A former federal prosecutor explained to MSNBC's "Morning Joe" why special counsel Robert Mueller was holding a "royal flush" against President Donald Trump.
Joyce Vance, the former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, said Mueller appeared to be circling closer and closer to the president and his family, with stronger and stronger evidence.
"When you read the (Michael) Cohen papers that came forward last week, something really stuck out, and that was the fact that they spoke for the first time about the president's children," Vance said.
The president's longtime attorney agreed to cooperate with Mueller last week, and he revealed that Trump and his children were continuously briefed on a Moscow real estate deal during the campaign, and new court documents show disgraced national security adviser Mike Flynn was providing "substantial assistance" to three investigations.
"With all of the detail from Cohen and the other details that we knew was available from other witnesses, for instance, Rick Gates, who certainly is a stand in for (Paul) Manafort, it looks to me like Mueller really is sort of closing the pincers and ready to bring this to a close in a very comprehensive way," Vance said.
Host Joe Scarborough said Flynn was the president's closest ally during the presidential campaign.
"Michael Flynn, as we were told all along, was the person that went with Donald Trump everywhere in the campaign, was around him all the time," Scarborough said. "Staff members complained that he was at meetings he wasn't supposed to be in, and what we heard from staff members was that they would fly Michael Flynn all over the country with Donald Trump because he would calm him down, made him feel a bit more substantial with the general around him, and also would stop him from, quote, saying crazy things."
Co-host Mika Brzezinski said Flynn remained a constant presence around Trump during his 24 days in the White House.
"That carried on into the White House," she said. "When we went to the White House several times, he was literally everywhere, in the doorway, holding papers, kind of lurking, almost. Even like during lunch, he would just meander into the room."
