Report: AG Sally Yates Said Flynn’s Calls Were a Security Risk

Acting Attorney General Sally Yates warned White House officials that incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had been dishonest about the nature of his calls with Russia’s ambassador, The Washington Post reports. Flynn resigned from his post Monday evening amid the controversy. Yates, who was fired from her post in January, just hours after stating that the Department of Justice would not defend President Donald Trump’s travel ban, reportedly told officials before the inauguration that Flynn might be vulnerable to Russian blackmail. James R. Clapper Jr. and John Brennan, President Obama’s directors of national intelligence and the CIA, reportedly shared Yates’s concerns and agreed with her decision to warn the Trump administration, fearing that “Flynn had put himself in a compromising position,” the Post quotes an official as saying. Army officials are also investigating whether Flynn accepted money from the Russian government during a 2015 trip to Moscow, The New York Times reports.

Flynn is accused of discussing U.S. sanctions with Russia’s ambassador during a December phone call, in potential violation of U.S. law. Flynn initially denied the allegations and told Vice President Mike Pence that he and the ambassador had not discussed sanctions. Pence went on to repeat Flynn’s claims to the media. But multiple intelligence officials who reviewed transcripts of the conversation said Flynn explicitly addressed the sanctions during the call.