Before she was fired, Sally Yates said a White House counselor was ripe for Russian blackmail
We have not talked to the former acting U.S. attorney general, but the Washington Post this evening says that before she left, longtime Atlanta legal figure Sally Yates told President Donald Trump that one of his closest White House consultants was ripe for blackmail:
The acting attorney general informed the Trump White House late last month that she believed Michael Flynn had misled senior administration officials about the nature of his communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States, and warned that the national security adviser was potentially vulnerable to Russian blackmail, current and former U.S. officials said.
The message, delivered by Sally Q. Yates and a senior career national security official to the White House counsel, was prompted by concerns that Flynn, when asked about his calls and texts with the Russian diplomat, had told Vice President-elect Mike Pence and others that he had not discussed the Obama administration sanctions on Russia for its interference in the 2016 election, the officials said. It is unclear what the White House counsel, Donald McGahn, did with the information.
Flynn resigned his post late Monday, acknowledging that he briefed Pence and others with “incomplete information” regarding his phone calls with the Russian ambassador.
“I have sincerely apologized to the President and the Vice President, and they have accepted my apology,” he wrote.
Flynn will be replaced by Lt. Gen. Joseph Keith Kellogg, a U.S. Army veteran who served from 1967 to 2003.