David Corn: Why the Sally Yates Hearing Was Very Bad News for the Trump White House

[Miles Archer]

Last edited Mon May 8, 2017, 06:22 PM - Edit history (1)

Why the Sally Yates Hearing Was Very Bad News for the Trump White House

The president just lost his favorite piece of spin for countering the Russia scandal.

DAVID CORN MAY 8, 2017 5:39 PM



http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/05/sally-yates-clapper-russia-trump-hearing-michael-flynn

Yates recounted a disturbing tale. She recalled that on January 26, she requested and received a meeting with Don McGahn, Trump's White House counsel. At the time, Vice President Mike Pence and other White House officials were saying that ret. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump's national security adviser, had not spoken the month before with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, about the sanctions then-President Barack Obama had imposed on the Russians as punishment for Moscow's meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign. Yates' Justice Department had evidence—presumably intercepts of Flynn's communications with Kislyak—that showed this assertion was flat-out false.

At that meeting, Yates shared two pressing concerns with McGahn: that Flynn had lied to the vice president and that Flynn could now be blackmailed by the Russians because they knew he had lied about his conversations with Kislyak. As Yates told the members of the Senate subcommittee on crime and terrorism, "To state the obvious: you don't want your national security adviser compromised by the Russians." She and McGahn also discussed whether Flynn had violated any laws.

The next day, McGahn asked Yates to return to the White House, and they had another discussion. According to Yates, McGahn asked whether it would interfere with the FBI's ongoing investigation of Flynn if the White House took action regarding this matter. No, Yates said she told him. The FBI had already interviewed Flynn. And Yates explained to the senators that she had assumed that the White House would not sit on the information she presented McGahn and do nothing.

But that's what the White House did. McGahn in that second meeting did ask if the White House could review the evidence the Justice Department had. She agreed to make it available. (Yates testified that she did not know whether this material was ever reviewed by the White House. She was fired at that point because she would not support Trump's Muslim travel ban.) Whether McGahn examined that evidence about Flynn, the White House did not take action against him. It stood by Flynn. He remained in the job, hiring staff for the National Security Council and participating in key policy decision-making.

[MagickMuffin]

1. Truth has a way of coming out

It can take a while sometimes, however, it is never hidden completely!!!

[L. Coyote]

39. Truth is Flynn was taking orders from Trump/Pence and they are all still lying.

Flynn was the fall guy and they say he lied to Pence, thereby keeping Flynn at arm's length from Trump even.
The "I barely knew the guy, wouldn't recognize him in the room" defense.
So, we can believe Flynn was acting on his own, making deals with Putin, or we can believe Pence was acting on his own, having Flynn make deals with the Russians, or we can believe that Trump is the guy making decisions. Take your pick.
What wasn't mentioned today at the hearing is that Yuuuge elephant in the room, that it is unlikely anyone other than Trump was behind all this dealing with Russia before he was President.

[PJMcK]

52. Like the Kennedy assassination?

Actually, I agree with you, MagickMuffin. There is too much mass in the world of Trump. With all of the investigations and public questioning, Trump's cocoon could be in for some trouble.

Isn't it strange, though, that some secrets just seem to fade away?...

[MagickMuffin]

53. When TPTB make things go away before there is time to view evidence

and investigate the crime/s then we are left with nothing but pure speculation.

JFK and most recently the 9-11 terrorist attack. Everything is destroyed before any evidence can explain what happened. Out of sight, out of mind.

Hopefully the trump'd/putin investigation can be fully explored before the cleansing begins!!!

[CousinIT]

2. LINK:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/05/sally-yates-clapper-russia-trump-hearing-michael-flynn

[Miles Archer]

7. Thank you...looks like I forgot

Just added it to the OP.

[Kentonio]

3. Surely McGahn needs to be called next?

[kentuck]

11. Soon.

I would agree.

And Spicer. They need to be a little nervous about their complicity.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

38. Does it depend on Graham? The Republicans are circling the wagons like never before.

The whole party has an agenda that isn't in America's best interest.

[lindysalsagal]

4. Can't WAIT to see what hay Rachel can make out of this.

As she says: You pull on the threads one at a time, and then stuff unravels....

[Achilleaze]

5. Every person Flynn hired should be fired

Hell, they should have been fired long ago. But republicans obviously don't give a shit about defending America. They only want to defend their own freaking degerate KGOPee.

Disgusting.

[iluvtennis]

24. +++ agree

[enid602]

34. Purge

Ronin Townely and Adam Lovinger have recently been stripped of their security clearance for this very reason.

[ekelly]

37. "Underlying conduct"....

I'm wondering if the "underlying conduct" that Yates spoke of is that Flynn was hiring/attempting to hire Russian agents, due to already being under the influence of blackmail. Such conduct would certainly rise to the level of concern she articulated during her testimony.

Does anyone here know if any of Flynn's hires have been subsequently fired, or are under investigation?

[mopinko]

48. i thought she was talking about money laundering.

which, i think, is the reason the fbi was already on these guys from the get go. they already had a thick file on felix sater, manafort, many more.
and cheato.

