Ex-acting AG tells senators of alarm over Flynn
Fired attorney general details her warning to White House
Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates told Congress Monday that she bluntly warned the Trump White House in January that new National Security Adviser Michael Flynn “essentially could be blackmailed” by the Russians because he apparently had lied to his bosses about his contacts with Moscow’s ambassador in Washington. Yates was an Obama administration holdover who was fired soon after for other reasons.
WASHINGTON Days before she was fired as acting attorney general, Sally Yates was so troubled that then-national security adviser Michael Flynn misled Vice President Pence about his communication with the Russian ambassador that she warned the White House counsel he was vulnerable to blackmail and could even face criminal charges.
For the first time publicly, Yates recounted before a Senate Judiciary panel the details of a meeting Jan. 26 — and a follow-up session the next day — in which she alerted Don McGahn, the White House counsel, that Flynn had lied to administration officials about his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak before Trump’s inauguration.
“You don’t want a situation where a national security adviser could get blackmailed by the Russians,” Yates told the panel.
Flynn’s contacts with the ambassador, according to officials who have described the communication, involved discussions about sanctions the Obama administration imposed on Russia. Those conversations were secretly monitored by federal authorities, as is most communication involving foreign diplomats.
Pence said Flynn assured him that the subject of sanctions was not raised in the Kislyak conversations.
Citing the classified nature of how the communications were obtained, Yates declined to elaborate on the intercepts or how she
“You don’t want a situation where a national security adviser could get blackmailed by the Russians.” Sally Yates
got her information. She said the anxiety about Flynn’s actions was so great within the Justice Department that members of its national security division were consulted, as were other intelligence officials across the government.
“Compromise was the No. 1 concern,” Yates said, referring to the possibility that Russian officials, aware that Flynn had misled the White House, could blackmail him by threatening to expose his lies and tank his career.
“It was a whole lot more than one White House official lying to another,” Yates said. “It involved the vice president of the United States.”
In their meeting, Yates said, McGahn asked her whether Flynn should be immediately dismissed. Yates said she offered no opinion on Flynn’s service but conveyed the “urgent” nature of her concerns.
Two days before her first meeting with McGahn, Yates said, FBI agents interviewed Flynn about his conversations with Kislyak. After informing McGahn that Flynn had been questioned by law enforcement, Yates said, McGahn asked, “How did he do?”
Yates declined to describe Flynn’s interview with McGahn because it was then part of an active counterintelligence investigation.
Eighteen days later, after Yates’ warnings were made public, Flynn was forced to resign.
His departure ended the shortest tenure of any president’s national security adviser — and stoked further suspicion about the ties between Trump associates and Russian officials.
By then, Yates was already gone. Four days after Yates’ first meeting with the White House counsel, President Trump fired the career federal prosecutor for her actions on a separate matter. A holdover from the Obama administration, Yates had instructed Justice lawyers not to defend Trump’s travel ban.
Some Republicans seized on that decision Monday, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, suggesting that her actions were partisan. Yates defended her directive on the travel ban, saying there were “constitutional concerns” about the language of the president’s executive order and she was “not convinced that it was lawful.”
Trump unleashed a series of pointed tweets before and after the hearing.
“Sally Yates made the fake media extremely unhappy today,” Trump said after the more than three-hour session. “She said nothing but old news!”
Early Monday, Trump fired off two tweets distancing the administration from Flynn while suggesting that Yates may have leaked information about her actions related to the former national security adviser.
“General Flynn was given the highest security clearance by the Obama Administration - but the Fake News seldom likes talking about that,” Trump said. “Ask Sally Yates, under oath, if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to W.H. Council (sic).”
Officials confirmed Monday that President Obama warned Trump not to hire Flynn during their post-election Oval Office meeting in November, because of his ties to Russian officials.
For the past several days, Flynn and former Trump advisers, including Carter Page, Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, have become the subjects of fresh scrutiny about their Russian ties.
The Senate Intelligence Committee, which, along with the House Intelligence Committee, is investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 elections recently asked the advisers to provide information about their activities.
Flynn is under investigation by the Pentagon inspector general for failing to inform Defense Department officials about seeking payments from foreign governments.
Former director of National Intelligence James Clapper appeared at Monday’s Senate hearing with Yates.
The U.S. intelligence community, under Clapper’s leadership, accused Moscow of orchestrating a campaign of cyberattacks to hack Democratic political organizations and release stolen information to undermine confidence in the American presidential election.
“It was a whole lot more than one White House official lying to another. It involved the vice president of the United States.” Sally Yates