Good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 698 of the trump administration. Just hours ago, federal judge Emmett Sullivan ordered former National Security adviser Michael Flynn to surrender his passport 17 days from now. And he must further tell the court if he wishes at any time to travel outside of a 50mile radius of washington. This was supposed to a sentencing day for Michael Flynn stemming from his guilty plea and his cooperation with the mueller investigators. Flynn and his team thought they would leave court today with a minimal sentence, but when court was in session and judge sullivan walked in and started to talk about what flynn had done, it all started to go south. For starters here, lets pause to remember the name of this case, United States of america versus Michael Flynn. That right there tells you where we are in how far weve come. The judge made it clear he did not like this plot line that has taken hold among the president s political friends that the fbi had somehow duped mike flynn into lying or that he didnt know somehow that it was a crime to lie to the feds after his decades of public service. In fact, people who seemed to know this judge thought he might just side be mike flynn, and they said so on television as recently as this weekend. On tuesday the party will appear again before the judge. A jurist unafraid of the swamp a judge who has a track record of calling out prosecutorial misconduct a man who doesnt tolerate injustice or abuse of power. Judge sullivan can throw out this guilty plea if he conclusion the fbi intentional interfered with their target flynns constitutional right to counsel. Turns out judge sullivan did not agree with judge janine. In fact, it was something approaching the opposite of that. Earlier on this network, former federal prosecutor glenn kesh ner described how the judge dismantled any notion of coercion. The first thing that judge sullivan did was he actually placed Michael Flynn under oath because he said i have some followup questions. Based on that memorandum your attorneys filed. He went on to ask, based on what your lawyers filed, are you saying that, you know, you think you should have been advised that lying to the fbi was a crime . And flynn said, no, your honor. He said, do you believe that you were maybe duped into pleading guilty because at the time of the interview you didnt have a lawyer present with you . He said, no, your honor. The judge said, are you pleading guilty because you are, in fact, guilty, and Michael Flynn said, yes, your honor, the judge laid into Michael Flynn saying it was a very serious offense and continued, quote, all along you were an unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the National Security adviser to the president of the United States. I mean, arguably, that undermines everything this flag over here, points to the flag in the courtroom, stands for. Arguably, you sold your country out. The courts going to consider all of that. I cannot assure you that you proceed today you will not receive a sentence of incarceration. Im not hiding my disgust, my disdain for this criminal offense. Judge sullivan then asked the prosecution whether flynn could have been charged with treason. After a recess, sullivan corrected himself saying flynn had not acted as a Foreign Agent while serving in the trump white house, and that his work for the government of turkey ended in midnovember of 2016. He also clarified that he was just curious as to whether or not flynn could have been charged with treason. However, Michael Flynn and his lawyers clearly stunned by the proceedings, having walked in there today expecting to leave with a life sentence, little or no jail time, they requested a 90day postponement until march of next year while mike flynn perhaps of things other ways he might be useful to the mueller team. Members of the crowd turned the tables on this man who famously led the lock her up chant at the gop convention. This morning the president offered this message and we, did the fbi ambush flynn . No. The fbi broke standard protocol in the way that they came in and ambushed general flynn, and in the way they questioned him, and in the way that they encouraged him not to have White House Counsels Office present. We dont have any reason to want to walk that back. There was one other Development Today in the Mueller Investigation. A federal appeals court, this gets complicated, had ordered a Mystery Corporation owned by a foreign country to comply with a secret subpoena that appears to be from the special counsels office. More on that when we know it. Lets bring in our panel on a tuesday night. Former u. S. Attorney joyce vance, jeremy bash, former chief of staff at the cia, former counsel to the house intel committee, and Frank Figliuzzi who has worked in the past for mueller. Welcome to you all. Joyce, here is a guy who expected to leave court with the light sentence that everyone had requested, zero to six months, maybe some probation, some community service. What just happened in that courtroom today . Have you ever seen anything exactly like this . Every once in a while a federal judge finds him or herself in sharp disagreement with prosecutors and the wheels go off the wagon at sentencing. This was unique. Typically judges follow the guideline range. These are guidelines mandated bay thick book that controls sentencing in the federal system, and here it was clear that general flynn was in a range of zero to six months, both general flynn and the government agreed he should serve little or no custodial time. The judge didnt like something that he saw and decided he needed to see fully flynns cooperation before he could