The podium set up where he could make remarks ahead of time. You dont have to do them in this ornate staged way, but they do. They want reporters and photoraphers to be there to witness these signingsment and the problem with that system is that sometimes those reporters ask questions even when you dont want them to. And there is now we now have good evidence. Theres one category of question that basically works like freeze tag on this president. You ask him about this one thing, tag, and he freezes. He forgets what hes doing. And the photo op falls apart. He just left the room. Thank you very much. Were you trying to tell the Justice Department to grant immunity to Michael Flynn . Was that your intention, mr. President , sir . Was that your intention, sir . Thank you, guys. Thank you, guys. So he didnt sign it. He did not sign it. The little menu still sitting there on the desk. Mike pence is like he has to go get them, follow the president out. That happened march 31st. The president was doing a photo op to sign two executive orders front of reporters with stakeholders standing nearby, but he got asked about Michael Flynn, and that apparently was in. Forget it, no signing, this thing is over. So mike pence has to go back and get the executive orders off the desk and brings them to the other room where presumably the president signed them later. They do say he signed those eventually, just not what he was supposed to. That was march 31st. Today that same game of freeze tag got played again in the oval office, again at a signing ceremony with an executive orders and little menu and is everything. The less this time he had already signed the things in the menus before somebody said the magic words that froze him like a stone. Do you have any regrets about Michael Flynn. Thank you very much. If you want to turn this president to stone, ask him about mike flynn. And this particular game of freeze tag does not just afflict the president. It is also, i think its the same aflexionor this congressman, congressman devin nunes. As chair of the Intelligence Committee investigating the russian attack on the election last year, the Intelligence Committee under devin nunes held one blockbuster public hearing. And after that first hearing theyd a second one scheduled for the following week, their Second Public hearing was to include public testimony from sally yates, before trump fired her for refusing to defend his muslim ban in the courts. Sally yates was not due to testify before the Intelligence Committee. She was due to testify about Michael Flynn. Everybody turned to stone. There was very intense interest about what sally United States would say about mike flynn because she appears to have had a key role in the process that cull led to him being fired as National Security adviser. But the sequence of events that led up to that firing, particularly with regard to sally yates involvement in it, that sequence of events really is insane. And still totally unexplained, and she is one of the only people who might be able to shed some light on it other than the top people in the white house. In the transition after the election but before the inauguration, we now know that mike flynn had fairly extensive squugsz russian officials including repeated discussions with them about u. S. Sanctions on russia. Russia obviously wants sanctions against them lifted, some of the sarngsz are on them because of the attack on our elections. This is a sensitive thing for mike flynn to be talking to them about. That said, he denied that he was having those conversations at that time. And the white house was distinct on his behalf as well. What i can confirm having spoken to him about it is that those conversations that happened to occur around the time that the United States took action to expel diplomats had nothing whatsoever to do with those sanctions. But that still leafs open the possibility there might have been over conversations about the sanctions i dont believe there were more conversations. I can confirm those elements were not part of that discussion. So theres been one call. I talked to general flynn about this again last night. One call talked about about four subjects. One was the loss of life that occurred in the plane crash that took their military choir. Two was christmas and holiday greetings. Three was to talk about a conference in syria on isis and four was to set up to talk about after the inauguration setting up a call between putin and the president. White house spokesman. That was january 23rd, his first briefing. Two days after the wearing . In, hes saying we talked to flynn about this. He was not talking to them act about sanctions. Definitely nothing about sanctions. That was the 23rd. The next day, the 24th, we now know general flynn was interviewed by the fbi on this matter. He reportedly told the fbi what had by now become the administrations public line on this subject, nope, definitely no discussions with the russians about sanctions, didnt talk to them about that at all. That krs happened on japan 24th. Incidentally it is a crime to lie to the fbi. If general flynn denied he had conversations with russian officials about sanctions what he had in fact had those conversations, that would be a big deal. And he did tell them that he didnt talk to the russians about sanctions. If he tried to sell that to the fub, the fbi would have known at that time that that was not true. Because we know general flynns actual conversations with with the russians were stoudge fbi surveillance. So they know what he was talking to them