[oasis]

6. Yup, and Wolf's CNN panel w/ Gloria Borger, counter terrorism expert,

Philip Mudd are refuting what has been the Trump/Spicer spin on the issue.

Spicer will have to burn the midnight oil tonight in order cook up a reasonable statement for the WH press corp tomorrow.

[Cha]

9. Mahalo for that from tv, oasis

[MedusaX]

8. Yates just added the necessary nails to the "plausible deniability" coffin lid

For all intents and purposes, no one has Flynn related plausible deniability at this point...


Quite likely that there will be a widespread catch & release of the lowest fish involved...
left to swim about while nursing a small hook related injury....

Others may be released at some point.. many forced to live with the burden of a permanent hook.

But at some point
the prime catch of the expedition
Will finally surface ...
no longer protected by the immunity of the oval waters.....
he will be caught...
and will spend the rest of his days
All by himself
in a tiny little fishbowl ...


Wonder if he will ultimately be mounted or flushed?

[FakeNoose]

31. I'm still wondering

Why didn't they call Sally Yates to testify first - like 2 months ago.

It would have saved so much time and it would have cut to the chase.

So much BS, so much time wasted. Cheeto 45 would be GONE already!

[nikibatts]

10. Trump should be impeached for ignoring the warning from Obama and Yates. Period!

He risked our national security more than any e-mail from Hillary Clinton.

[iluvtennis]

25. That's truth! But Dumpty/Spicer/Preibus will continue with the spin that Obama didn't vet Flynn GAH

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. "Imagine what Republicans would say"

The conclusion from Yates' testimony was clear: Trump didn't dump Flynn until the Kislyak matter became a public scandal and embarrassment. {...} Imagine what Republicans would say if a President Hillary Clinton retained as national security adviser a person who could be blackmailed by Moscow.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

13. Favorite Piece of Spin: Destroyed one of their favorite talking points.

The subcommittee's hearing was also inconvenient for Trump and his supporters on another key topic: it destroyed one of their favorite talking points.

On March 5, Clapper was interviewed by NBC News' Chuck Todd on Meet the Press and asked if there was any evidence of collusion between members of the Trump campaign and the Russians. "Not to my knowledge," Clapper replied. Since then, Trump and his champions have cited Clapper to say there is no there there with the Russia story. Trump on March 20 tweeted, "James Clapper and others stated that there is no evidence Potus colluded with Russia. The story is FAKE NEWS and everyone knows it!" White House press secretary Sean Spicer has repeatedly deployed this Clapper statement to insist there was no collusion.

At Monday's hearing, Clapper pulled this rug out from under the White House and its comrades.

(emphasis added)

[Mr. Ected]

14. Then I fully expect Trump to continue to quote the March 20th Clapper statement

And conveniently ignore the latest one.

Words don't mean anything to Trump. Neither does truth. When the walls are closing in on you, I suppose that honesty isn't exactly an option anymore.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

36. Words mean everything to tRump

He uses them all. All the best words. The true words, the alt-fact words, the advertising words, the con-artist words. Believe me.

[Perseus]

15. One of the questions is very telling

"Why would the DOJ care that a WH person lied to another WH person?" This is very telling on how the conduct business, lying is part of it. How can they trust one another if they know they are lying to each other?

And the question is, did Flynn REALLY lie to Pence? or did Pence knew and he was lying to the American people?

[George II]

18. I was struck by that, too - and it came up at least twice. It was almost like McGahn...

...was trying to find a valid reason for people lying to each other.

[iluvtennis]

26. Yep, unbelievable. Lis, lies, and more lies. As the Lies Turn

[SunSeeker]

30. Malcolm Nance just described it as a "Goodfellas response."

He said it was a Cosa Nostra type "What's it to you?" response.

Yup.

[OnDoutside]

44. Reminds me of Cohen's "Sez who?"

[SunSeeker]

45. No kidding. McGahn and Cohen have a lot in common. nt

[OnDoutside]

47. Getting McGahn in front of the committee should be interesting...I'll have popcorn ready for the

Al Franken questions.

[mopinko]

49. or trying to find out what the penalty was.

was his own ass on the line, i think was his point.
like all of them, all about me.

[SunSeeker]

20. It's like a neighbor telling you they saw one of your kids shoplift.

And your reaction is "Why do you care if my kid shoplifts?"

Pretty incriminating response suggesting approval of the conduct, no?

[elias7]

16. Why does everyone assume that he lied to Pence?

I do not think he lied to Pence, I think Pence et al knew all along.

[SunSeeker]

21. Of course they did. nt

[LuckyLib]

56. And because they did know, the WH attorney wants to know why DoJ/Yates is all

worked up about what she sees as some little lying going on?

[George II]

17. What gets me is that this hearing was supposed to have been about Russian interference...

...in the election, and half those scumbags tried to drag in Yates' involvement in the travel ban, which was totally off the subject.

[onetexan]

19. It's an attempt to diffuse their problem by

digressing from it to create a diversion. The same way they said that leaking was the problem when in fact the Russian collusion was the gravest, most treasonous crime.

[SunSeeker]

22. But when they did that crap, man did she slam them with the facts and law.

She made them look like stupid-ass first year law students.

