The special counsel investigation. He is talking. He has flipped in a move widely interpreted as his only play in order to guarantee he and his son, Michael Flynn jr. Avoid jail time for a series of questionable illegal activities. This also means this is just the beginning and likely to go only higher. Not long after this news brokers sources told cnn a very Senior Member of President Trump 2k3w4r50ir7b8g9 the person who directed flynn, that official is the president s soninlaw, kushnJared Kushner. The charge against flynn is the first against someone in the Trump White House for a crime that occurred while he was employed in the white house as National Security adviser. Flynn is now the fourth member connected to the Trump Campaign to be charged as part of the special counsel investigation, and these questions loom large today. Why you did flynn lie to the fbi . What was the thenNational Security adviser so afraid of . Our own investigators finding out about why. What was anyone flynn hiding . I want to bring in my panel to discuss. A source close to the white house, michael, described the president and his team in a state of denial telling our jim acosta that theyre in a bubble, they should be taking this news seriously. You were a former Trump Campaign adviser. Whats your take on how important todays news is and thousand white house should be handling it . I think the white house is taking this very seriously. But its also, by the way, nothing we didnt know for already, what, 11 months ago. The New York Times, by the way, through a felony leak told us that at a general flynn lied to the fbi. The other shoe on that was going to drop, and weve been expecting it for quite some time. Im really happy, in fact, it dropped now instead of march, for example, because it drags it on more and more. In my opinion since this is a crime thats on Michael Flynn and only Michael Flynn, at this time im ghad were going to be able to get to the bottom of this now so were not dragging this on a lot more. It appears mueller is moving through this resolutely. The administration saying this is all on flynn, but now cnn is being told if sources that anyone was directed from Jared Kushner, by Jared Kushner. So how is it just flynn if were also being told that kushner is the one who told him to have these conversations during the transition . Right. But what flynn pled guilty to was lying to the fbi about meetings or discussions he had with the Russian Ambassador, which were camille in line with the duties of his Job Description in the transition. What we didnt find out here was anything at all about russian collusion. In fact, theyre not talking about anything that happened before haeelection day. Help me tell you something. If you put kt mcfarland out there, shes as hoyle as anyone else. What might this mean for kushner or is michael right the crime here is just lying to the fbi . Others speculate and theyre trying to get flynn to flip for a bigger fish . This is the a lot of republicans saying donald trump called on russia to hack into hillarys email. Made a big deal about wikileaks. Jared kushner tried to set up a back channel. This is the a huge time hein. We have to get out of the pos and revisit what the big question is here, and its the stakes are really high. Did a u. S. President compromise National Security interests to get assistance from a Russian Foreign agent to get help. If thats true, what will he be willing to do to stay president . This is where we have to hook at congress and start asking congress if this is the any attempt to impede this investigation, will they resist that. And if there is, would that in itself be grounds for impeachment . These are questions i have and thinking about huge forward to the spring when the manafort trial begins. That is a question the people are asking, what might President Trump do. We know hes thought about firing the attorney general Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the investigation. It is possible that given this mueller news, which im sure the president doesnt like and given the fact that he blames even on mr. Mueller. Held have to jump through hoops and get a bunch of people at the squus Department Fired before they would be handgwilling in r to fire flynn. It is not in his interest politically politically legally to do so. Northbound but the presidehan think of the timeline. We know on january 24th, general flynn four days into his job hi lied to the fbi about contacts with russia. Two days later, sally yates tells the white house flynn is compromised by the russians. And the white house doesnt do anything at first, but the next day the president has a private dinner with james comey, the head of the fbi right after comeys men and women have interviewed general flynn. He reaches out to the fbi, why . After that ding he says, i want your loyalty. Then he tells mr. Comey i hope youll go easy on flynn, hes a good guy. This is all according to comey. Sworn testimony by mr. Comey. He keeps coming back to it each time. And were going to find out because general flynn is cooperating. Hes not cooperating for nothing. Hes gotten a sweet plea deal if you ask me. Hes going to have to roll big time. Michael, let me ask you the question which is why would flynn lie . What is worth lying to the