[John King, Cnn Anchor:] More insights as people come out of the courtroom we'll learn more information. Stay with us as that will come to you as Brianna Keilar starts right now. Have a great afternoon.
[Brianna Keilar, Cnn Anchor:] I'm Brianna Keilar, live from CNN's Washington headquarters. And we begin with breaking news. A surprise twist in the sentencing of fired national security adviser Michael Flynn. Just moments ago the judge in this case, Judge Sullivan, agreeing to delay Flynn's sentencing. Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller's team is asking the court to go easy on Flynn. They've recommended a sentence of little or no jail time. And now Flynn's lawyer has taken the judge up on his offer of a delay in sentencing so that Flynn can continue to cooperate. I want to bring in CNN's senior White House correspondent Pamela Brown, we have our crime and justice reporter Shimon Prokupecz with us as well. They're both outside of the federal courthouse there in Washington. Shimon, explain to this to us. What happened?
[Shimon Prokupecz, Cnn Crime And Justice Reporter:] It's hard to explain, right? It's kind of been a wild morning here. Certainly nothing any of us expected here this morning, that the judge would go ahead and delay this. Clearly the judge kept sending signals to Michael Flynn, to his attorney that it might be a good idea to delay this. He was not happy about a lot of things perhaps. Not entirely clear. He was using words like treason, then accusing Michael Flynn of being of working as a foreign agent while at the White House. Not true. He had to walk that back. The judge, he had to walk back other statements he made. And then, in the end, he kept insisting, look, the judge did to Michael Flynn's attorney, if you think you want to delay this, just let me know. And, eventually, that's what happened. One of the things to keep in mind here is because Michael Flynn is still cooperating in the in a case involving his associates who were just charged yesterday, the judge thought maybe it might be a good idea to wait until that cooperation is over so that his attorneys so that Michael Flynn's attorneys could come in and explain more about that cooperation because it could be favorable to Michael Flynn. And it's clear and it's very clear here that this was not going the way Michael Flynn expected. And perhaps the judge here said, you know what, let me give you a break. Take some more time. Because I think what ultimately would have happened is the judge was ready to sentence him to jail.
[Pamela Brown, Cnn Senior White House Correspondent:] Yes. And I think what you saw there was Michael Flynn's lawyers essentially taking the hint, hearing the judge's strong word that the judge's strong words, I should say, that this was a disgrace, pointing to the flag and saying that you arguably sold your country. Again, the judge sort of walked back some of those comments. But what he made clear in that courtroom is that this case is different from the other defendants who pleaded guilty and were sentenced. He made it clear that, look, you were the former national security adviser. You made these lies to the FBI inside your office in the West Wing. Evan Perez, you were inside that courtroom. Bring us in there and the stunning turn of events.
[Evan Perez, Cnn Senior Justice Correspondent:] Well, you know, I think, in the end, the judge, I think, made an impression with the lawyers and they decided that they'd rather take a chance and wait 90 days. Again, the judge just decided that he would set sentencing for a date in March, giving, as Shimon says, Michael Flynn time to again continue his cooperation. One of the things that Flynn's lawyers raised in the court there today was that he might be called to testify in the case of his associate who were just charged in Alexandria, Virginia, yesterday. So, again, this is something that the judge is willing to take into account. And as Shimon points out, it was clear that despite the fact that the prosecutors were recommending no jail time. The defendants the defense was saying, no jail time. The judge was not going along with that and so he was giving them every chance he had to be able to say, you want to delay this? Do you want to delay this, because I can take into account your further cooperation? It was a stunning turn, Pamela, because it was not what we expected. You know, I've been we've been in sentencing over the years and these things are usually, you know, 30 minutes, you know, you go through
[Brown:] Especially when both sides agree. They're on the same page.
[Perez:] Yes.
[Prokupecz:] I also think, and you know this judge because you've covered this judge before
[Perez:] Yes.
[Prokupecz:] Look, I've talked to lawyers who have been before this judge and they all said, this guy's a he's a wildcard. He likes to speak, he likes to say a lot. And clearly he was sending a message in some ways about this investigation, about what's been going on here. And this was the wildcard kind of going in.
[Perez:] Right. It was a it was an interesting way for the wildcard to go, though, because a lot of us were expecting, because this judge takes a dim view of any misconduct by the government, we thought that
[Brown:] Right.
[Perez:] Because the defense had raised the possibility on misconduct on the part of the FBI, that he would take a hard line against the government. Instead, what he did is
[Brown:] That seemed to backfire, right?
