the conversations focused on paul manafort and michael t. flynn. the white house, fbi and cia all declined to comment when asked about this by "the times." both manafort and flynn have previously denied allegations of collusion. speaking of flynn, after the meeting yesterday announced would be subpoenaing documents from his intelligence life. the ranking member adam schiff did not comply with the committee's initial request for documents. also today, a new "washington post" report says that james comey might have based his actions involving the clinton e-mail probe last summer on a bogus russian document, but that document, according to the report, was, quote, 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 quinnipiac poll finds trump's approval rating at just 37%. 55% disapproval of the job he's doing. same poll, 54% of voters say the president is accusing his of

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

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

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

. >> 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

he starts seeing people like michael flynn or paul manafort himself or people in the white house, the special counsel has already issued a list of people in the white house he wants to talk to. that's going to be a big deal with people actually -- if for nothing else, the people as you say is not a welcome one for any president. it distracts from the agenda he wants to set. this is just a small tip of what could be a pretty big iceberg. >> so think of these two visuals. that one a gentleman walking outside of the federal courthouse and what we showed at the top of the broadcast, sporadic videos posted, social media by some very vocal members of trump's base. when will you start taking a census, the pulse of the trump base to see what its floor is? >> well, we know that the russia scandal hasn't really bother thd base. those developments coming alongside this, i don't really know what to make of that. him dealing with democrats makes the base this angry. and the vocal base is what we're talking about. ann ko a ann -- they are powerful voices among his base. when they start to pushback

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

he rekeyesed himself from being involved in the michael -- in the investigation because he and michael flynn had a relationship and they were campaigning together and on the campaign trail. i think rudy giuliani said it he did the proper things by the rules of justice. i don't know what the reason would be. but i will say this. the president or the chief executive -- i was governor of my state and i wanted to put my staff and have people around me. the president has that prerogative to do. that's part of the job and he has to have a team that he believes in. and he will make that decision. i don't think what jeff did by recusing himself he did exactly what he should have done. >> joe manchin thank you for being with us. >> thank you sir. >> the late headline for the "washington post" on the man whose friends call him mooch. also known to the rest of us as anthony scaramucci. the new white house communications director. this includes what new changes may come. we'll have the writer of the piece on with us next. your new s have a few side effects. oh, like what? ♪ you're gonna have diz

why has he always been so eager to protect michael flynn? that is, you know, the question that has led him to potentially cross lines with his behavior towards jim comey, potentially why he even fired james comey. we don't know whether it's out of loyalty to mike flynn, out of friendship to mike flynn, or if it's something darker, if he's worried mike flynn had something he would tell investigators if he ever felt he was in legal jeopardy. >> andrea mitchell. >> well, there are a couple of things about that. i was told early on that mike flynn was vetted, and his attorney was in touch with don mcgahn early on in january. the fact is that that's what they called a vet. they knew about his representation of turkey at the time, before it was publicly disclosed, and they still said it was okay for him to become national security adviser even though he had written a column on election day urging that gulen be returned to erdogan, a controversial position without disclosing that he was representing turkey, lobbying for turkey, even though we now l

the campaign trail. >> they were tight on the campaign trail, and michael flynn was a white house official. this w this is a white house physical now who is seemingly cooperating with the bob mueller investigation. that's a huge change. that's very different than anything we've seen so far with campaign officials likes paul manafort. so this has got to be very uncomfortable for a president who really detests anything having to do with russia or this russian investigation. so to know that somebody who has that insight in the white house that jeremy was talking about it now talking and who faces his own legal peril, just a lot of things that he could be up for potential indictments for if he is willing to offer up information in exchange for cutting some sort of deal, that's got to make people in the white house very uncomfortable. >> and in one of the many aspects of the story that reminds people of a mob movie, part of his motivation may be to save his own son from peril. jeremy, this is james comey testifying been the senate intelligence committee in june after he was tirefired. he submit

. >> 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

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

we've looked into michael flynn's son. these are all parts of this probe that span far away from just the trump campaign and russia. so there's a lot that has to be wrapped up here. and we know in the case of paul manafort, someone who's actually been indicted in this probe, it's not until may 7th that we'll see his trial. and the special counsel's office will not shut down until at least that trial begins. so it seems in this case, ty cobb is definitely engaging in wishful thinking, probably to try to keep a sense of calm among the white house. >> hey, chuck, robert mueller is such a fascinating combination of things. a wounded decorated marine combat veteran. a guy who had the best schooling in this nation from prep school on through college. a guy who really regards himself as a public servant. what of your understanding of robert mueller educates your guess about how far we are into this thing and how much to go? >> well, you're right in your description of him. he's decisive, he's smart, he has great judgment and grea