about. Two days after he had his interview with the fbi where he reportedly lied to them about his contacts with the russians and what he was saying its russians, two days after that, this remarkable decision was made, the apex of the drama scene in the movie where sally yates faced with this information about the National Security adviser and what hes saying, and what she knows has actually happened thankstoto that fbi surveillance, she makes this remarkable decision to go directly to the white house to warn them about their National Security adviser. The acting attorney general warned the Trump White House that the National Security adviser was potentially vulnerable to russian blackmail because he had been lying about his contacts with the russian government, and the Justice Department and the fbi knew about it. They had proof. So she brings that bombshell to the white house. This is flashing red light. National security adviser to the president might be getting black mailed by the russians because hes having contacts with the russians that hes lying about. Has anything like that ever happened before in the history of the american presidency . Not that we know of. Huge deal. How does the white house respond . They do not respond. At least as far as we can tell, no visible response. That flashinged warning comes from theepartment of justice six days after the naurks january 26th. There is no visible response at all on the 26th or the 27th. On the 28th we see flynn in the oval office. Thats him sitting in on the disastrous call where President Trump hung up on the prooirmgs of australia. There he was staring at the back of Donald Trumps head while he held one of his signing photo ops. This was before the mere mention of Michael Flynns name. Three days after that hes there next to jared. Into february, flynn is still there in the White House Briefing room putting iran on notice. Remember that . What did that mean anyway . No response. Theres mike flynn at the National Prayer breakfast. Meanwhile, they fire sally yates. They fire the woman who had come up from the Justice Department to the white house to warn them directly about their National Security adviser and him lying about his ties to a Foreign Government and the prospect that the russians might be black mailing him. They fire her. They keep flynn. They keep him on and on and on and on. Meanwhile, luckily, journalism continues on this subject. On february 8th, Washington Post asks flynn directly if he had discussed sanctions with the russian government. Quote, asked in an interview if he had ever done so, he twice said no. Thats the 8th of february. Then the the next day, he issues a new statement saying, when flynn said no yesterday, what he actually meant was more like he cant remember. Might have done, might not have done. By february 10th that story blowing up in the Washington Post is getting not only serious about flynn but its starting to get seriously weird that the white house hasnt commented on it. What do you make of reports that general flynn had conversations with the russians before you were sworn in. I dont know about it. What report is that . Ill look at that. I havent seen thoochlt president says, i havent seen that. I havent heard anything about this. Flynn . Contacts with the russians about sanctions . Really . Says hes never heard of this before. That was february 10th. The president has been informed about this on january 26th. And the act attorney general came to the white house and told them about this. Theres trump more than two weeks later professing total ignorance . Whats this . Finally the trip from sally yates to the Justice Department back up to the white house with that blistering warning. Theyre final able to report that meeting happened. The whole thing gets so business zarks ultimately Michael Flynn resigns. Whatever you think about Michael Flynn, the behave of the house is very strange. The Vice President lied on tv. The white house spokesman lied in the briefing room. All according to them because of untrue information that was conveyed to them personally by mike flynn. The nature of those lies was such the acting attorney generally thought National Security adviser mighte susceptible to blackmail. Informed of that though, the white house just, eh, sat on it for a few weeks. So you can imagine the questions, right . Sally yates, ms. Iates, thank you for being here. Do we have this story right . Is that really what happened . What can you tell us about what happened . The house Intelligence Committee gets into that. They have this hearing, a blockbuster hearing where james comey admits, yes, there was an ongoing counterintelligence investigation as to whether or not it koorptd in the russian attack on the United States last year. After that bombshell, we are next going to hear fromiates, the next hearing in a few days is going to be the one that has sally yates on it. Shes not going to be talking about the muslim ban, shes going to be talking about Michael Flynn. And so now, freeze tag, now is devin nuness time to be a pillar of salt. The day after the comey hearing, devin nunes apparently decides to pull the rip cord, eject, eject, igd to get out of this thing. Famously he pulls this stunt where he goes to the white house, meets with one of his former staffers whos working there now as well as a Michael Flynn protege who the white house insisted on keeping. He meets with those guys and they provide him with maximizdo maybe. What was clear to everybody at the time was that devin nunes was behaving strangely, that he was explaining