AP SOURCE: YATES TO TESTIFY ON WARNING WHITE HOUSE ON FLYNN

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

May 2, 5:25 PM EDT

AP SOURCE: YATES TO TESTIFY ON WARNING WHITE HOUSE ON FLYNN
BY ERIC TUCKER
ASSOCIATED PRESS


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former acting attorney general Sally Yates is expected to testify to Congress next week that she warned the White House that President Donald Trump's national security adviser's contacts with the Russian ambassador could leave him compromised.

That's according to a person who's been briefed on that Jan. 26 conversation about Michael Flynn and who is knowledgeable about Yates's plans for her testimony Monday.

The person says Yates will testify she alerted White House counsel Don McGahn about discrepancies between the administration's statements on Flynn's contact with the ambassador and what really transpired. The White House fired Flynn weeks later after concluding that he had misled them about his conversation.

Yates is to appear before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee. It will be her first public account of her White House conversation.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TRUMP_RUSSIA_CONGRESS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-05-02-17-25-01

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(Short article, no more at link.)

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Look further, I saw in an article about this she cant testify about

secret stuff, so that will be used as an out I bet.

[Ligyron]

2. But it's not a secret anymore.

I mean...

[Hortensis]

6. What "other" involved secrets do we not know? The media

cannot report what is classified. With at least many dozens of entities, pubic and private in various nations, and hundreds of people involved in what we're calling Russiagate, there has to be a lot we have no idea of that the investigatory committees and agencies are working on. And itm investigative journalists are not able to publish what they know.

[JNelson6563]

3. I'm surprised they haven't whacked her yet.

[JudyM]

4. Yep. Hoping she stays safe.

[Hortensis]

7. Now, now. This isn't a trashy novel. Or Russia.

We do still have scarily pervasive investigative journalism here. And the 2016 election notwithstanding, the FBI is usually not involved in criminal activity but in investigating it. You might ask yourself how many political murders have turned up, how many senators, or just small-town mayors, have made the walk of shame in handcuffs, how many trials you've watched.

(And, no, I'm not talking about the kind of sites who reported, for the edification of malicious fools, the dozens of murders Hillary is supposed to have committed. )

[csziggy]

12. How about the dozens of deaths linked to Putin?

Mysterious rash of Russian deaths casts suspicion on Vladimir Putin
Oren Dorell , USA TODAY Published 5:04 a.m. ET May 2, 2017

A former member of the Russian parliament is gunned down in broad daylight in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. A longtime Russian ambassador to the United Nations drops dead at work. A Russian-backed commander in the breakaway Ukrainian province of Donetsk is blown up in an elevator. A Russian media executive is found dead in his Washington, D.C., hotel room.

What do they have in common? They are among 38 prominent Russians who are victims of unsolved murders or suspicious deaths since the beginning of 2014, according to a list compiled by USA TODAY and British journalist Sarah Hurst, who has done research in Russia.

The list contains 10 high-profile critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin, seven diplomats, six associates of Kremlin power brokers who had a falling out — often over corruption — and 13 military or political leaders involved in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, including commanders of Russian-backed separatist forces. Two are possibly connected to a dossier alleging connections between President Trump's campaign staff and Kremlin officials that was produced by a former British spy and shared with the FBI.

Twelve were shot, stabbed or beaten to death. Six were blown up. Ten died allegedly of natural causes. One died of mysterious head injuries, one reportedly slipped and hit his head in a public bath, one was hanged in his jail cell, and one died after drinking coffee. The cause of six deaths was reported as unknown.

More: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/05/02/dozens-russian-deaths-cast-suspicion-vladimir-putin/100480734/

Suspicious Russian deaths: Sacrificial pawns or coincidence?
Dozens of high-profile Russians have died in the past three years in Russia and abroad in suspicious circumstances. Russian President Vladimir Putin has long dealt with opponents harshly. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in March that Putin “has murdered his political opponents and rules like an authoritarian dictator.” Prominent critics of the Russian leader who had been murdered in previous years include journalists, anti-corruption activists and politicians. Most of the recent deaths were people with information that could be damaging to people in the Kremlin, and fall under several categories.
By Sarah Hurst, Oren Dorell & George Petras
May 2, 2017

https://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/suspicious-russian-deaths-sacrificial-pawns-or-coincidence/

The second link is a list of the 38 people who have died, the method of death, and information about each that could explain why their deaths might be convenient for Putin.