[Perez:] Oh, it completely backfired. And right after the recess, one of the first things that Rob Kelner, one of Michael Flynn's lawyers, stood up in court and said, judge, essentially, do not punish Michael Flynn for a filing that his lawyers made. And, again, the judge, as you pointed out, was sort of walking back some of his more harsh critiques of Michael Flynn. But it was clear
[Brown:] There was back peddling sort of on both sides there.
[Perez:] Yes. But it was also, by the way, the judge raised one other thing. Michael Flynn's lawyers sort of offered as a comparison the fact that David Petraeus got a misdemeanor for pleading guilty to sharing classified information with somebody that wasn't authorized to have it. That was a big deal. And the judge sort of raised that and said, I don't agree with that sentence. I think that that he should have gotten more than that, essentially taking a shot at the Justice Department for the way they handled that case. And he also said that essentially Michael Flynn and David Petraeus are not in the same league. So that's that was that was an unsolicited thing for him to say.
[Brown:] That's that's not good news for Michael Flynn's side.
[Prokupecz:] I also think for the special counsel's office, which is priding itself in some ways of getting these cooperators and getting people to cooperate you know, help them out in their cases, this could have potentially been bad for them too
[Perez:] Yes.
[Prokupecz:] Had he been sentenced to jail time because they are asking and there you see Michael Flynn walking out now with protesters outside.
[Brown:] Right. And what's so interesting, as we see him walk outside of this courthouse after a very different outcome. Let's listen in.
[Crowd:] Lock him up. Lock him up. Lock him up. Lock him up.
[Crowd: Usa. Usa. Usa. Usa. Perez:] Yes, you have you have you have both sides there. You have some a sizable group of people who showed up to show support for General Flynn. They have signs saying General Flynn is a hero and so on. And then, of course, there's some counter protesters who are out there saying "lock him up," which, of course, recalls the chat that Michael Flynn shouted on the stage at the Republican National Convention. Look, a lot of us were so surprised by today and certainly did not expect that he was going to end up where he was at the end here today.
[Brown:] He thought he would walk outside of that courthouse today
[Perez:] Yes.
[Brown:] With no jail time and perhaps probation. He is walking out now, after being scolded by the judge, and a delayed sentencing
[Perez:] And the judge essentially raising the prospect that he could have locked him up.
[Brown:] Exactly.
[Perez:] So, again, the chant that made Michael Flynn famous at the time of the Republican National Convention turned against him here today by what the judge said in court. And one of the last things, by the way, at the end of the hearing, the Michael Flynn's lawyers asked to speak privately to the judge before they left. So, clearly, there was some things that they wanted to make sure they reassured the judge, again, that Michael Flynn shouldn't be punished for things that his lawyers did essentially.
[Brown:] And what was so interesting, we were talking about this, that it seemed like Robert Mueller's prosecutor in the room was trying to sort of come to Michael Flynn's defense too
[Prokupecz:] Defend him.
[Brown:] Saying, look, he's been very helpful. He's been cooperating in this case. And when he was asked by the judge whether he should have been charged with treason, he didn't go there.
[Perez:] No, he didn't.
[Brown:] I mean it is clear that was not under consideration.
[Perez:] And, right. And after the recess he clarified even further and said, look, he met with us 19 times and never once did we contemplate that he as guilty of anything treasonous. So, again, they were very, very careful and, as you said, supportive of General Flynn because I think they realized what a what a bad position he had suddenly found himself in and essentially tried to give him a little bit of a rescue in front of this judge.
[Brown:] And
[Prokupecz:] This judge was trying to rescue him, right?
[Perez:] Yes.
[Prokupecz:] I mean how many times was he like, do you want to delay this?
[Perez:] Yes.
[Prokupecz:] Should we do this another time? Do you want to postpone this?
[Brown:] Do you want to withdraw your guilty plea?
[Prokupecz:] To his attorneys, do you want to
[Perez:] Yes.
[Prokupecz:] So I found that so surprising and just continuously how the judge kept coming at the defense team and Michael Flynn, are you sure you want to do this today? And after the break, it's clear the attorneys finally said, you know what, you know, we're about to
[Brown:] If we don't delay it
[Prokupecz:] Yes.
[Brown:] We could get jail time. So here you have a situation, Brianna Keilar, where Michael Flynn, the national security adviser, the former adviser to President Trump, walked into that courthouse today likely thinking he was going to get no jail time from the judge, then walking out after a very different sentencing proceeding than he expected, than likely Robert Mueller's team expected. Now the sentencing is delayed and we'll have to wait and see what happens, Brianna.
