Witness tells intelligence hearing: We warned White House about Michael Flynn

WASHINGOTN, United States — A fired U.S. federal employee says she tried sounding the alarm with the White House that Donald Trump’s top national security official was vulnerable to being blackmailed by the Russian government.

Her account came on a dramatic day where Russian meddling in U.S. politics returned to centre stage with a public hearing, the president tweeting about it, and the revelation Barack Obama warned Trump in their first meeting not to hire Michael Flynn.

Trump ignored the warning. Now details are surfacing about the events that eventually led the president to dismiss Flynn — the Russia-friendly, anti-Islamist, ex-general who served briefly as Trump’s national security adviser.

Former Justice Department official Sally Yates said she twice delivered a warning to the White House legal counsel that Flynn had been lying about his exchanges with the Russian ambassador, the Russians obviously knew about it, and this made Flynn an easy blackmail target.

She told a congressional hearing Monday that Flynn not only lied about whether he and Russia’s ambassador to Washington had discussed the lifting of sanctions, but then misled the vice-president about it, causing Mike Pence to unwittingly parrot the lie.

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She said this gave Russians prime blackmail material.

”To state the obvious, you don’t want your national security adviser compromised by the Russians,” Yates told the Senate intelligence committee, which is examining Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. ”Logic would tell you you don’t want the national security adviser to be in a position where the Russians have leverage over him. …

”We knew that was not a good situation.”

Yates, a longtime Justice Department official, was briefly the acting attorney general. She was fired over a dispute about Trump’s travel ban on certain Middle Eastern countries. Yates was let go after she refused to endorse the ban, or fight court challenges against it, over doubts about its constitutionality.

She was dismissed immediately.

Flynn’s firing came later. The national security adviser was let go 18 days after Yates first raised her concerns with White House counsel Don McGahn. Flynn was turfed after reports of his dishonesty surfaced in The Washington Post.

Yates was grilled by Republicans about whether she was the media’s secret source. In fact, some Republican senators at the hearing were especially keen on asking her about leaks to the press, and about her behaviour over the travel issue.

Other events unfolded outside the hearing.

The White House acknowledged Trump was urged by his predecessor, Obama, not to hire Flynn. Trump’s spokespeople cast it as a mere personal grudge, given that Obama had fired Flynn as director of defence intelligence over differences about fighting terrorism.

Trump also weighed in, with tweets.

He asked why, if Flynn was so bad, had Obama never revoked his security clearance.

Trump also tweeted at committee members to go after the witness about media leaks. The president tweeted: ”Ask Sally Yates, under oath, if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to (White House) counsel.”

Yates denied leaking classified material to the media.

She did confirm, cryptically, that she had read intelligence-gathering that mentioned either Trump, or associates, or members of Congress, but she said she couldn’t provide details without violating national-security law.

Some Democrats were more liberal with their speculation.

Sen. Al Franken told the hearing: ”Maybe, just maybe, (Trump) didn’t get rid of a guy who lied to the vice-president, who got paid by the Russians (to go on) Russia Today, because there are other people in his administration who met secretly with the Russians and didn’t reveal it… until they were caught.

”That may be why it took him 18 days, until it became public, to get rid of Mike Flynn, who was a danger to this republic.”

Another witness testifying Monday was coy about what he knew, also citing legal concerns.

James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, was asked whether Trump’s business interests in Russia might be a cause for concern. He replied: ”I can’t comment on that because that impacts an investigation.”

He did confirm that foreign intelligence allies had shared concerns with the U.S. about unspecified members of the Trump team: “Yes it is (accurate), and it’s also quite sensitive. The specifics are quite sensitive.”

Clapper urged the committee to keep its eye on what matters — Vladimir Putin’s ongoing effort to influence western elections. He said it was likely attempted in France last weekend, without success, and will likely happen in Germany’s upcoming election.

The Russians use online trolls, email-hacking and financial help for friendly parties to tilt the electoral balance in favour of friendly parties, he said.

”The transcendent issue here is the Russian interference in our election process. What that means to the erosion of the fundamental fabric of our democracy,” Clapper said.

”That to me is a huge deal. And they’re going to continue to do it, and why not? It proved successful (in the U.S.).”

Alexander Panetta, The Canadian Press