Sally Yates was the Acting Attorney General of the United States replacing Loretta Lynch. A career official Yates was confirmed as United States Attorney in the Northern District of Georgia on March 10, 2010 then in 2015, Yates was confirmed as Deputy Attorney General under Loretta Lynch on May 13th. Trump’s administration requested that she stay on as Acting Attorney General, until Senator Jeff Sessions was confirmed, but only held the position for 11 days after the Presidential Inauguration.

Yates was one of the leaders in the Department of Justice investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 Election. When the FBI’s Russian Investigation revealed discrepancies in National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s statements to the White House, Yates met with the White House counsel. Three days later, Yates was fired by Trump on January 30, 2017. To the public, it seemed to be because of her unwillingness to support the President’s Immigration and Refugee Executive Order, which banned nine Muslim-majority countries from traveling to the United States. Weeks later, we would find out about the White House meeting through a leak from the Washington Post.

Initially, Yates was called to testify before the House Intelligence Committee in March 2017 but those proceedings were canceled by Devin Nunes. In subsequent testimony to Congress on May 8, 2017, Yates discussed the details of her notifications to the White House and the nature of Flynn’s phone calls to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

House Invite to Yates
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3526888-Yates314-House.html

Significant Events

January 24 – Michael Flynn was interviewed by the FBI at the White House. This information became available during Sally Yates May 8th testimony.

January 25 – The day Sally Yates received the FBI readout of Michael Flynn’s interview, she contacted the White House counsel to set up a meeting, as the information was too important to speak about over the phone.

January 26 – Sally Yates and a senior member of the national security team met with White House Counsel Donald McGahn in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) to talk about classified information regarding Michael Flynn’s vulnerability to be blackmailed by the Russians because of his “problematic” conduct and how he is misleading White House officials, such as Vice President Pence.

January 27 – McGahn called Yates to set up a second meeting with White House counsel, which took place late that afternoon.

January 28 – After the White House was warned about Michael Flynn’s Russian dealings, he was still able to participate in a telephone conversation with President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which lasted an hour.

January 30 – In the morning, Yates called McGahn to let him know that he was being allowed to review the evidence the FBI collected, but at the time, he was unavailable. It wasn’t until that afternoon that Yates heard back from McGahn. By Monday night, acting Attorney General Sally Yates received a hand-delivered letter firing her after refusing to defend Trump’s Travel Ban. In the White House statement, they claim Yates “betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States.”

February 13 – The Washington Post reported that Yates warned the White House about Flynn’s communication with the Russian Ambassador Kislyak. Shortly after, Flynn resigned as National Security Adviser claiming that he mislead Vice President Pence on his meetings with Kislyak.

March 13 – Letters were sent to Yates requesting her to testify in a bipartisan Congressional meeting regarding her knowledge of the Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

March 23 – Yates agreed to testify in the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence about White House correspondence that took place in January of 2017.

March 24 – Yates requested permission to disclose non-classified information in a House Intelligence Committee public hearing on March 28th. The White House denied allegations of blocking Yate’s testimony by claiming executive privilege. Press Secretary Sean Spicer stated the White House did not interfere and he hopes she testifies.

March 28 – After House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devon Nunes secretly met with the White House and was asked to step down, he canceled all meetings for the week, which included testimony from Sally Yates. The White House denies any involvement in silencing Yates and her knowledge of the Russian investigation.

May 8 – Before Sally Yates testified, President Trump tweeted about Flynn’s “highest security clearance” was given to him by the Obama Administration and suggested Yates was the culprit of leaked classified information to the press about the Flynn warnings to the White House Counsel.

After Sally Yates and James Clapper testified before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, Trump tweeted about them providing no new information and having no evidence in the Russian Investigation. He then tweeted about the collusion being a “total hoax” asking when the “taxpayer funded charade” would be over.

Sources:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/08/politics/sally-yates-hearing-russia-things-we-learned/index.html

https://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/national/read-the-letters-on-sally-yatess-potential-congressional-testimony-on-russia/2390/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-sought-to-block-sally-yates-from-testifying-to-congress-on-russia/2017/03/28/82b73e18-13b4-11e7-9e4f-09aa75d3ec57_story.html

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-intel-committee-cancels-meetings-amid-calls-nunes-step-down-n739361

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