[iluvtennis]

28. Yep, travel ban and leaks. And then one of the gopers tried to shame Susan Rice for not being there

[mnmoderatedem]

54. more than half actually

Kennedy, Cruz, Cornyn and Grassley never asked a freaking question about Flynn and Russia.

And things like this have become so normalized the media is barely noticing.

[George II]

55. That Louisiana senator is a disgrace to the name "John Kennedy".

[Skidmore]

23. Trump wasn't covering for staff byprotecting Flynn.

Even now he's covering for himself and family who have Russan contacts. Jared, Ivanka, his sons...all have trafficked wih Russia.

[TeamPooka]

27. The contempt for all aspects of our government by this regime and it's officials is apparent in

everything they do or say, right from the start.
McGahn/Trump/Pence didn't care about any of this.
Fuck You Acting AG, why should we care about what you say?
Just amazing.

[Sancho]

29. What's the word from Paul Ryan and McTurtle about the hearing....

[GP6971]

32. Nothing yet

and I'm not expecting anything. They're all too involved and complicit.

[sheshe2]

33. Ry'in and McT...crickets.

OT...have always loved your sig. I only just read the caption. Ewww.

[Sancho]

35. We can only hope that the Flynnster is telling all he knows to stay out of jail!

...and takes down the whole House of Cards.

[creeksneakers2]

40. The reason Flynn wasn't fired

was because everything he did was because Trump told him to. Undermine the foreign policy of the United States. Lie about it. All Trump's idea.

[King_Klonopin]

41. Republicans behaving like Republicans

Here's a snippet to refresh our memories:

Bill Clinton/Richard Clark: "Be aware that Bin Laden and al-Qaeda want to attack the World Trade Center."

Bush/Cheney/Rice: "Ya, whatever. We are in charge now."

Sept 11, 2001: Bin Laden and al-Qaeda attack the WTC.

Bush/Cheney/Rice: Sept 12, 2001 "We were never told anything. It was all Clinton's fault!"


Remember, Republicans are NEVER accountable for their mistakes. When something goes wrong,
it's the fault of the Democrats -- no matter what.

[bigbrother05]

42. They tried to blame Clinton for running cocaine out of Mena, AR

Partially financed Iran-Contra by bring coke back on arms flights and used the isolated airfield at Mena. Many linked that operation to the rise of crack cocaine and the GOP have tried to lay it all on Bill because he was Governor at the time.

Given their pedigree, this administration is very likely to do far worse than Ronnie/Poppy did in their heyday.

Flynn probably thinks he'll get the Ollie North treatment, but it's a lot easier to tie a high profile appointee to the Oval Office than a mid level military aide.

[cannabis_flower]

51. They might have

even picked Arkansas instead of, say Texas or Oklahoma because Arkansas had a Democratic governor that they could blame it on.

[Texin]

43. Alright. So it's been brought before open Congress hearings.

I wish I believed that anything of consequence to these bastards would happen, but I simply can't. As others noted, the rethugs are circling the wagons and using every excuse in the book to protect the orange abomination. They will continue to do so until it's unequivocally proven that the voting public has turned away from them and won't vote for them. Until they face consequences at the polls, there won't be anything undertaken to do the right thing, i.e., remove this imposter and Russian kompromat from office.

They are working fast and furiously to cram down the most draconian right agenda throughout the country right now, which includes making it harder and harder for minorities to vote. That is their first and foremost goal - absent their single-minded lemming-like march toward yet more and more massive tax cuts for all their crony capitalist friends and member of the Billionaire Boys Club. That's all they care about; that, and their Depression Era hard-on against the New Deal and the social safety nets implemented thereafter.

The only way that this bastard and his entire Goldman Sachs cabinet and the other useful idiots and cronies helming key cabinet posts is for tRump to do something (or not take important action to prevent) a human or military catastrophe in the very near term. I think we will have to have something like a 2017 version of 911 that is incontrovertibly the fault and responsibility of this so-called POTUS before anything is done to him/them. Failing that, we are going to have to wait - and hope fervently - for the voters to drum them out of office at that time in a mass wave. They've hidden/delayed some provision for the cuts to Medicaid until after the id-terms until 2020. Until then, they can continue to wreak havoc on the very social fabric of this country, packing the SCOTUS (Kennedy is supposedly retiring this summer), gerrymandering, passing state and local legislation that takes us back to the Depression era essentially. I'm not optimistic AT ALL. We've been fucked.

[HughBeaumont]

46. I'm with you.

If nothing happened to Oliver North (treason) or the W administration (war crimes . . . they weren't even inconvenienced with an investigation) . . . I'm convinced nothing's going to happen to Schtroumpf and TupPence because IOKIYAR.

[berksdem]

50. I am right there

with you as well. I fear this man is untouchable and the rethugs will do anything to cover up any information. I am running out of patience and firmly believe this is going nowhere quickly. Do I think he is guilty? Absolutely he is. Do I think he will be impeached? Absolutely not... This guy is the Teflon Don and I fear the only way to get this Con out of office is to vote him out but the damage will have already been done to our democracy.

[ananda]

57. Well, you can't put this worm back in the can anyway!

nt