. >>> a one-time business associate of michael flynn, a question of the trump investigation. >>> trump spent five hours at the white house today, the white house did not want us to refer to it as a low key day. the 11th hour on thanksgiving eve begins now. and on this wednesday night, day 307 of the trump administration. as the president begins his thanksgiving holiday, there is news tonight on key players and events in the over arching russia investigation. first we begin with national security adviser and retired gem michael flynn, who lasted in hess job 24 days before he was fired. tonight julia ainsley reports for nbc news that robert mueller is zeroing in on an associate of flins named bijan kian, one of flynn's business partners, according to this, mueller wants to know what role kiaf, if any. subpoenaed e-mails show kian joined flynn at a meeting in 2016 with pro-russia congressman dana rohrbacker, republican of california. as abc news reported that meeting which was fought disclosed when flynn initially registered is under scrutiny by team mueller. tonight's other report comes

basically, we know robert mueller is looking into whether or not michael flynn and his associates met in a december 2016 meeting at the 21 club in new york. that is an upscale restaurant just blocks away from the trump tower where flynn was serving on the presidential transition team. we understand from sources who are familiar with this meeting that they allegedly talked about a $15 million bribe that they would try to give flynn once he was national security adviser if he could see that gulen was removed from the united states. gulen is a turkish president to erdogan living in the pocanos. in order to remove him, that could have been through a kidnapping operation or through extradition. we also know that the fbi had re-upped their investigation, they were asked to re-up the investigation into gulen at the beginning of the trump administration when flynn was national security adviser. this was after they dismissed this investigation under obama. so we are looking at a number of pieces, but what mueller is trying to drill down on here is whether or not michael flynn, trump's first na

you've got michael flynn coming down with amnesia. all these people should be committed to a hospital for amnesia. if you look at all of these statements in total. it just doesn't make sense. >> michael crowley, we mentioned senator chris coons, democrat of delaware, his statement really did land with an ominous thud. >> well, look, brian, this is not going to get better for the trump administration anytime soon. you know, i think that you're going to be seeing more developments involving other associates around trump. remember, this meeting is just one of many unfolding story lines. paul manafort's apartment was raided this summer. michael flynn is in deep trouble. so there are just so many balls in the air here. and i don't see this story going away anytime soon. i want to add one last point about don jr.'s statement today. it didn't really wrestle with the fact that that e-mail made the assertion that there was an ongoing russian effort to help his father get elected. even if pleading incompetence which is basically him saying our

all the reporting on general michael flynn is that for most of his career was a respected military man, respected intellect within the defense community. but then he was fired. wouldn't that have raised red flags before one would make him their national security adviser? >> for a lot of people up until and during his time as the head of the dia he was considered one of the most promising officers of his entire generation, deeply respected. leaving the dia doesn't make you suddenly suspect. but traveling to russia, not saying that you're accepting payments from a body that obviously has ties to the russian government, that's what makes you suspect. >> we are hearing also the fact that he left angrily. suddenly saying he was the first american intelligence -- military official let into the intersanctum of the gru, sitting at vladimir putin's table with jill stein and others. these activities should have raised red flags, one would think and then he is doing business with foreign governments. the idea that he should have been -- his previous vet before he was fired in 2014 is what should

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

. >> we have some news on michael flynn, since the press conference "the washington post" reporting in an interview with the fbi flynn denied discussing sanctions with the russian ambassador. the justice department told white house he did. in fact discuss sanctions with the ambassador. in that marathon there was a question of leadership within the white house that the president sought to clarify twice. >> i see stories of chaos. yet it is the exact opposite. this administration is running like a fine-tuned machine. there's zero chaos. this is a fine-tuned machine. >> before we bring in the panel, as we saw kristin welker was at the white house today, it's been a lock day and you have air force wheel up tomorrow, we are cursous, we were forced to watch on television, you were there in the room, participating in the questioning what did they miss which watching on television and not having your seat. >> it was an extraordinary news conferences. it was like no other news conference i ever attended, a number of the president's answers seem to be in a stream of consciousness. he seemed to b

