Flynn And Son Under Scrutiny By Special Counsel Mueller
BERMAN: All right. CNN has learned that campaign adviser to then- Candidate Trump and the president's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, is worried about the prospect that his son could be caught up in the Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.</s>HARLOW: Flynn Sr. has been under federal investigation even before Robert Mueller became the special counsel. Flynn Jr. has played a key role in the family's consulting business. Our Michelle Kosinski has the details. What can you tell us?</s>MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN SENIOR DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT: More complexity in this. CNN is told by multiple sources familiar with this that Flynn himself has expressed concern about the potential legal exposure of his son, Michael Flynn Jr., who like his father is under scrutiny by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. So, Flynn's concern could factor into his decisions about how to respond to Mueller's ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign and the business dealings of key Trump campaign advisers.</s>HARLOW: What legal questions do you think the special counsel is focusing on regarding Michael Flynn?</s>KOSINSKI: This is coming from two witnesses who themselves were interviewed by Special Counsel investigators and they told CNN's Jim Sciutto the questions regarding Flynn focused on his and his son's business dealings, including their firms reporting of income from work overseas. So, we've hearing a lot lately about FARA, the Foreign Agents Registration Act. That requires people who are acting as agents for foreign entities to publicly disclose their relationships with those entities and financial compensation that they get for that kind of work. So, Flynn Jr. who serves as his father's chief of staff and top aide was actively involved in his father's consulting and lobbying work at their firm, Flynn Intel Group, and that included joining his father on some overseas trips including Moscow in December 2015, that was the time when Flynn dined with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, at a black-tie gala for the Russia Today television network. Flynn Sr. is also under legal scrutiny remember by Mueller's team for his undisclosed lobbying during the campaign on behalf of the Turkish government. Flynn's alleged participation and discussions about this idea of forcibly removing the Turkish cleric who has been living in exile in Pennsylvania, according to sources. So, in the past a spokesman for Flynn denied such discussions ever happened.</s>HARLOW: So, then what is next? I mean, what happens next in this investigation?</s>KOSINSKI: Well, Flynn's business dealings have been the subject of federal investigation since November, that was prior to Mueller's appointment in March. It's not clear that either of the Flynns will face charges once the investigation is over. Flynn's attorney did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Flynn Jr.'s lawyer declined comment, although, Flynn Jr. tweeted this past Sunday, quote, "The disappointment on your faces when I don't go to jail will be worth all your harassments."</s>BERMAN: Smart legal strategy, we will get to that in a moment. Michelle Kosinski, thanks so much. With us now, CNN legal analyst, Michael Zeldin. Michael, thanks so much for being with us. So, what is the special counsel doing here if this reporting rings through, using Michael Flynn Jr. as leverage. Why would that be an effective tool?</s>MICHAEL ZELDIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, so back up one second and then I will go forward with that. It seems to me that Flynn probably should look to the Manafort indictment as a template for what Mueller is looking at with respect to him and his business and his son. They all seemed to have similar patterns of receipt of moneys overseas, foreign bank accounts unreported, taxes unreported, failure to register as a foreign agent, and in Michael Flynn's case perhaps misstatements on his SF-86, that's the financial disclosure form that Manafort did not have because Manafort didn't join the government. So that's the backdrop of it. Flynn Jr. is part of that conglomerate of Flynn Intel Group and so they are going to look at both of these guys as potential criminal actors in that investigation. The problem, of course, for General Flynn is that it's his son and so every parent wants to protect their children and therefore, they have pressure on them to decide what to do in order to protect their son, and that might mean cooperating. Normally, we see this in the context of spouses, the husband protecting the wife and doing the jail time or the guilty plea to protect her. Here it's a father and son, but it's very typical of prosecutors to try to leverage who they really want, which is General Flynn, by working through his son.</s>HARLOW: What do you make of the son's tweet, of Michael Flynn Jr.'s tweet, you know, just within the last week, saying the disappointment on your faces when I don't go to jail with be worth all your harassment. Your his lawyer, you are looking at this and you're thinking what?</s>ZELDIN: I'm thinking really and how did you not tell me that you were thinking about doing that? This notion that he is going to try to poke the eye of the Mueller team by taunting them is just so ill considered. You just can't figure out what could possibly be behind the thinking of such a tweet. There it stands. I don't think it will really make a difference to Mueller. Mueller will not look at his tweet and say we are definitely indicting him now. That doesn't matter. As a PR matter it doesn't show contrition or recognition of a mistake.</s>BERMAN: You think General Flynn, if he's not cooperating, he will be soon. Why?</s>ZELDIN: Because his son is exposed. I just don't think that he can sort of withstand the pressure in the family of being silent if he has something to say and having the consequence of that be potentially his son gets indicted and if convicted goes to jail. It's not human nature to me. You think about it in our own lives, just day-to-day lives, you want to do what you can to protect your kids. If Flynn has a story to tell and Mueller can't get that information other than through Flynn, there is a lot of pressure on Flynn to cooperate.</s>BERMAN: It was Michael Flynn's lawyer, by the way, who said he has a story to tell.</s>HARLOW: Those words exactly.</s>ZELDIN: That's right. But so far Flynn has not been very cooperative in the public domain, at least.</s>HARLOW: We have to leave it there. Michael Zeldin, we appreciate your expertise. Thank you. So, a big question for incumbent Republicans after a blue wave, a wave they didn't like on Tuesday, embrace President Trump or distance yourself? We are going to ask one New Jersey congressman what he plans to do.</s>BERMAN: And we are just moments away from the opening bell. Alison Kosik joins us for the preview.</s>ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Another sign that the retail apocalypse continuous. We got that new sign from Macy's reporting its latest earnings and they are not looking good. Revenue down. Sales down. You are looking at the stock there, a year to date. Shares of Macy's are down more than 50 percent just this year, and this is coming as we are seeing a resurgence of Walmart. We are seeing Amazon continue to dominate the world when it comes to the retail space. As far as stocks go, we are seeing that negative sentiment about retail weighing on stocks over all. Expect the Dow to start the day deeply in the red, down at least 100 points.</s>HARLOW: Alison, thank you. We appreciate it. A quick break and we will be right back.