fbi about worth to conceal . If these conversations were no big deal, which some speculated are not, the logan act, this theoretically might be, this is not a seriously prosecutable charge, why would he lie about it . I dont know. Let me tell you straight off the bat, im extremely disappointed in general flynn. I gave him the benefit of the doubt because hes a flag officer who earned have a horva battle. Normal actions that happen in transitions from president to party to president to party for many, many years, it doesnt make sense to me. Now hes put ostensibly, im glad hes going to get what hes going to get, i got to believe right now that the president is concerned. But not because hes implicated for anything. Flynn anyone is his friend and doesnt want to see this happen to him. The president was asked in february about the conversations Michael Flynn had with the Russian Ambassador after the Washington Post reported on it. Take a look at his response [ inaudible question ] no, i didnt. For anybody who had trouble hearing that, did you tell flynn anyone to discuss sanctions with the Russian Ambassador and the president said no, i didnt. But Jared Kushner or kt mcfarland did tell him to or knew about it. Conversations that started hes the with the trump tower meeting, adoptions, which was code for sanctions. The russians didnt like when obama imposed more sanctions for cyber warfare. Heres the smoking gun for me. Donald trump doesnt accept the findings from the Intelligence Community that the russians meddled in the election. Why not . Why has this been no action taken to prevent further meddling in 2018 . The fact that he doesnt accept it again and again and again, that to me is damning in itself. In court today, paul, prosecutors detailed calls made when i flynn in december 2016 to the senior Trump Transition Team at maralago to discuss conversations with sergey kislyak. Reince priebus, steve miller, kellyanne conway, and kt mcfarland. What does that tell you . Muellers going to know everything. This is the problem. I have been in the white house that was under fall investigation. Heres the big thing. Northbound asymmetrical information. The Investigative Team knows more than you do. He doesnt know what mueller has. He does now because hes cooperating. Each one of these people is going to be called, and ive said this before and ill say it get up. Dont hilie. Think abo he knew when he was on the phone with chak clarke, the ambassador but also reported to be a soviet spy that the gouys were taking that. Why did he high about the content . They always lie about russia. Thats where all the roads go. Everyone, stick around. Coming up next the russia investigations on capitol hill. President trump reportedly asking republican senators to bring an end to one of those investigations. Is that obstruction . Well ask a key senator. I saw the change in rich when we moved into the new house. But having his parents over was enlightening. You dont like my lasagna . No, its good. Hmm. Oh. Huh. [ both laugh ] here, blow. Blow on it. You see it, right . Is there a draft in here . Im telling you, its so easy to get Home Insurance on progressive. Com. Progressive cant save you from becoming your parents. But we can save you money when you bundle home and auto. Whats going on . Oh hey you from becoming your parents. Thats it . Yeah. Everybody two seconds dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance. Through the Tuition Assistance program, every day mcdonalds helps more people go to college. Its part of our commitment to being americas best first job. At tmobile, when you holiday together, great things come in twos. Right now when you buy any of this seasons hot new Samsung Galaxy phones, you get a second one free to gift. Thats one samsung for you. One to give. Tmobile. Holiday twogether. Were back with a double shot of breaking news for you right now. Any minute now the senate could vote on the plan for historic change to this nations tax code. Tonight republicans in the senate say they do have the votes. They say thg this will approximate mean more money in the pockets of the middle class. Democrats are calling it a corporate sellout. Senator, thanks for joining us. I want to get your reactions to todays news about Michael Flynn and his plea agreement. Thanks, jake for the chance to be on this evening. Its been a very long day as we have fought against this tax bill in the senate. This mornings development was striking that Michael Flynn, the former National Security adviser pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi and is fully cooperating with Robert MuellersOngoing Investigation. Its just a few days ago that many in trump world were saying this investigation ought to be wrapping up soon. Ill remind you just a few weeks ago paul manafort, the former Campaign Manager for President Trump was indicted on a dozen counts and campaign aide, mr. Papadopoulos pled guilty as well. My hunch is that this is the latest signal that Robert MuellersOngoing Investigation is picking up steam and getting each other to the white house. My concern today more than ever is that we need to work in a bipartisan way in the senate to make sure that the special counsel is protected and is able to carry this investigation through to its conclusion