>> so this connection between this turkish businessman and michael flynn have been known for a while and suspected it was going to be a focus of either the congressional investigations or mueller investigations. but i think a lot of people assumed that was because in turkish businessman paying flynn's consulting firm for essentially consulting and lobbying work had ties to russia. that's why we thought the turkish businessman was relevant. as "the new york times" is reporting tonight it appears that mueller might not be looking at the russian connections but just whether or not michael flynn was paid directly or indirectly in some form by the turkish government to do work. so whether flynn was acting actually on behalf of the turkish government. it takes it out of the recommend of russia and maybe you know a sort of a side issue that -- i mean, again we don't have a lot of information here yet -- could have nothing to do with russia. but that's the issue with the special counsel is when he opens up the books on someone, if he sees some illegal activity. it doesn't mean he ignore that

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

>> even from what michael flynn said, each before he was removed from his position as national security adviser after what, three and a half short weeks it was, he essentially acknowledged that he had spoken to sergey kislyak, the russian ambassador to washington, about the possibility of lifting sanctions. you know, his words were different but it was along the lines of we will take care of that. don't worry. you know, once we are in office, we will smooth over and ke care of these issues. what he was referring to of course was that that day the obama administration, the day when they had these many phone calls together when obama was still president, the obama administration was on that very day imposing sanctions on russia for its involvement in meddling in the 2016 campaign. so the idea was we are going to let that go. we now discovered this week that the trump administration was talking about giving back to russia those two facilities that were taken away, the use of which was taken away because they were being used as spy facilities. the tentacles of this go so far. as you were sa

but that could be a rationale as to why michael flynn said hold off to the russians, don't worry yet about sanction we'll talk about that later. and of course michael flynn very close with jared kushner, as we know, together having this conversation with kislyak about syria, among other issues. >> so, resident costa, let's assume for the sake of argument, that your newspaper and the "new york times" locked in the great newspaper war of 2017 reason is even broken a sweat yet. and let's assume that perhaps the news gets worse. what if jared kushner gets taken out of the game, even temporarily, given his role and function in this white house? >> i was at the white house until late tonight. and what i've picked up is kushner is very aware of his situation. people close to him say that they don't expect him to have any kind of high public profile in the coming weeks. he has offered to testify. in terms of being out there as a senior adviser engaged in day to day political affairs, he is a hot topic right now not only in the west wing but in american politics, and republicans are somewhat

since the white house was warned before they fired michael flynn. of course the firing of sally yates as jeremy just mentioned just a couple of days after she provided that warning. and then today's activities, which defy any common sense both in the terms of the underlying activity being jim comey's comments from last summer, but also the apparently rushed nature in which this was rolled out today with memos being dated today from the department attorney general and the fbi director not even being told in person and finding out on tv about his firing. >> jeremy, the united states, as you and i discussed last night, has been attacked by russia because it wasn't at sea, it wasn't bombers, it wasn't infantry, it hasn't had the same public impact. do you fear for the importance of this being lost? do you fear for the investigation losing momentum at all, and which republicans especially will you be looking at now? >> i'll be looking at john mccain to susan collins to ben sasse, to lindsey graham, to several others and richard burr, who is leading the s

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 be careful 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. is not any kind of charge. 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

plus new subpoenas issued for trump's attorney and michael flynn. also the washington post reporting the trump administration may return to suburban u.s. compounds to russia after president obama threw the russians out back in december. meanwhile, the president back on twitter previewing a big announcement tomorrow but we still want to know what was going on with him last night. "the 11th hour" begins right now. and good evening once again from our headquarters in new york. again tonight the russia story seemingly without end. supplies us with our lead story and that is we're going to hear from james comey. a source close to comey tells msnbc news the fired fbi director has been quote cleared for take off to testify in public next week to the senate intelligence committee. that clearance came from special counsel, bob mueller who's now over seeing the russia investigation. it will be comey's first public comment since he was fired by donald trump. it's been 22 days ago now. and about what comey will say. tonight the wall street journal reports comey

