They met that afternoon at the White House, and Yates, accompanied by the top career official in the Justice Department's national security division, dropped a bomb: President Trump's national security adviser, Michael Flynn, had lied to Vice President Pence about Flynn's contacts with Russian Federation. The longtime prosecutor had kept a low profile until her brief tenure as acting attorney general, when she instructed government lawyers not to defend the president's first executive order on immigration temporarily barring entry to the United States for citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries and refugees.
Trump said in a press conference three days after Flynn resigned, however, that when he looked at the information provided to him about Flynn's conversations with Kislyak, "I said, 'I don't think he did anything wrong".
Trump took to Twitter in March to accuse Obama of having wiretapped him at his NY skyscraper during the campaign.
Hackers broke into the computer network of the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 campaign, which US officials and cybersecurity experts have publicly tied to Russian intelligence services.
This defense came amid multiple questions over why there was an 18-day gap between the time Yates first notified the White House Counsel that Flynn could have been compromised over conflicting summaries of his conversations with Russian Ambassador to the U.S Sergey Kislyak.
During that time, Flynn was the most senior national security official in the West Wing, privy to every intelligence and foreign policy decision and secret, all the while, at risk of being blackmailed by Moscow, according to Yates. His aides are engaging in real-time political combat with Trump, including revealing Monday that Obama personally warned his successor against tapping embattled Michael Flynn as his national security adviser.
"The Russians also knew about what Gen. Flynn had done, and the Russians also knew that Gen. Flynn had misled the vice president and others", Yates said. Moscow has denied any such meddling.
Strikingly, Yates warned that not only was Flynn not telling the truth about the calls, the Russians knew and could probably prove he was lying - therefore opening him up to blackmail.
Yates was a holdover from the administration of President Barack Obama.
Billionaire Moshiri to spearhead Everton’s Italian job
Indeed, it is only by virtue of Falcinelli’s prowess in the final third that Crotone still remains in contention to survive. In Romelu Lukaku, Koeman has a player with the capability of firing Everton to far headier heights than seventh place.
Rather, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and press secretary Sean Spicer dismissed the warning as a mere "heads-up". It "shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, given that General Flynn had worked for President Obama, was an outspoken critic of President Obama's shortcomings", Spicer said.
Trump did not, however, pay heed to Obama's counsel on Flynn, bringing aboard the former military intelligence officer who supported Trump during his campaign as his NSA.
The subcommittee meeting Monday is one of three congressional probes into the Russian Federation interference, along with House and Senate intelligence panels.
"Sally Yates made fake news media extremely unhappy today - she said nothing but old news!"
After the hearing Monday, Trump tweeted: "The Russia-Trump collusion story is a total hoax, when will this taxpayer funded charade end?"
Trump had also used Twitter before the hearing to insinuate that Yates had leaked information on Flynn to the media.
"Just because someone comes in and gives you a heads up on something doesn't mean you immediately jump the gun and go take action". James Clapper, director of national intelligence under Obama, also testified Monday.
Yates said she did not know what McGahn did with her warning.
"Remember, the bottom line with the Russian Federation stuff is the question of collusion during the campaign", a White House official said.
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