball game tonight in washington. we're back right after this. whuuuuuat?rtgage offer from the bank today. you never just get one offer. go to lendingtree.com and shop multiple loan offers for free! free? yeah. could save thousands. you should probably buy me dinner. no. go to lendingtree.com for a new home loan or refinance. receive up to five free offers and choose the loan that's right for you. our average customer could lower their monthly bills by over three hundred dollars. go to lendingtree.com right now. >>> last thing before we go tonight, 55th annual congressional baseball game went on as planned at nationals park

and that investigation, as well as into michael flynn, by the way, and the fact that all of these players are so squirrely about their protestations, their denies of any connection and any knowledge and any meetings with the russians and then it turns out they have, indeed, met with the russians. well, it was only in cleveland, remember that rather hilarious chris hayes colloquy with. >> and the oh by the way story of the day was general flynn, michael. what did we learn about him today? >> that general flynn had taken, or, at least, whatever firm he was representing himself as running at the time, took something like $500,000 from the government of turkey to represent the turkish government in washington before he became donald trump's national security adviser. he belatedly filed the kind of disclosure you have to do in washington when you are representing a foreign government. didn't do it earlier, but has kind of come in late. and it's just weird, it's unseemly, it's tacky, and i would say that at a time when well are concerned that michael flynn and others are under suspicion for hav

that general flynn, michael flynn had been doing work for russia that he did not disclose. the white house knew about this, yet they kept him in there for 18 days. now we have the russia investigation by the fbi and the president of the united states has fired the director of the fbi in the middle of an investigation by the fbi of the president's own campaign and the attorney general has participated in this firing even though he also worked for the trump campaign and he lied to the senate in his own confirmation hearing about his contacts with the russians. this russia thing is going on and on. it is a very serious problem. and this is a lot worse than watergate. watergate was a third-rate burglary by a bunch of burglars that didn't know what they were doing. it didn't involve the russians. didn't involve a threat to our country except for the way the president nixon handled it. but president trump's wave hamging this situation with russia and the russian espionage and the collaboration, whatever collaborated with the russians it is a very, very bad situation at this point

plus the president picks his replacement for michael flynn. who is lieutenant general h.r. mcmaster? and as anti-trump rallies break out across the country, this president's day, a closer look at the dizzying first month of a presidency that is anything but business as usual. "the 11th hour" begins now. >> and good evening once again from our headquarters here in new york where we have just witnessed the first month of the trump administration. at least 47 more to go, this weekend alone was another wild one. the president told his followers that the news media are the enemy of the american people and we saw a lot of swedes calling each other frantically wondering if there was a terrorist attack that they somehow missed. for the president, another weekend at his private florida resort, another round of 18 holes. he is now back in washington. in several cities today there were rallies on this holiday monday, based on the theme not my president's day. just today two big names in the nation were overseas, assuring separate audiences and venues everything is going to be okay. af