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 vikara, who covered it all today on capitol hill. rick stengel is here with us again. former undersecretary for public diplomacy and affairs in the state deputy, the obama administration. also the former editor of "time" magazine. and the host of deadline 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 feared russia normalization. you quoted the cell phone commercial "can you hear me now" essentially to your fe

could be a rationale why michael flynn said hold off on sanctions we'll talk with it later and michael flynn very close with jared kushner together having this conversation with kislyak about syria among other issues. >> so robert costa let's assume that your paper be add new york paper broken into a war of 2017 n hasn't even broke a sweat yet, what if it gets works ngd and jared kushner is taken out of his roll. >> i was at the white house until late tonight and kushner is very aware of his situation. people close to him say they don't expect him to have any kind of high public profile in the coming weeks he has offered to testify. in terms of being a senior advisor engaged in day to day political affairs he's a hot topic not only in the west wing but in american politics and republicans are somewhat weary of him tonight texting me telling me that. there's no sign he's leaving the white house at all but there is a sign he knows being out front on each and every issue perhaps is not going to be the way forward in the coming weeks. >> every strike you as guy they call department preside

tonight our own andrea mitchell has new reporting on retired general michael flynn a. source close to him confirms flynn will now provide some personal documents to the senate intelligence committee. let's bring in tonight's starting panel. three of the best names in print journalism cover this white house. "washington post" reporter robert costa. ashley parker, and peter baker chief white house kroerpdent for the "new york times." welcome all three of you. peter i'm going to begin with you. you today were admonished for shaking your head at that briefing. i've heard people speculate there were a lot of things we were watching today. perhaps it was sean spicer's last and he knew it. what do you think we witnessed in that room today? >> that's a good question. you saw a press secretary who was on the bubble himself. he has had multiple he will conversations with his boss over his job security. there is all kinds of conversation about what the role of the briefing will be going forward, will they continue to have them on daily basis the way we have under previous preside

. >> did you encourage comey to close or shut down the investigation on michael flynn, and as you look back. >> no. no. next question. >> the president on the phone calling this the quote single greatest witch-hunt of a politician in american history also threw a wrench into both the time line and the white house explanation surrounding the firing of one james comey today. after comey was fired on may 9, the white house repeatedly cited this three-page letter from deputy attorney general rod rosenstein saying in effect comey had been mean to hillary over the case involving her e-mails. then speaking to nbc news last week, the president admitted that, actually, he decided to fire comey before getting that memo. well, fast forward to today, and senators on the hill had a briefing with the deputy a.g. mr. rosenstein, who confirmed, yes, the president had decided to fire james comey before he wrote that three-page memo last week. >> he did acknowledge that he learned comey would be removed prior to him writing his memo. >> say that again. he knew -- he what? >> he knew that comey was going

back to michael flynn. he is 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. >> 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 itrust the brandtburn, doctors trust. nexium 24hr is the number one choice of doctors and pharmacists for their own frequent heartburn. and all day, all night protection. when it comes to heartburn, trust nexium 24hr. take 5, guys. tired of your bladder always cutting into your day? you may have overactive bladder, or oab. that's it! we really need to get with the program and see the doctor. take charge and ask your doctor about myrbetriq (mirabegron) for oab symptoms of urgency, frequency and leakage. it's the first and only oab treatment in its class. myrbetriq may cause serious allergic reactions. if you e

. >> february 13th, michael flynn resigns. he resigns because of the blowup about his secret meetings with kislyak and misrepresenting the fact that he was talking about easing sanctions. >> on this issue. >> on this very issue. so it became politically 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 believed that it was at least possible. and

that's right. >> is michael flynn cutting a deal? >> general flynn is a wonderful man. >> tonight as flynn's lawyers meet with the special prosecutor, the mounting evidence that president trump's former national security adviser could be cooperating with robert mueller. >> it's something the white house should be very concerned about. >>> plus -- >> why it is appropriate for the president to use a racial slur in any context? >> the white house defends the president's racial slur during an event honoring native americans. >> they call her pocahantas. >> then why two different people today claim they're running the consumer protection bureau.

