Joy Behar Elation Hearing Flynn Will Testify Agains Trump
WASHINGTON — Former acting Attorney Full 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 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, an Obama administration holdover, offered by far the most detailed account of the chain of events that led to Flynn'southward 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 Trump White House counsel Don McGahn in late Jan in which she warned that Flynn apparently had misled the administration near 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 menses, just asked Flynn to resign after news reports indicated he had misled them about the nature of the calls.
"We felt like information technology was critical that we become this information to the White Business firm, in part because the vice president was making false statements to the public and because nosotros 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 virtually 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 non respond.
She was fired four days later past the Trump administration. James Clapper, director of national intelligence under President Barack Obama, testified as well. He retired when Trump took office.
The hearing came hours after former Obama administration officials revealed that Obama had warned Trump confronting hiring Flynn every bit national security adviser during an Oval Office meeting after the 2016 election.
The highly predictable hearing — it was Yates' first appearance on Capitol Hill since her firing — before the Senate panel was expected to fill up in basic details in the events that led to Flynn's ouster. Word that Obama directly warned Trump suggests that business organisation over Flynn's possible engagement spread to the highest level of government months before Flynn's departure.
The Obama-Trump word was offset reported Mon by NBC-TV.
Flynn'southward forced February resignation followed media reports that he had discussed US-imposed sanctions on Russian federation with Kislyak, which was contrary to the public representations of the Trump White Business firm.
Earlier Monday, former officials said Obama had raised general concerns about Flynn with Trump and told the incoming president there were better people for the national security post. Trump's White House printing secretary Sean Spicer said in response Monday that if Obama "was seriously concerned" about Flynn's connections to Russia or other foreign countries, he should have withheld Flynn's security clearance. Flynn served under Obama as defense intelligence principal before Obama dismissed him from that post.
Trump moved to distance himself from his one-time 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 fabricated 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 nether adjuration "if she knows how classified data got into the newspapers" soon after she raised concerns nigh 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 ballot. He's dismissed FBI and congressional investigations into his entrada's possible ties to the election meddling equally a "hoax" driven by Democrats biting over losing the White House.
The Associated Press meanwhile reported last calendar week that one sign taken as a warning past Obama administration officials well-nigh Flynn's contacts with Kislyak was a request made past a member of Trump's own transition team to national security officials in the Obama White House for the classified CIA profile of Kislyak. The revelation came after interviews with a host of sometime US officials, near of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity in lodge to hash out sensitive national security information.
Marshall Billingslea, a former Pentagon and NATO official, wanted the data for Flynn, his dominate. Billingslea knew Flynn would be speaking to Kislyak, co-ordinate to 2 old Obama assistants officials, and seemed concerned Flynn did non fully understand he was dealing with a man rumored to have ties to Russian intelligence agencies. When reached by the AP last calendar week, Billingslea refused to comment. Last calendar month, Trump announced his intention to nominate Billingslea to serve equally banana secretarial assistant for terrorist financing at the Treasury Section.
Yates' warning about Flynn in January capped weeks of building concern among height Obama officials, onetime officials told the AP. Obama himself that month told ane of his closest directorate that the FBI, which by and so had been investigating Trump associates' possible ties to Russian federation for nearly six months, seemed specially focused on Flynn.
Yates, a longtime federal prosecutor, was fired January. 30 past Trump afterwards refusing to defend the new administration'south travel ban. She had been scheduled to appear in March before the House Intelligence Committee, but that hearing was canceled.
The subcommittee meeting Monday is one of three congressional probes into the Russian federation interference, along with the House and Senate intelligence panels. All the committees are led by Republicans.
Source: https://nypost.com/2017/05/08/yates-i-warned-white-house-that-flynn-could-be-blackmailed/
0 Response to "Joy Behar Elation Hearing Flynn Will Testify Agains Trump"
Post a Comment