flynn as first national security adviser. mueller wants documents related to the meeting the president had in the oval office in may with russian officials in which he said comey was a nut job. he wants documents related to a trump tower meeting in june 2016 with russian officials and trump campaign officials and also as you reported earlier, he wants documented related to a drafting misstatement on air force one that was very misleading. this leads up to an extremely aggressive investigation, squeezing people like paul manafort and really, really, really pressuring the white house. >> robert, the journalism this week by elisabeth's paper and by your paper has cast in its sum total a heck of a chill over the white house, stretching down pennsylvania avenue, to the capitol behind you. take us wherever you wish. what has it done there? also, this notion of teams for manafort versus the white house. disturbing word that came out. >> based on my conversations this week with my sources inside and outside the west wing, you're righ

flynn and also as -- >> no. no. next question. >> "dateline" now, march 30th, the president calls comey to talk about quote lifting the cloud of russia from his administration and getting out the fact that trump is not under investigation himself. the president's references claims that in that now unsubstantiated dossier about him and russia quote he said he had nothing to do with russia, comey writes, had not been involved with hookers in russia and had always assumed he was being recorded when in russia. he asked what we could do to lift the cloud. moving now to april 11th of this year. according to comey the president again calls him following up on his request to get the word out he's not under investigation. comey quoting the president. i have been very loyal to you, very loyal. we had that thing you know. i did not reply or ask him what he meant by hat thing." comey concludes that was the last time i spoke with president trump. tomorrow's testimony comes at bad time for this new administration but especial

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

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

and michael flynn received a subpoena for documents possibly relevant to its russia investigations. they requested those documents in a letter dated april 28th. a senate historian tells msnbc news this is the first time the senate intelligence committee has subpoenaed documents since the 1970s and on the flynn front the daily beast siting two sources toonts that white house lawyers repeatedly had to warn the president since flynn was fired in midfebruary. threats rrer bring in tonight's opening panel. julie pace is back with us. fellow white house reporter is with us. and senior foreign affairs correspondent returns as well. we'll start with you. give us your best reporting as of tonight, 11:05 eastern time why was comey fired and why now? >> our reporting shows president trump has grown increasingly angry over the russia investigation, what he saw as comey not being supportive enough in particular congressional testimony of trump's own role or lack of ties to russia as it relates to the fbi question. you saw this shift in the white house story where yesterday they were presenting t

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

>> 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

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

cory lewandowski is one of them, his one time campaign manager and he kept in touch with michael flynn for ages after he had to cut him off as national security adviser. roger stone and there are plenty of people who cut loose and who continued to be part of his inner circle and steve bannon in an interview with my old colleague joshua green said, just to be clear, i'm leaving the white house to go to war for trump against capitol hill, the media, the globalists, so i think he's still very much on donald trump's side, and is going to be fighting that war kind of completely unleashed and unplugged on the outside now. >> clarence, because you've been around washington for a while, i feel like making the point will b how covering presidents has changed. we haven't seen him since the ill-fated press appearance in the trump tower lobby, but with the kind of holy trinity in his life of his cell phone, a cable tv box and a wi-fi password. he makes sure he stays in the news. >> yeah, he does. and he seems to do a better job of making news than following the news. it is rather remarkable to hav

>> 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

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

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

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

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

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

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. day 132 of the trump administration, and 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 nbc news, the fired fbi director has been, quote, cleared for takeoff, 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.

basically we know that 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 fi tul la len. 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 their investigation into gulen at the beginning of the trump administration when flynn served as national security adviser. this was after they had already dismissed the investigation under obama. we're looking at a number of pieces. what mueller is trying to drill down on here is whether or not michael flynn, trump's first national security adviser, was exploited to use his position in the u.s. gov

two, michael flynn. that's exactly what he was doing by executing this raid on paul manafort's house and putting pressure on paul manafort's son-in-law, trying to get him to flip. bob mueller is clearly trying to work his way up the chain in this investigation to get manafort, threaten him with jail time, make him nervous and get him to cooperate against the president. for the president's aides to be criticizing manafort, they want to keep manafort close right now, not push him away. a team with a sophisticated criminal defense attorney and operators would tell them to cut that kind of stuff out. >> jack, talk about how cooperation as a legal notion can differ on the eye of the beholder. you can be a witness like mr. manafort and say you're cooperating and maybe feel like you're cooperating. the prosecutor may not hashare that opinion, even the day after you come in to talk to them. in this case, it looks like he had lingering doubt that there was something in the manafort residence. >> absolutely. it ha

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

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

>> 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 this 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 th

flynn. and the attorney general basically confirmed that account. he said, yes, i was the last person to leave the room. he didn't exactly cop to having those feelings of concern that comey described to him but it was almost implied in his body lapping and the way he refused to answer that question. >> comey's dramatic writing style made ate different read from sessions' testimony. robert, did any big republicans come out and say this was a bell weather day, we clearly have the momentum, nothing the see here? >> that's the word coming out of the white house. they priestly don't strike that same tone. they know the attorney general faced questions about his involvement in russia due to his meetings with ambassador kislyak. and they know comey's issues are not mended. all the issues brought up last week by former director comey still linger. >> julia, 30 second left before we have to go to yet another break. mr. cohn, mr. trump's new york based attorney has been called before the house intelli

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

. >> i asked 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. that's a noble fact in this building. it's not a legal matter, not for the attorney to say. can you just tell us when the president became aware of ha? >> the attorneys feel differently and they feel this is a question that should be answered by them and i'll encourage them again to respond to you, but i'm going to 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 are 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 ray is there. we feel he'll clean up some of the messes left by his predecessor. >> in the meantime new poll numbers are out. pew research asked whether they thought trump had improper contacts with russia. 59% said definitely or probably.