flynn and have questioned witnesses about whether he was secretly paid by the turkish government during the final months of the presidential campaign. the line of questioning shows that mr. mueller's inquiry has expanded into a full-fledged examination of mr. flynn's financial dealings beyond the narrow question of whether he failed to register as a foreign agent or lied about his conversations and business arrangements with russian officials. flynn did not comment on the story tonight. trump's lawyer said they continued to collaborate with mueller on an ongoing basis. this new reporting comes a day after we learned mueller now has a washington grand jury at his disposal. as for the president two 24 hours ago called the investigation a hoax and a total fabrication, he left washington for a 17-day trip to his new jersey golf club in bedminister, a working vacation, as the white house is calling it, that coincides with repairs in the white house west wing and congress leaving town for the august recess. as a new report from "the washington post" put it tonight, the next few weeks could af

flynn and michael flynn's son. it wouldn't be terribly surprising if those charges were brought. a note of caution, other than reuters, no other major news organization has confirmed this story. >> yes, we're trying to be cautious about that, unless and until nbc news can confirm it ourselves. matthew miller, there is the theory, of course, that an early charge in this case is someone you are looking to affect or flip. and that would indicate, i guess common sense would dictate, that wouldn't be a minor charge, would it? >> yeah, i think that's right. look, it's clear that mueller has decided that he's not going to wait until the very end of this investigation and bring all the charges at once. that's often what you'll do in complex investigations like this, you'll collect all the evidence, you'll take all the testimony and grand jury, do all of your fbi interviews, then move at one time against everyone against whom you can bring charges. he decided not to do that. i don't think anyone should expect these indictme

on this other matter, joyce, michael flynn, what's the access of presenting something by a client and giving it the imprimatur and giving it to the president and -- >> flynn would have been forced to recuse from this project. not only is there appearance of impropriety, there is actual impropriety. we're increasingly see indications that flynn is going to cooperate with bob mueller's team so he will be required to discuss fully with prosecutors everything he knows, everything he was involved in and they'll be very interested in the details surrounding this. why wasn't there recusal? who did he discuss that with? who all was involved? this could well lead to an entire new round of potential charges or problems for additional folks who were working in the white house. >> joyce vance, who on all matter feds knows from the feds as a former fed herself, counselor, always a pleasure having you on. thank you very much. >> thanks. >> coming, at the start of the administration, jared kushner had a long, very ambitious to do list. what about these days? what about now? we'll talk about that whe

they include former national security advisor michael flynn's departure from the white house, his interview with the fbi and his conversations with the russian ambassador and the warning the deputy attorney general sally yates gave the white house about flynn. mueller also wants all material relating to paul manafort. he wants records relating to that trump tower meeting setup by don junior. and mueller wants any discussions about comey's firing and records about the statement sean spicer made the night comey was fired. he also wants information on that oval office meeting with the two russians the next day, the one where trump reportedly called comey a nut job in front of visitors and said firing him had relieved great pressure on him. perhaps the most sobering note in all of today's coverage is this quote in the "the washington post" about the power and staying power. "i am convinced no matter where they end up this investigation will run to completion even if they fire mueller. there is a feeling of inevitably now we didn't have before. not of the outcome of the investigation but there w

why has he always been soeger to protect michael flynn? that's the question that has led him to potentially cross lines with his behavior towards james comey and we just don't know the answer. we don't know if it's out of loyalty, friendship or if it's something darker. if he's worried mike flynn would have something he would tell investigators if he ever felt he was in jeopardy. >> i was told early on that mike flynn was vetted and his attorney was in touch with don mcgen early in january. that's what they called a vet. they knew of his representation of turkey at the time and they still said it was okay for him to become national security advisor, even though he'd written a column on election day urging that the cleric be returned to erdogan without disclosing that he was lobbying for turkey, working for turkey. and he ruled against raqqa because it involved syrian kurds and erdogan was not hammy about that. so he was taking policy positions while being paid secretly as a lobbyist for turkey and he knew this and it raises serious questio

