Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates told the New Yorker she won’t run for governor of Georgia.
Said Yates: “I am totally ruling out the governor’s race. I am not running for governor.”
But she added: “I recognize that I may have a voice that I didn’t have before. And part of what I want to be able to do is to figure out how I can responsibly use that voice in a way to impact things that I think really matter. I just don’t know what form that takes. I’ve got to give something more back.”
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) criticized former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates for refusing to implement President Trump’s travel ban in the early days of his administration — an action for which she was later fired — but she had a pretty good comeback.
And she had an even stronger comeback for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) when he also asked about the incident.
Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates “is prepared to testify before a Senate panel next week that she gave a forceful warning to the White House regarding then-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn nearly three weeks before he was fired, contradicting the administration’s version of events,” CNN reports.
“In a private meeting January 26, Yates told White House Counsel Don McGahn that Flynn was lying when he denied in public and private that he had discussed US sanctions on Russia in conversations with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergei Kislyak. Flynn’s misleading comments, Yates said, made him potentially vulnerable to being compromised by Russia.”
“The Trump administration sought to block former acting attorney general Sally Yates from testifying to Congress in the House investigation of links between Russian officials and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, the Washington Post has learned, a position that is likely to further anger Democrats who have accused Republicans of trying to damage the inquiry.”
“Yates and other former intelligence officials had been asked to testify before the House Intelligence Committee this week, a hearing that was abruptly canceled by the panel’s chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA).”
Mike Allen: “Here’s a twist that has top GOP sources buzzing: On Jan. 26, Sally Yates, then the acting attorney general, tells the White House that national security adviser Mike Flynn — who has just been grilled by FBI agents — had, in fact, discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador during the transition, despite denying it, and therefore is vulnerable to Russian blackmail.”
“Four days later, on Jan. 30, Trump fires Yates, citing her unwillingness to enforce his border order.”
“Two weeks after her heads-up to the White House, the Flynn secret explodes.”
Said one insider: “They had to know she was radioactive, and that there would be consequences. It was either reckless, or totally incompetence. It leads back to the fact that nobody is in charge.”
At her 2015 confirmation hearing, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), President Trump’s nominee for attorney general, asked Sally Yates, the acting attorney general Trump fired last night, an interesting question:
Sessions: Do you think the attorney general has the responsibility to say no to the president if he asks for something that’s improper? A lot of people have defended the Loretta Lynch nomination, for example, by saying: ‘Well, he appoints somebody who’s going to execute his views. What’s wrong with that?’ But if the views the president wants to execute are unlawful, should the attorney general or the deputy attorney general say no?
Yates: Senator, I believe that the attorney general or the deputy attorney general has the obligation to follow the law and the Constitution, and to give their independent legal advice to the president.
The exchange starts at about 1:15 in the video.
First Read: “The question Democrats are asking today: Can someone like Sessions who played such a big role in Trump’s campaign — and whose top staff now work for Trump — show that same kind of independence at the Justice Department?”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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