sentence him to that low end of the guideline range. I did hear our friend Chuck Rosenberg saying the judge maybe set himself up to not sit as the sentencing judge. How would that work . I think maybe he didnt go quite that far. If the judge did something that was indicative of a bias or gave a defendant a reason to believe that he couldnt sentence him fairly, then the defendant could request that the judge recuse himself from the sentencing. I dont think thats what we saw happen here. This judge did inject himself in sentencing a little bit more than one typically sees, and the line is this. Decisions about what to charge are usually left up to prosecutors. Thats within the province of prosecutors to see who gets charged with what crimes. The judge was quibbling about decisions with charging when has job was simply to sentence the defendant for the crimes he had been charged with. But i dont think well see him recuse from sentencing. Jeremy bash, im holding in my hand the dreaded black lines of redaction. Do you think that made the difference there in court . Quite possibly. Two things were really bothering the Federal District judge today. First, he thought that flynn was trying to have it both ways, that he was accepting responsibility, pleading guilty to a crime, but also part of legal strategy, the larger Legal Echo Chamber was to say the fbi hot boxed me and i was snookered into lying to the fbi and the judge didnt like that one bit. Second, the judge looked at this case and said what we were they doing in 2017. They were conducting a National Security investigation. And they were trying to understand russian interference. When they went to the senior most National Security official in the land, the person who technically oversees all other National Security actions in our government, that senior official undermined a National Security investigation of the United States. And i think that bothered prosecutors and the judge today. Frank, what do you think set the judge off, and was this a good day or a bad day for Robert Mueller and his team . Good question. Were all talking about how it was not a good day for Michael Flynn, but i cant help but think about whats going on at the special counsels office. What are they saying about this, what are they saying about whether they presented this and agreed to a sentencing hearing knowing that the question might come up, hey, has your defendant really cooperated to the fullest possible extent . And they might have thought about this question and anticipated it. So theyre worried about the future. Whos coming down the pipeline . Roger stone, jerome corsi, how are they going to view this in terms of whether they should cooperate fully or not . I think the message will be you cooperate completely, or you risk the judge doing his own thing. That could turn lemons into lemonade for mueller, but not the greatest day for mueller. Yet a message was clearly sent that you cant lie to the fbi, you cant represent foreign governments and lie about it, and i think that message needed to be sent. But muellers going to have to figure out where to go from here thats interesting. Is there a secret white board time line in the Mueller Office that has when other charges and people are going to drop, and did they just have 90 days inserted forcibly into their calendar among other things . Yeah. I dont think theres a strict time line here because the human factor is playing into who cooperates and when that happens and what the developments are, whether someone is interviewed or not at certain times. So theres not a strict time line, but i do firmly believe that the next people in the sights are roger stone and genome corsi, and this could throw a wrench into the timing of when that happens. Okay, joyce. You dont often hear the word treason spoken in open court. Dwrolsz often hear complaints about someones degree of cooperation after theyve made 19 visits into the special counsels office. Has treason sufficiently been suppressed, do you think, and what more in the known realm could this guy cooperate on . As far as treason goes, like all other criminal conduct, it has elements that the government has to prove. But treasons a little bit different because its in the constitution. And so it was raised here, it was discussed. I dont think there was a serious conversation that the government was obligated to charge on these facts. Theres a question of cooperation and why prosecutors wanted to go ahead and sentence flynn now before he finished his cooperation with the government. Thats relatively rare. As a prosecutor i want my cooperating witness to testify in every case, to provide me with all the assistance that i need from him bring take him in front of a federal judge and ask that judge to sentence him. So theres some mystery here, some missing fact that we dont know about why the special counsel was willing to go ahead and sentence now. And of course, whatever their rationale was, it back fired with all the arguments his counsel made that contradicted his guilty please estimate thats how we ended up despite 19 interviews, which is an awful lot of corporation and it seems likely that special counsel would not be where that investigation is today without flynns early and prompt cooperation. Nonetheless, theres a Monkey Wrench here and well have to see where this goes next for mueller. Frank, lets go there on the Monkey Wrench, the x factor. Is what flynn lied because of, is that the same as underlying reason for the continuing kindness from the trump white house, which after all today criminalized the fbi again. Flynn was ambushed, they said, from the lectern in the White House Press room. Yeah. Theres