Known as a tough and independent prosecutor, Yates has been a target of Trump's ire since her refusal in January to support his controversial immigration ban on nationals from several Muslim-majority nations - for which he fired her.
The revelations came on the same day that former acting Attorney General Sally Yates testified about the events that led to Flynn's eventual firing.
The House and Senate intelligence committees are conducting their own simultaneous investigations. All the committees are led by Republicans.
In December, before Trump assumed office, Flynn talked to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about potentially lifting US sanctions President Barack Obama had just levied on Russia.
"Ask Sally Yates, under oath, if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to W.H. Counsel", Trump tweeted, referring to Yates' conversation with White House counsel Donald McGahn.
She added: "To state the obvious, you don't want your national security adviser compromised with the Russians". The revelation from Obama advisers appeared to be sparked by Trump's attempts to shift some of the blame for Flynn's troubles to Obama by noting that the previous administration renewed the former military intelligence director's clearance even after he was sacked in 2014.
Yates brought one of her top staffers with her on the afternoon of January 26 to meet with McGahn and one of his top aides inside a secure facility on the White House grounds so they could discuss the FBI's interview of Flynn. Trump acted two weeks later, after The Washington Post published a report about those warnings. He backed Macron after Trump appeared to side with nationalist candidate Marine Le Pen, calling her the strongest candidate on terrorism and borders.
"That created a compromised situation, a situation where the national security adviser essentially could be blackmailed by the Russians". Trump has said repeatedly that the leaks of classified information are far more significant than the connections between Russian officials and the Trump campaign.
France, Germany look to European Union future after Macron win
He said Mr Macron's victory has enabled an "accelerated process" for financiers to relocate their work to Paris . Only the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) would have gained from a president Le Pen in the Élysée.
Republican senators pressed Yates and James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence under Obama, about how classified information was leaked to the media.
"I looked at this, determined it was unlawful and inconsistent with" the Constitution's establishment, equal protection and due process clauses, Yates said of her interpretation of the order.
Yates was an Obama appointee whom Trump asked to stay on as the temporary head of the Justice Department.
Why does it matter to Yates' Justice Department if one White House official lies to another? Flynn stayed at his job for almost three more weeks and was involved in top-level national security policy decisions, even though Trump was fully aware that he was potentially compromised and had not been truthful with senior administration officials.
Trump's press secretary Sean Spicer said in response that if Obama "was seriously concerned" about Flynn's connections to Russian Federation or other foreign countries, he should have withheld Flynn's security clearance. Flynn served under Obama as defense intelligence chief before Obama dismissed him.
Trump has said he has no ties to Russian Federation 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.
The AP interviewed multiple former US officials, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive national security information. Billingslea knew Flynn would be speaking to Kislyak, according to two former Obama administration officials, and seemed concerned Flynn did not fully understand he was dealing with a man rumored to have ties to Russian intelligence agencies. Obama himself told one of his closest advisers that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which by then had been investigating Trump associates' possible ties to Russian Federation for about six months, seemed particularly focused on Flynn.
When asked by subcommittee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) whether he found the dossier to be "credible", Clapper responded, "We didn't make a judgment on that and that's one reason why we did not include it in the body of our intelligence community assessment". During a speech on Sunday night in Boston, he urged members of Congress to have "courage" as Mr Trump presses for the repeal of his signature health care law.
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