Testimonies of two key former officials before a Senate committee that is investigating alleged Russian interference in the U.S presidential election last year brought the issue into sharp focus again even as President Donald Trump termed the ongoing inquiry a “taxpayer funded charade”. The Senate Judiciary Committee is also probing potential links between Russian agents and people linked to the President’s campaign.
Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates - an Obama appointee who was sacked by Mr. Trump after she refused to defend an executive order that barred travel from several Muslim majority countries - told the committee that she had warned the White House that former National Security Advisor (NSA) Michael Flynn may have been compromised by Russia. “To state the obvious, you don’t want your national security adviser compromised by the Russians,” Ms. Yates said, recalling that she made the point emphatically to Trump White House officials in meetings on January 26 and 27. Mr. Flynn resigned as NSA on February 13.
Before assuming office, Mr. Flynn discussed with the Russian ambassador to the U.S the possibility of relaxing U.S sanctions, according to leaked media reports of intelligence intercepts, but there is no official version of what transpired in those conversations. Ms. Yates refused to discuss the details, citing confidentiality reasons, and stuck to the formulation that Mr. Flynn’s “underlying conduct” made him susceptible to Russian blackmail. She told the committee that she sought to meet with White House officials as “a matter of some urgency” after seeing the intelligence intercepts. “This was a problem because not only do we believe that the Russians knew this, but that they likely had proof of this information - and that created a compromise situation, where the national security adviser essentially could be blackmailed by the Russians,” she said.
While Democrats in the Senate Committee and critics of Mr. Trump sought to focus on the delay by the White House in sacking Mr. Flynn, Republicans and the President himself wanted to press on issues related to the leaking of classified information. Republican members pointedly asked Ms. Yates and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who testified with her, whether they leaked the information to the media. “Biggest story today between Clapper & Yates is on surveillance. Why doesn't the media report on this?” the President said in a tweet. “The Russia-Trump collusion story is a total hoax, when will this taxpayer funded charade end.” “Sally Yates made the fake media extremely unhappy today --- she said nothing but old news!” he said in other tweets.
The Senate committee’s investigation cannot not be wrapped up before the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s ongoing probe into alleged collusion between Trump campaign and Russia is completed. There is no timeline for either investigation, and they are likely to extend into the next year, providing fodder for a prolonged battle of nerves between the Trump White House and its opponents.
