Taking the hot seat in the Senate Judiciary Committee Aug. 5, 59-year-old former Deputy Atty. Gen. Sally Yates defended an Oval Office meeting Jan. 5, 2017 discussing unmasked conversations of 62-year-old incoming National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn now retired 69-year-old Russian Amb. Servey Kislyak. Present at the meeting was 55-year-old former Obama National Security Adviser Susan Rice who admitted to “unmasking” Fjynn’s conversations with Kislyak. Yates testified to 65-year-old Judiciary Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham that neither former President Barack Obama nor former Vice President Joe Biden “directed” the probe.. Yet Obama fired Flynn as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency [DIA] Aug. 7, 2014, leaving bad blood between the two of them. Yates also couldn’t recall whether Obama or Biden brought up the 1799 Logan Act when discussing Flynn.
Yates failure to recall anything about the Logan Act proves that she was anything but truthful answering Graham’s questions about what she heard while attending the Jan. 5, 2017 Oval Office meeting with Obama, Biden, former FBI Director James Comey, former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and herself, all discussing whether or not Flynn undermined Obama’s tough Russian sanctions. Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats Dec. 31, 2016 for alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election. U.S.-Russian relations hit the lowed point since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Recently elected 74-year-old President Donald Trump was very concerned about 68-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin retaliating against the U.S., possibly evicting 35 U.S. diplomats from Moscow. Trump wanted Flynn to mend fences.
In that context, Flynn had several innocuous conversations with Kislyak during the transition period something Obama, Biden and Comey didn’t trust Flynn. Without evidence, they concluded that Flynn interfered with Obama’s Russian sanctions, something proving false by the “unmasked” conversations. But despite having all “unmasked” conversations, Obama, Biden and Comey went full steam ahead to send former FBI Agents Peter Strzok and Joe Pientka to the White House four days after Trump was inaugurated Jan. 24, 2017 to interview Flynn. Yates mentioned nothing to Ghaham’s committee that she knew the contents of Flynn’s conversations but watched Comey go ahead to interview Flynn. Yates was asked by Graham if “Comey went rogue,” something Yates said, “yes.” Yet if you read the analysis of Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin you’d think nothing improper happened.
New York Time and Washington Post want to do everything possible to discredit Graham’s committee, anticipating possible indictments for former Obama administration officials for an illegal counterintelligence investigation of Trump’s 2016 campaign. Flynn was only one small part of Comey’s Operation Crossfire Hurricane, investigating Trump campaign officials for possible Russian ties. “General Flynn had essentially neutered the U.S. government’s message of deterrence,” Yates told Graham’s committee. Yate’s statement mirrors the same talking points as Comey as justification to probe the former national security adviser. When Yates talks about Flynn “neutering” the White House message of “deterrence,” she’s talking about Flynn undermining U.S. foreign policy. Yates knew that Flynn did noting of the kind because she had access to his private conversations with Kislyak.
Democrats and their friends in the press hang on Yate’s every word, hoping she rehabilitates clearly illegal activity by the FBI. When Yates concurred with Graham that, “Comey went rogue,” what more does the press need to know? Yates comment was not reported in the New York Times or Washington Post, looking only to validate the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Flynn. Graham asked Yates whether or not, knowing what she knows now, would she sign off on Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act [FISA] Court warrants? Yates said “no.” Graham didn’t ask Yates about the her knowledge of the “Steele Dossier,” the probable cause Comey used to open up his Crossfire Hurricane investigation into Trump’s campaign. “During the meeting [Jan. 5, 2917] the president and vice president, the national security adviser did not attempt to direct or influence any investigation,” Yates said.
Yates was very clever the way she answered Graham’s questions. Saying Obama, Biden and Biden “did not attempt to direct or influence any investigation,” does not mean they didn’t order the investigation. Yates said it was highly unusual for Barr to move to dismiss Flynn’s case. But Yates doesn’t say that Comey’s investigation was built off 72-year-old former Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton’s “Steel Dossier,” something completely discredited, even by Steele himself, who admitted he destroyed all the underlying evidence behind the dossier. Yes, what Barr did was unusual, as Yates said. But even more unusual is Comey using paid opposition research AKA “the Steele Dossier,” known as complete fraud, to dupe the FISA Court for wiretaps. Contrary to stories in the New York Times and Washington Post, Yates didn’t nothing to invalidate Flynn’s perjury trap or Operation Crossfire Hurricane.