[Keilar:] Yes. I imagine he walked in there today thinking soon this will all be over and here it is still hanging over his head.
[Brown:] Yes.
[Keilar:] And we'll be seeing what he'll be doing in terms of cooperating. Evan Perez, Shimon Prokupecz, Pamela Brown, thank you so much. I want to bring in some of our legal and political minds here to help us break all of this down. And we're going to need some help here. Kara Scannell, CNN reporter, we have CNN political director David Chalian, Kim Wehle is a former associate independent counsel in the Whitewater investigation, Michael Zeldin with us, he's a CNN legal analyst, he was Robert Mueller's special assistant at the Department of Justice, and joining us from New Haven, Connecticut, CNN legal and national security analyst Asha Rangappa. So, Asha, when you look at this, the judge admonishing Michael Flynn, saying that he had sold out his country, taking a recess, coming back, back peddling a little bit on that, but making it clear that he was not perhaps going to be as friendly to Michael Flynn as the Mueller team had asked for or suggested. What was your reaction to that?
[Asha Rangappa, Cnn Legal And National Security Analyst:] This judge don't play. I mean, look, you don't make those kind of claims in a court document that's alleging serious malfeasance, misconduct by the FBI, that calls into question your plea deal, your plea agreement, and then not expect the judge to, a, question you about it, and then when you back track to get I think understandably upset. I mean, you know, this was his chance, if he wanted to change his plea, to do it. He did it, which means he wasn't making those assertions in good faith. And I think what you saw here was the judge then accepting the plea you know, the guilty plea and saying, you sold out your country and that this is a very serious crime. And I think that that, beyond Michael Flynn, should worry everyone else who was in the crosshairs of this investigation.
[Keilar:] And I wonder, Michael Zeldin, we heard Evan reporting there, we heard Shimon reporting, this is a judge who has, as Shimon put it, a I think a dim view of misconduct by the government, which might explain why Michael Flynn's lawyers had put in that pleading, essentially, oh, well, Michael Flynn was caught off guard by the FBI, something that ended up backfiring on him.
[Michael Zeldin, Cnn Legal Analyst:] Absolutely. It was a mistake as it turned out. They said, we accept what Mueller has to say, that is no jail time, but we want to bring some additional facts to your attention, which spoke to this government misconduct in the interview. So part one of the sentencing hearing was the judge saying to Flynn, are you wanting to remove this guilty plea and contest the hearing? They said, no, no, no, no, no. Then they said, fine, now that that's over, let me turn to the seriousness of the offense. And I, Judge Sullivan, believe this was a very, very serious offense. That's when he went off on his treason and stuff. That's when Flynn's lawyers determined, this judge may put him my client in jail.
[Keilar:] Can I can I ask can I ask you, though, Kim, I wonder what you think about this, the fact that actually the judge said some things that were not factually accurate and how concerning that is that he said, you were an unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the national security adviser to the president of the United States. Factually, that doesn't that's not exactly right. He was an unregistered foreign agent under under the the designation of the law at a certain point. But he ended up having to backpedal. How odd is that for a judge?
[Kim Wehle, Former Assistant U.s. Attorney:] Well, I mean, he judge has law clerks that prepare bench memos. There's a lot of paper they need to read. My guess is this judge realized this was his moment or the moment of the federal judiciary to weigh in, in a meaningful way, on this entire situation, what's going on politically around the Mueller investigation. That is, federal judges have life tenure. They're not political. And so I think
[Keilar:] But is it is it which and maybe it's understandable in the case of this judge, but when he does it this way, what does that say about the legal proceedings in this circumstance and the faith that people may have in the system?
[Wehle:] Well, we're seeing a number of mistakes. We saw mistakes on behalf of the Mr. Flynn's lawyers. That was a mistake. What I don't know I'd have to think it through whether the whether while he was national security adviser versus before when he was lobbying on behalf of Turkey is a meaningful legal distinction.
[Keilar:] Yes.
[Wehle:] I think with respect to treason, the Supreme Court has held treason is not a crime unless it's we're in wartime. We are not in wartime. But there are treason-like criminal statutes that I don't think is completely beyond the pale that the judge would be drawing that connection.
[Keilar:] And perhaps the judge sees, hey, you were unregister at this point and then you go on to be the national security adviser. It's not appropriate.
[Wehle:] Yes, and
[Keilar:] I need I need to get in a quick break. In what is really a it's almost reality television in a way from all of this drama happening at the courthouse to Michael Flynn's car peeling away from the courthouse. We are standing by to hear from the White House. Sarah Sanders is set up to brief reporters any minute. We're going to take you there live.