WASHINGTON (AP) — Former acting attorney general Sally Yates is scheduled to appear at a congressional hearing next month on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, a Senate committee announced Tuesday.
Yates is to appear May 8 along with James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, at an open hearing of the crime and terrorism subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
It will mark her first appearance on Capitol Hill since she was fired in late January after refusing to defend President Donald Trump’s travel ban. She had been scheduled to testify weeks ago before the House intelligence committee, but that hearing was canceled and has yet to be rescheduled.
At this point, the Senate Judiciary hearing will be the first opportunity for the public to hear Yates’ account of her role in the firing of Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. That subcommittee is conducting an investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. The House and Senate intelligence committees are conducting investigations as well.
Yates alerted the White House in January that Flynn had been misleading in his account of a December phone call with the Russian ambassador to the United States in which economic sanctions against Russia were discussed. Flynn was ousted after those discrepancies were made public.
The White House said last month that it had never tried to prevent Yates from testifying. The assertion followed the publication of a series of letters in which her attorney pushed back against what he suggested was Justice Department guidance on what Yates could say about conversations she had with the White House.
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We could have predicted that the GOP in Congress would sabotage any investigations into Trump’s possible crimes. He’s just too convenient as a useful idiot. They’ll keep him around as long as he helps them with their agenda which is nutty and destructive in its own way.
I’ve been following US politics since Ike and before I could vote.
This is the scariest things have ever been by a long shot. Even the Cuban Missile Crisis was over in 13 days.
I will believe this when I see it. As long as Repubs control both houses of the legislative branch, this is highly unlikely.
Are you fucking kidding me? May 8th? Another two weeks?!
Now we have reports that Sen. Burr is stonewalling Democrats just as Nunes did in the house (well, maybe not as bad as Nunes, he was a moron).
75% of the American public wants to see an independent commission. What are we going to do, have a year of worthless investigations in the house and senate that find nothing because they don’t even have Trump and his family’s taxes? (if you don’t have a forensic accounting of his taxes you have no business calling yourself an investigation)
This is such horseshit.
I’m wondering if this (late) date is the result of the ongoing inquiry by the FBI. Was there possible coordination with Comey to put this first Congressional (Senate) hearing off so far in the future?
Don’t misunderstand – I am GLAD we’re moving forward … but it’s so slow and I feel that’s deliberate. Partisan on the part of the Republicans? Don’t know for sure.
Watch your back, Ms. Yates. I am not kidding.
Meanwhile, Trump and Co. are more brazen than ever. Running ads for Mar-A-Lago on the State Dept. website, refusing to turn over records on Flynn….this stuff alongside the latest reports about trouble in both the House and Senate investigations, and the article on Comey….leaves me more worried than ever. We should be rising up en masse and marching on the Capitol steps.