something to this. You dont have the president of the United States wishing you luck on the day youre going to be sentenced for a crime you pled guilty to and admitted to. Somethings up with this, and something is being flynns holding something out. You saw the prosecutor today try to answer the judge. The judge said has he fully cooperated, and the prosecutor gave less than a comprehensive yes. He said something like, theres the potential that hes still cooperating. Very strange grammatical sentence there. And the potential that hes still cooperating, hes cooperating right now, potentially. Very strange. Theres a connection between trump and flynn that is a mystery to us. Remember that flynn has tremendous value to the special counsel because he was in the white house, he can talk to possible misconduct by the president as the president , not during a campaign, not in new york running some organization, but rather as president of the United States. I think trump is worried about that, hes treating flynn with kid gloves, and flynn plays right into that page in the trump playbook where the fbis a big bad tricky manipulative organization, they trick him into lying in your own office, you cant help yourself. Trump loves that narrative and he likes the fact that flynn tried that. The question i have is, did the camps respectively, flynn and trump camps, did they somehow talk about that lastminute filing, hey, go ahead and that that fbi made me lie defense. We like that. Was there something going on like that . Judge certainly didnt like that. Jeremy bash, this judge has been on the bench for a long time, nominated for three separate judgeships by reagan, bush 41, and bill clinton. He has been a fixture at that courthouse and others. But what he said today, his degree of anger to general flynn about what flynn did as National Security adviser sitting in the west wing, that close to the president when your decisions are made for us on our behalf, that was kind of a normalizing argument. Some found it refreshing to hear as told by a federal judge. Whenever your sentencing judge points to the flag and says defendant, you have undermined that, thats not a good day for you. Judge sullivan was not only offended by the conduct with respect to the government of turkey, but i think theres that lingering question which is why did flynn lie . What conduct about the president elect was he covering up . Why did he get his marching orders from a transitional officials at maralago . Those are still questions, brian, that i dont think we dont know the answers to we give it a good ride and thanks to joyce vance, jeremy bash, and Frank Figliuzzi. Coming up, more on Michael Flynns day in court. Why the president remains loyal to one of his earliest supporters. Well talk about that some more. Later, President Trump and his children forced to shut down their foundation. Why new York Attorney general is calling its closure a victory for the rule of law. The 11th hour just Getting Started on a tuesday night. This isnt just any moving day. This is moving day with the best inhome wifi experience and millions of wifi hotspots to help you stay connected. And this is moving day with Reliable Service appointments in a twohour window so youre up and running in no time. Show me decorating shows. This is staying connected with xfinity to make moving. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience and twohour appointment windows. Click, call or visit a store today. When i met donald trump about a year ago, the first question i asked him was are you serious . And im going to tell you, folks, he is deadly serious about the future of our country. This guy, he is a tough, smart, uses good common sense, hes got a street savviness in him. Lock her up. Thats right. Yep, thats right, lock her up. That was the preguilty plea Michael Flynn at the convention for donald trump. Flynn was one of the president s earliest supporters, a constant presence at trump tower at maralago, on Board Air Force one. The president has so far offered nothing but support for Michael Flynn, wishing him good luck on twitter and offering these represented public defenses. General flynn is a wonderful man. I think hes been treated very, very unfairly by the media. Well, i feel badly for general flynn. I feel very badly. Hes led a strong life. Hillary clinton lied many times to the fbi and Nothing Happened to her. Flynn lied and they destroyed his life. I feel badly for those people. I feel badly for general flynn. Hes lost his house, hes lost his life, and some people say he lied, and some people say he didnt lie. I mean, really, it turned out maybe he didnt lie. Admitted to lying in court today, trumps reaction stands in contrast to the criticism hes doled out to his personal lawyer Michael Cohen. With us to talk about all of it, greg miller, correspondent for the Washington Post. He happens to be the author of the apprentice. And moderate of washington week. Miracle of the train age. He is back in washington tonight. Gentlemen, thank you both for joining us. Greg, id like to continue with a dramatic reading from your work in your book. Flynn had met trump for the first time back in august 2015. The conversation was scheduled for 30 minutes, but for 90. As he moved more visibly into the trump camp, flynn got a remarkable offer from russia television, the kremlinrun approved cable news channel. An vision to a gala in moscow, flynn would be seated at a vip table next to vladimir putin. So greg, walk us through this. Yes, i mean, this was one of the more transformations. Ive interviewed him many times, and his end of his career was not on his terms. He was pushed out by the Obama Administration o