Trump was warned
Former acting attorney general told White House about concerns over Flynn
WASHINGTON — Former acting U.S. attorney general Sally Yates, speaking publicly for the first time about concerns she brought to the Trump White House on Russia, told Congress on Monday she warned that then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn “essentially could be blackmailed” because he apparently had lied to his bosses about his contacts with the Russian ambassador.
The statements from Yates offered by far the most detailed account of the chain of events that led to Flynn’s ouster from government in the first weeks of the Trump administration.
Yates, appearing before a Senate panel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, described discussions with White House Counsel Don McGahn in late January in which she warned that Flynn apparently had misled the administration about his communications with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador.
White House officials had insisted that Flynn had not discussed U.S.imposed sanctions with Kislyak during the presidential transition period, but asked Flynn to resign after news reports indicated he had misled them about the nature of the calls.
“We felt like it was critical that we get this information to the White House, in part because the vicepresident (Mike Pence) was making false statements to the public and because we believed that Gen. Flynn was possibly compromised,” Yates said. “We knew that was not a good situation, which is why we wanted to let the White House know about it.”
The Jan. 26 conversation took place two days after the FBI interviewed Flynn about those contacts. McGahn asked Yates how Flynn did in the interview, but Yates said she could not answer.
She was fired four days later by the Trump administration. James Clapper, director of national intelligence under former president Barack Obama, testified as well. He retired when Donald Trump took office.
The hearing came hours after former Obama administration officials revealed that Obama had warned Trump against hiring Flynn as national security adviser during an Oval Office meeting after the 2016 election.
Word that Obama directly warned Trump suggests that concern over Flynn’s possible appointment spread to the highest level of government months before Flynn’s departure. The Obama-Trump discussion was first reported Monday by NBC-TV.
Flynn’s forced February resignation followed media reports that he had discussed U.S.-imposed sanctions on Russia with Kislyak, which was contrary to the public representations of the Trump White House.
Trump moved to distance himself from his former adviser’s troubles Monday, tweeting that it was the Obama administration that gave Flynn “the highest security clearance” when he worked at the Pentagon. Trump made no mention of the fact that Flynn had been fired by the Obama administration in 2014. In a second tweet, Trump said Yates should be asked under oath “if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers” soon after she raised concerns about Flynn with McGahn.
She said Monday she did not — and that she had revealed no classified information herself.
Trump has said he has no ties to Russia and isn’t aware of any involvement by his aides in Moscow’s interference in the election. He has dismissed FBI and congressional investigations into his campaign’s possible ties to the election meddling as a “hoax” driven by Democrats bitter over losing the White House.