[Hortensis]

14. Are you imagining Putin's "rash" is going to break out here?

Hardly impossible given that whack-job (literally), but I really don't think so, CZ. On those few occasions he has ordered murders in other nations, the victims have been SovUn/Russians he considers betrayed him/Russia.

Taking out distinguished Americans in U.S. government service would be a huge leap. And, notably, almost certainly a fatal one for his ambitions. To put it mildly, the rest of our government--both main parties!--wouldn't like it at all. It'd almost certainly cause a huge backlash among the electorate here, and leaders in many other nations would also be inclined to take it personally for obvious reasons.

Fact is, we are many times more powerful than the piss-ant, impoverished Russia of today and he's already on thin ice--at home and abroad. After all, he's accountable to the oligarchs who allow him to remain in power just as long as it's profitable for them.

[csziggy]

18. Some of the odd deaths have happened in this country

Mikhail Lesin, 57
Blunt Force Injuries
Washington, D.C.
Nov. 5, 2015
Former media director of Russia energy company Gazprom and founder of RT (Russia Today TV network) was found dead in a Dupont Circle hotel in Washington, D.C., of blunt force injuries to the head.

Sergei Krivov, 63
Tumor
New York
Nov. 8, 2016
Consular duty commander for the Russian Consulate in Manhattan, found dead of apparent head injuries on consulate floor. The New York Medical Examiner concluded he died of internal bleeding due to a tumor.

Vitaly Churkin, 64
Heart attack
New York
Feb. 20, 2017
Russian ambassador to the U.N. since 2006, died at work in New York of an apparent heart attack. The U.S. State Department asked NYC medical examiner to not release autopsy results, citing diplomatic protocol.

Alex Oronov, 69
Unknown
New York
March 2, 2017
Oronov was a Ukrainian émigré businessman in New York who organized a meeting between Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen, Felix Sater and Ukrainian member of parliament Andriy Artemenko in January 2017 about a peace plan for Ukraine that would have benefited Russia. The cause of his death remains unknown.

All of the above are from: https://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/suspicious-russian-deaths-sacrificial-pawns-or-coincidence/

[Hortensis]

19. Perhaps, but NONE are assassinations of American officials.

Btw, the point of all this is really that American officials don't assassinate each other in our advanced democracy and also that leaders of advanced nations simply do not assassinate each others' officials.

Probably not just because diplomacy has very well developed procedures that offer far better alternatives, and not just for moral and ethical reasons, but also in part for the same reasons it was once simply unthinkable for officers to order troops to aim at their counterparts, or for them to treat captured officers as anything but gentlemen deserving of special courtesy. But in any case, this prohibition is extremely well embedded in the cultures of all advances nations, and probably many others.

A murderous autocrat like Putin might enjoy thumbing his nose at other nations by assassinating Russians overseas and thus pushing way beyond the accepted behaviors of nations, but he would risk losing everything if he dared such an unthinkable aggression.

I enjoy good political thrillers, in print and film, but this kind of thing is mostly just enjoyable fiction, not reality. Of course, the bizarre, amoral, unstable, amateurs who used Rump to get "inside," might be capable of anything. But if they did indulge, it would only speed their transfer from the national scene to federal penitentiaries.

[Achilleaze]

5. republicans still refusing to lift a finger to defend America from...

the Acts of War* being perpetrated on America by the evil empire** of russia, and their draft-&-truth dodging US lackey, Comrade Casino.

Deplorable.

* per dick cheney
** per ronald reagan

[red dog 1]

8. K&R...Thanks for posting

Link to CNN article, which has more info:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10029006862

[Honeycombe8]

9. Trump will go after her personally. Tweets to be sent soon. He can't help himself. nt

[Calista241]

10. My prediction is that she's not going to say anything wildly controversial.

She'll say she warned the WH counsel on Flynn. She may give some color on his activities, but it won't be anything that seriously jeopardizes the WH. Flynn may end up going to jail eventually.

There will probably be some egg on Trump's face. Like a "you should have seen this before we had to tell you about it" kind of implication. Democrats will wonder about Trump's competence, and Repubs will wonder what the big deal is. Business as usual.

[orangecrush]

13. Yates may go to jail eventually?

Please explain.

[moda253]

15. Ummm what?

Yates is the one testifying. Yates is going to say she warned the WH about Yates and then Yates may eventually go to jail?

[Calista241]

16. Um, yeah, I meant Flynn there.

Sorry for the typo / error, I'll fix it.

[riversedge]

11. May 8

[not fooled]

17. What if she makes it clear

Punce was warned also? Would give the lie to his denials and show him as complicit rather than an innocent little bystander.