Mike flynn. This is an exclusive nbc news report. Flynn is now one of only three formal subjects in this probe. Thats not good news for the flynn family. Flynn jr. Has worked in government and business for his father, traveling with him everywhere from trump tower during the transition to moscow to celebrate the russia outlet and sit next to Vladimir Putin. This is breaking today so we go straight to kenainian and he broke the story with two of our colleagues. It is big to identify anyone as a subject of probe of why is mike flynn jr. Under this scrutiny and how did you get four sources to confirm it . As you mentioned, we have a dogged team working this story for days and we found right people who are familiar with this. They confirmed it for us and we dont know the conduct the special counsel is examining. With mike flynn jr. But we know he was the right hand man of his father who is apparently facing some criminal jeopardy over his failure to declare his lobbying work for turkey and for some other financial entanglements. And the son would have known about almost every meeting. As you mentioned, he attended the gala where his father sat next to Vladimir Putin and the son was along for that. So he would have intimate knowledge of his fathers business deegs. If you look at muellers strategy, if it is his goal to have strategy, having his son on the whook some potential criminal jeopardy is certainly a point of leverage. And as lawyer i wouldnt want to answer the question but youre here so ill try to get to you answer it. What portion of this is about the son and what portion is about the father . Well, i have to believe a lot of it is about the father. The son is collateral damage. To the extent that the son for instance, one of the issues is he apparently failed to disclose foreign contacts and certain business arrangements on his securitier application. To what extent did mike flynn the son know about these arrangements and the failure to disclose . Was there a conspiracy of any kind . If he had knowledge of or participated in illegal acts by the father, he may be on the hook for that. Bits the fathers conduct. Right. Stay with me. I want to bring in the correspondent. Walk us through what it means to be a subject. So a subject of an investigation is someone whose conduct potentially because the within the range of what is under investigation. Youll remember, ari, the federal prosecutors use three of they will. Prosecutors havent determined they are a target. And then a target is someone who prosecutors believe they have sufficient evidence to charge or that they will have that evidence. Right. So its not good for him. The point that ken and i were discussing, this relates back to the father. Creates potential prosecutorial leverage. Bob mueller will follow facts. I dont think theyll have him in the cross hairs if there is contact to support it. So looking at the pushback there team trump, i want to play the old pushback. Well, flynn junior is not involved in things. Here was the old pushback. General he has no involvement in the twlangs rans whatsoever. Email is something weve all heard about through the course of 2016. And then here just breaking in our hour, mike flynn back on twitter. Mike flynn jr. , hes pushed a lot of conspiracies. He says fake news media. Were done covering those pesky hurricanes, right . Back to russia. And then calls this nothingburger. What are we hearing from trump world . Theres no doubt white house is distancing themselves from this widening russia probe. Today the White House Press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders said she had not discussed this with the president and referred her quarters to outside counsel. But mike flynn jr. Emailed during this transition and the Vice President said he had no involvement. Why did he have an email during transition process if that was the case . Certainly there are still questions that the white house has to answer about mike flynns jr. s involvement. And thats something prosecutors will be looking at as well. The other piece to this, the other Flynn Development was from capitol hill. They have evidence that he flynn senior had a plan to build Nuclear Reactors in the middle east. They say he broke the law, handing over evidence. Flynn admitting on his third Financial Disclosure form that he says he did get paid 5,000 on that project. The report paints a picture of a secretive official on the take. And do i think this raises questions that extend beyond 2016, beyond november and into these two men. Father and son. The way they work the government. Absolutely. What we know now from mike flynns disclosure statements baltimore he was paid around 1. 8 million. And this is one deal were learning about. It was a scheme the build Nuclear Power plants in the middle east with some russian involvement. Here was mike flynn making thought money from private entities up to and including the transition. Then he becomes National Security adviser. You have to believe hes asking dirgts influence the money . He was paid more than half a million by the government of turkey. Did he take any action to benefit the government of turkey . And as a prosecutor, we talked about intent and motive. It is fascinating to see someone operating at such a high level. Taking these relatively small deals by had a they can get. You dont need sell access to get 25,000. We know from the public reporting, a general could do a couple speeches or other kinds of work. Does that help or hurt him . The idea that this may have been motivated by money . So i think that hurts him. Prosecutors like to think about investigations. They like to think about it like surfing across the surface of a pond. You see the smooth moving body while underneath, the feet are paddling wildly. I would guess that muellers