no matter what conclusion he reaches. What happened to the legislation that was being offered by i believe you and the senator from North Carolina to have some measure of protection from the special counsel in case President Trump tries to fire him or tries to fire the attorney general to put somebody else in there that would wield more control over the special counsel . Jakes, we had a hearing on the Judiciary Committee a month ago and a competing bill thats only shilightly different. Weve met to resolve the slight differences. Its my hope we will get a markup of the Judiciary Committee. I think its more important than ever we move forward on these bills. Where do you see the investigation going from here and for mueller and where do you see the Senate Investigation going . I think its critical now that the Senate Intelligence committee and the senate Judiciary Committee continue their important work to make sure that were doing our job of oversight of the department of justice and continuing to look into obstruction of justice. I also the investigation will continue to get closer to the core team on the Trump Campaign. The documents that were released today, the plea agreement in which much general flynn pled guilty, he made a reference to a senior transition official having directed him to have contact with the russians. I keep this is the more details to be work out, more investigation to be done, and i think its important that Robert Mueller be able to make that progress without interference. Senior transition official we have reported is according to our sources, Jared Kushner. In addition to all this, of course, the New York Times reporting today that President Trump has been for months hobbying officials to either stop or wrap up their russia probes or trying to announce that he and his team are clear. You get this list of people who the president has pressed to varying degrees on this. You have senator richard burr, mitch mcconnell, roy blunt, the director of national intelligence, dan coates, james comey who the president fired, mike pompeo, this is just a partial list. Do you think the president doesnt know any better or is there something more sinister going on . Jake, it certainly is part of a long pattern in which the president has engaged in really disturbing behavior, when it was many months ago now, calling the fbi director into his office to try to extract a pledge of loyalty, or reaching out to republican senators. But to try and inappropriately pressure him to wrap up the investigation. I think you might have been able to say months and months ago that the president new to this role, someone who hasnt served before might not understand the contras of the job, but after lots of criticism and pushback for his inappropriate behavior, its clear that he knows that he should not be trying to endear in this investigation. This is exactly why Robert MuellersOngoing Investigation can and should and must be looking at obstruction of justice because this sort of ongoing behavior by the president to try and pressure folks to step back or to lighten up is completely inappropriate. It appears republicans are going to be able to pass this bill, unlike the effort that killed obamacare. Who come democrats were able to stop the previous effort, the Health Care Effort to repeal obamacare and you werent able to do so this time . We didnt see a ground swell of opposition to this that we saw during the health care fight. Jake, i think thats for two simple reasons. One is that Republican Leadership learned some lessons from why they were unsuccessful in repealing the Affordable Care act. And they have rushed this bill through. We still dont have a final version of this bill. This were markups being made on it by hand just in the last couple of hours. So the time from introduction to markup to final vote on the floor of the senate is very tight. So there wasnt a lot of opportunity to mobilize groups nationally. Ill also suggest that taxes and tax policy are very complex. The language that were using is all about jct scores and cbo scores and passthroughs and expatriot or repatriation of profits. It is harder for folks, i think, to grasp. In the health care conversation, it was about what americans currently have that might be taken away from them. This is mostly discussion about you might get a tax break and it might be too big for some other guy but maybe its good for you. In the end the consequences of this enormous bill will certainly be adding a 1. 5 trillion in americas debt and that results in things being taken away, martial from middle class americans because there will be cuts to medicare and medicaid if this plays out the way its expected to. There are temporary middle class tax cuts, but permanent and big Corporate Tax cuts. This isnt is balance i think we should have pursued. Chris coons of delaware. A source saying the president expects to be exonerated soon, but what about everyone around him . Who might be the next domino to fall . Stay with us. Northbound coons coons coons phone maddie. You have everything you need right inside you. 9 out of 10 u. S. Olympians grew up drinking milk. Its got natural protein and balanced nutrition to help your kids grow strong and milk life. 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