>> you know, i think looking at michael flynn, at mr. stone, there are case after case of communications back and forth between so many folks in the trump campaign and various different contacts in russia, guccifer 2.0, julian assange as well as directly with the russian ambassador and others. i think we need to get to the bottom of all of those conversations and i think that today's actions by chairman nunes really call into question why members of the trump campaign were in direct contact with targets of foreign surveillance. that's the real takeaway from his revelations today. they were obviously talking with someone who a judge had decided there should be a fisa warrant to surveil. >> so what remains for you to have answered? >> oh, i think we still need to follow the money here. i think that the question is, i think it would be highly appropriate to subpoena the president's tax returns and any financials which might answer some of these questions. i think that's one of the directions that we really need to get to if we're going to g

. >> 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 newsast week, the president admitted that, acally, he decided to fire comey beforeetting tha 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 to be

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

so we know he's focusing on michael flynn. now he's going through a lot of these people in the white house. talking to them, figuring out what they know and putting this whole story together. and he's also going to be using this evidence he's building to hold over people and build a narrative to answer the question of how the trump campaign may have worked with russia to influence the results of the 2016 election. >> and jeremy bash, you watched that hearing by the attorney general i guess it was yesterday, and it can't be something mueller and his team enjoys watching, the rolling disclosure nature of this story. >> yeah, and i think really what mueller is probably thinking about is what's the common sense understanding of what went on during the campaign? because there's a lot of discussion about collusion and what the definition of collusion is. and i think when you really boil it down, when you look at papadopoulos, the russian delegation coming to trump tower in june, when you think about don junior being in touch with wi

flynn had become vulnerable to russian blackmail. yet nearly every day for three weeks the new cia director mike pompeo sat in the oval office and briefed president trump on the nation's most sensitive intelligence with mr. flynn listening. meanwhile the former boss at homicide former secretary jay johnson heads to the hill where he will take questions in an open session to the house intelligence committee. and similar to what happened on the eve of the comey testimony -- you may recall -- well johnson's prepared statement has been released early. in it he says for the record, quote in 2016 the russian government at the direction of vladimir putin himself orchestrated cyberattacks on our nation for the purpose of influencing our election, plain and simple. he goes on, cyberattacks of all manner and from multiple sources are going to get worse before they get better. in this realm and at this moment those on offense have the upper hand. with that let's bring in the second panel of the evening, former fbi special eighth on the joint te

and chief of staff to michael flynn. i think he could be key to the flynn aspect of this investigation. he was one of the first people of the white house staff that mueller spoke to, they spoke to him in early october. he did not bring a lawyer with him to the interview, which was something that caught my attention. if this was a grand jury, sitdown, a lawyer would not be allowed in the room, presumably, this was an interview with mueller, so a lawyer would have been allowed. and typically the reason you want a lawyer in the room is to prevent you from accidently purging yourself by making a misstatement or leaving out a date or confusing who was in the room. so i think he could be a crucial player here. and shows the attention that's being paid to flynn. >> speaking of a potential perjury trap, i happen to know you feel that's a exposure danger for carter page, tell us why? >> carter page has already been interviewed at length by special council mueller, and now the senate intelligence committee wants to talk to him, an

of course, saying let's let this flynn thing go away. would you get off of it? and then when comey relented, he fired comey. so, there are four or five aspects if someone wanted to build a case, they would point to. >> michael, we talk about the work habits of the now former fbi director. this may call for a judgment on your part. maybe you know and can't say. a, there is more to cover, every encounter he had with the president. b, a question on your process. why is it the "times" has the story but not the memo? >> well, we have been working -- i had been working on a story for the past few days about the fact that comey had written these. we thought that was pretty significant in and of themself. then in the process of pushing on those doors this morning, i learned more about one of these memos. and someone that had seen them recounted details to me. we felt comfortable with those details. we did some diligence on the information and we realized how sensitive that information was and how potentially important it could be, and we moved as quickly as we could. yo

all the reporting on general michael flynn is that for most of his career was a respected military man, respected intellect within the defense commune. 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 are accept be 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 military official let into the gru inner sank up the, 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 stand, it seems absurd to most people. >> that's not how it works.