folks are viewing the 25,000 transactions as the smooth part of the body and theres a lot more beneath the surface here. And is this another way where the white house feels theyve been pulled back into russia . Or have they made piece with that because theyve seen the strategy sometimes being, well, leave it alone. Were doing other work. And other days, them picking fights with jim comey as they did on monday. Well, a major discussion at the white house today has been the president s tax reform package which we have yet to see yet but his team has been working aggressively with legislators, james comey has come up several times this week the white house saying the president was 100 right to fire him. When it comes to Michael Flynn, you have to recall hes not worked at the white house since february when he was let go by the president. But that wasnt for failing to disclose this business that he had with these foreign governments. To the government. That was because he reportedly lied to the Vice President about whether or not he discussed sanctions with the russian government. Which is also something that is being looked at. So you have to keep that in mind as you think of Michael Flynn in the white houses involvement. The white house has blamed thor Obama Administration for not vetting flynn better even though it clearly didnt vet him too well during transition. In a sea of bizarre talking points, that might be the most bizarre. Because it was leaked out at the time before flynn was ever recommendory minded or fired that barack obama tried to warn President Trump, you know, basically saying, this is not someone you want to have in this high a post. Of course he did. And by the time Michael Flynn was appointed National Security adviser, everyone knew what had happened and how James Clapper pushed flynn out early basically over an issue of management chaos. The idea that first of all, it is extraordinary that a man became the National Security adviser after essentially earning more than 1 million in part from foreign governments or lobbying on behalf of foreign governments. We havent seen that before and it really raises a lot of questions about what vetting there was. So finally to you on the subject we have here. Paul manafort, Michael Flynn sr. , and Michael Flynn jr. , are the confirmed subjects. And then the people under some sort of scrutiny, President Trump for the discussion around whether there was obstruction or interference as well as any role he might have played in his campaign. Donald trump jr. , jared kushner, and carter page. So all told, that is seven plus. What are we to make of that in terms of your understanding of how mueller is looking at these different people . Mueller is looking from the outside in. Were starting to see him talk with people who worked in the white house with this group of people who are under investigation. He will be thoroughly and carefully examining exactly what happened. I think ken is exactly right, that a lot of this circles around flynns conduct, of course, acting attorney general sally yates took the remarkable step to go to the white house to warn the white House Counsel about potential problems involving flynn. Weve seen increased attacks on the white house on james comey which seems to say that something is coming from the direction of james comey. And weve learned there are two senior fbi officials who mueller is trying to keep from testifying on the hill. Which seems to be an indication that he wants to protect their testimony from public view. That theres something important there. So all told, it looks like he is starting to focus this smaller group. But at the same time being very careful to get all of the details on board and to thoroughly test evidence before he makes any final decisions. Understood and very interesting. Thank you for sharing your scoop with us. Thank you for being here. Up next, another focus of the fbi. These kremlin backed propaganda groups. How are investigators probing flynn seniors ties . And later, ill speak to a former facebook employee about whether the site is putting profits above democracy and letting fake news slide. And Congress Finds a way to be bipartisan. Forcing trumps hand and issuing a morally clear response to charlottesville. Youre watching the beat on msnbc. Cable. Just like some people like. Banging their head on a low ceiling. Drinking spoiled milk. Camping in poison ivy. Getting a paper cut. And having their arm trapped in a vending machine. But for everyone else, theres directv. For 1 rated Customer Satisfaction over cable. Switch to directv. Call 1800directv. And lifes beautiful moments. Ns get between you flonase outperforms the 1 nondrowsy allergy pill. It helps block 6 key inflammatory substances that cause symptoms. Pills block one and 6 is greater than 1. Flonase changes everything. Lock her up thats right. Thats right. Lock her up. General flynn there at the convention. Meanwhile today, nbc news learning that the former trump National Security advisers son, Michael Flynn jr. , is a subject of the probe. He had a key role working with his father in the business and transition team. So that brings us to Michael Flynn sr. Who said he would be willing to testify in the russia probe but only in exchange for criminal immunity. With the flynn family back in the spotlight, it is worth remembering the entire question of whether there was obstruction of justice which revolves around intent was an issue jim comey said involved a request, very unusual torsi unusual, to let flynn go. General flynn at that time was in legal jeopardy. There was an open fbi criminal investigation of his statements in question, the russian contacts. Months later, he was fired for lying about it. The president telling flynn to, quote, stay strong. Whatever that means. Today