Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates is set to be called to the stand today before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee investigating former NSA Secretary Michael Flynn.
While the White House has continued to defend Flynn and argued that it is the Obama administration’s fault that he was hired despite his clear conflicts and crimes, Yates is expected to refute that argument strongly.
Yates is expected to give her side of the story regarding claims that she warned the Trump administration about Flynn’s ties long before he was ousted from the administration. When the claim was first reported, the White House denied having explicit knowledge from Yates.
Yates will argue that she strongly warned the administration as many as three weeks before Flynn’s scandal emerged.
According to a CNN report, Yates maintains that she gave a “forceful” warning to the Trump administration regarding Flynn. A warning that they ignored.
Flynn was first outed for his close kinship with Russia and his inappropriate communication with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. While Trump repeatedly defended his NSA director, as pressure mounted, he was forced to fire Flynn.
Even now, after Flynn has brought continued scandal onto the already scandal-riddled White House, Trump refuses to cast him aside. Instead, the president has repeatedly defended Flynn and argued that he was let go for lying to Vice President Pence, rather than for fraternizing with Russian officials.
Yates was asked to resign by the Trump administration after refusing to enforce a travel ban in January. She didn’t back down to the administration then, and there seems to be no indication that she will tread lightly during her testimony today either.