things in a way that didnt make sense, that he was clearing trying to create a smoke screen, it was cartoonishly obvious that he was trying to do. First of all, inexmilk blirks despite fact it had no connection to that at all, the first thing is that the sally yates hearing got canceled. Oh, good. That was weeks ago now. Sally yates hearing, canceled. They would still like to talk to her but they have not rescheduled. The other material consequence of that devin nunes stunt is he got kicked off the investigation. When they finally do that sally yates hearing, if they ever do it, devin nunes will not be in the room when she explains what she knows about mike flynn and thousand white house responded when she told them the current sitting National Security adviser is susceptible to blackmail by the russians and lying about his contacts with them. Who would want to be the Trump Transition Committee member republican chairman of an Oversight Committee with the details of the mike flynn and the white house story come out . Would you like to be overseeing the committee at that time . So the name mike flynn has this remarkable effect on people. You want to say president freeze want to point he forgets what hes doing . Ask him a question about mike flynn. You want to say devin nunes freak out and take himself taken off the board . Well, get him closer to the real story about mike flynn. But that Intelligence Committee investigation is not only board on which that game is being played, and that story is next. T 10 hours under fire. You know, everybody was very focused, looking out the window, scanning for car bombs. Being outside of a vehicle was suicide. To say that i wasnt operating at a constant level of fear, id be lyi to yo if i didnt believe in the importance of journalism, i wouldnt be able to continue to do this work. im bryan denton, photojournalist for the new york times. At angies list, we believe im bryan denton, there are certain things you can count on, like what goes down doesnt always come back up. [ toilet flushes ] so when you need a plumber, you can count on us to help you find the right person for the job. Discover all the ways we can help at angies list. Because your home is where our heart is. Ito treat your toughy nasal allergies. Listen up. Unlike pills that dont treat congestion, clarispray covers 100 percent of your nasal allergy symptoms. Clarispray. From the makers of claritin. Heres to breaking more glass ceilings. In golf and everywhere else. Kpmg, continuing our commitment to the next generation of women leaders. Lets[ whimpers ] dog. Find pingpong. Okay, lets go. Find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote. Thats amazing approximate. Taking money from russia is not the same thing as colluding with the russian government in an attack on the United States. Taking money before it russia or from any Foreign Government is something you legally cannot do without specific permission to do it if you are a retired senior military officer of the United States armed forces. On that very specific, almost technical matter, the house Oversight Committee decided it would get itself involved in that, in just that little part of the trump russia investigation. They decided thats it. Theyll take this little piece of the mike flynn part of it, dont want to get too much into this. If you are republican Oversight Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz you want to seem like youre doing something. You like to find a little piece of it that you can bite off and chew and swallow easily so it looked like you had done your part. Turns out this little piece of it ended up up being not that easy to chew and it has not gone down well. They started an exchange of information and requests for documentation with various pentagon agencies about this very specific issue, former National Security adviser mike flynn having taken money from Foreign Governments. From that exchange of letters and asrequests, we know its gog to get bigger. He never asked for permission to take money from russia or money from turkey which he now admits he did after registering are there active retro actively. He did not ask for that permission to take the foreign money. Its just definitely and clearly something he needed to do and that he knew he needed to do. And we have learned that the Defense DepartmentInspector General opened a new investigation into mike flynn on these matters. Poor Jason Chaffetz. But looking into this turned up tough stuff about mike flynn but turned up way bigger political problems for chafrts. Now this guy, this ambitious Committee Chairman who used to love being on television. Created himself as a hard, tough super tenacious oversight guy, now having built up that reputation, now hes having moments like this in his interviews. Do you think Michael Flynn broke the law. It doesnt appear as of he complied with the law. Breaking the law is such harsh language. The law is still there for others to comply with, so its not broken. In addition to what they have turned up about mike flynn, apparently his income from Foreign Governments, the chaffetz committee stumbled onto much, much bigger problem, a particularly big problem if youre a republican congressman doing this oversight. Its about the white house. I will interject for a second to say i believe the white house made a tactical error here in handling this scandal. I dont think they are tactically did you mean and im not sure why they made this error. Maybe ill be proven wrong wrong. But if you study the history of american political scandal, when you