white house was asked if theyre still in touch. When was the last time he spoke with mike flynn . Im not sure. Im not aware of any conversation thats taken place in quite a long time. That is nbc reporting on the focus of mike flynn jr. And just this week, the former employee of one, the sputnik, was on the beat just last night in his first interview since he spoke with the fbi. Did this new interview you had with the fbi suggest theyre looking at making sputnik potentially register as a Foreign Agent . Absolutely. That was the purpose in the interview. It doesnt stop there. U. S. Intelligence on russian hacking has already named sputnik and rt propaganda outlets. It is the russian outlet that paid mike flynn 35,000 to go to that gala where he infamously sat right next to Vladimir Putin. And flynn denied the russians paid him for going. Were you paid for that amount . You would have to ask my, the folks i went over there. Ill asking you. You would know if you were paid. I went over there. It was a speaking event. It was a speaking event. What difference does that make . Someone says, hes paid by the russians. Donald trump has made a lot of the fact Hillary Clinton has taken money from wall street and sachs. I didnt take money from russia if thats what youre asking me. Who paid you . My Speakers Bureau. Ask them. With me, Political Correspondent for new york magazine, Michael Isikoff who was conducting that interview, and of course the New York Times who has a big new piece digging into these outlets. Was the general lying to you . Well, he used the same sort of formulation that he later used, and not just significantly with me but in his security clearance when asked, what money he took from foreign governments. He said he did not disclose that he took money from russia. He said he took money from u. S. Firms. The Speakers Bureau is a u. S. Firm. But Everybody Knows who works the Speakers Bureau, the money comes from the company or entity that is paying the Speakers Bureau. He knew michael, you know i love you. I love your reporting. I feel like youre taking extra time on say if you put crack money in a laundromat it still comes out as crack money of the. You said it better than i did of the. What do we see adding up . It was clear when i did that interview that he had been paid by russia and received russian money of the by the way, that was the same day as the lock her up speech which you showed at the outset of this. And it was a sleight of hand. He was trying to throw people off. Even then, even then, there was so much attention to russias role here, that same week wikileaks was disclosing the dnc emails. It was clear that the russians were playing a big role, Paul Manaforts connections to russia, pro russia people in the ukraine. All this was an issue at the time and he was trying to deflect from that. The fact he continued to deflect with that, with his security clearance form is one of the issues mueller is looking at and one of the issues he is under investigation. And jim, you are talking directly to putins press secretary who test you, this new reality creates a perfect opportunity for mass disturbances and initiating mass support or disapproval. They feel theyve been effective and theyre bragging about it. One thing to clarify, they feel like you guys started this. The color revolutions, they think the west has been part of upheaval in their part of the world so theyre saying theres an information war. He says this directly. There is an information war and were engaging in it and he thinks theyre doing quite well. And you viewed this in your reporting that was significant. There was a point in time earlier in the campaign when people thought, is this getting hyped . Exaggerated . Now it seems like, no, this is something that russia is very effective at. Now you have an administration that wont even acknowledge that they did it. I was struck when i he left his office. Let me go check the tape. He was very open about it. This is an information war. And he described rt as an army from the opposite side. That there was western media. Heres something from our point of view. Well, army, it is so interesting to hear that word. The entire legal shift is the fbi saying wait a minute. We have been too soft on these groups. They are, if not an earp, an agent of a foreign power and have to be regulated as such and that seems the put more heat on flynn senior because he has this very public link to them. And that nice seat noefl putin of the will. Certainly. Theyre in the White House Briefing room. You spoke to the former correspondent yesterday, and theyre everywhere in washington. It is not very far from the white house. They are very influential and you know, you have Michael Flynns son. He was perpetuating conspiracies like pizza gate during the campaign. This was somebody really doing everything he could to go after the democrats. Even using conspiracy theories being perpetuated by the furthest of far right people. But i think the whole thing now, all the news today, it really proves that trump cannot get away from this. There is a drip, drip of even if he fires somebody, it doesnt really matter when youre talking about a federal investigation. This is going to continue to follow him and continue to be a problem for him. And i think he will be increasingly agitated by it as he tries to get something done legislatively. The question is whether the drip, drip is coming from Donald Trumps water bottle. He is the one who was basically obsessing over the flynn inquiry before the public or other people had any sense really how far it went of the take listen to him with lester holt. This is a different part of that interview that gets a lot of attention. General flynn is a part of this investigation. Sally yates recently fetched the white house