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

first, we begin with former national security advisor and retired general michael flynn who lasted in his job just 24 days before he was fired. tonight julia ansley reports for abc news that robert mueller is zeroing in an an associate of flynn's who was one of flynn's business partners. according to this report mueller wants to know what role he played if any regarding the flynn lobbying groups failure to disclose foreign governments. he's already discussed work on behalf of turkey. subpoenaed e-mails also showed he joined him on a meeting september 15 with dana rohrbacher. it's under scrutiny by team mueller. tonight's other report comes from "vanity fair" writer howard blum, and it's about the controversial oval office meeting back in may between donald trump, russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov and then ambassador to the u.s., sergey kislyak. a day after it took place james comey was fired, a day which american media journalists were barred and russian press journalists were allowed in. in a report, blum writes about a covert israeli mission to stop an isis bomb plot described

to michael flynn, sending signals, stay inside, stay with me. a report that said he told him to stay strong. and then his posture towards jim comey have been totally different. what we heard today was a hostile posture. we know comey is going to be testifying if not next week sometime soon. >> jeremy, i heard your former boss, leon panetta tonight talk plainly of this as a scandal. i guess it caught me off guard because that word, while overused for years on a lot of things that didn't frankly match the standard, i guess now fits. from your legal training what should we think about "person of interest" and "white house official" in this case. >> person of interest is more of a term that cops and law enforcement officials use. it's not really a term that prosecutors use. they would normally use the term target or subject of interest. but it indicates that the investigation is very serious. it has reached someone inside the white house. and that person presumably has high level security clearance. if in fact that person is a national security risk

. >> taking the fifth, michael flynn resists subpoenas and we'll have the latest whether the trump white house pressured intel agencies to pushback on reports of collusion. >> good morning, everyone. it is a busy tuesday morning, may 23rd. we are awaiting live remarks from president trump and president abbas in bethlehem. >> first we're following breaking news out of manchester england where british fasoffici blaming a terror attack at a concert. they were leaving a show, ariana grande when the unthinkable happened. the explosion hit crowds of people exiting manchester arena near the victoria transit station. the attacker was among the dead. it was a chaotic scene to say the least as people raced to escape jumping barriers and making their way to an exit. british and u.s. law enforcement officials say they believe they have tentatively identified the bomber but are withholding his name. another 59 people were hurt in the attack. the con sta the. >> terrors will attempt to create distrust and fear in our communities. we have a long history here in greater manchester of our community stand

the conversations focussed on paul manafort and michael t. flynn. the fbi and cia declined to comment when asked about this by the times. both manafort and flynn have previously denied collusion. they would be supee subpoenaing. schiff says he tid not comply. a new washington post report says he may have based his actions last summer on a bogus russian dockium but that document, according the report is viewed within the fbi as unreliable and possibly a fake. more on all of that in a moment. these stories all hit while the president is still overseas. and on the same day as a round op of bad polling numbers for this white house. a new poll finds the approval rating at 37%. 55% disapproval of the job he's doing. same poll 54% say the president is abusing his office. 66 say they support a special prosecutor. just 40% of respondents say the president has good leadership skills and only 31% say the president is level headed. there are the numbers as of today. we're so happy that both sides in the great newspaper war of 2017 are represented tonight. white

mcmaster to serve in that role following his dismissal of lieutenant general michael flynn last week. while flynn's out of the white house, he's not out of the woods. with the fbi already leading a counterintelligence inquiry, the senate has begun a probe into the communications with the russian ambassador. yesterday the associated press reported "the senate intelligence committee has sent formal requests to more than a dozen organizations, agencies and individuals asking them to preserve all materials related to the committee's investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election and related issues."