Yates, Flynn And The Trump-Russia Investigation

Sally Yates testifies on General Michael Flynn. We’ll look at the latest on the Russia connection.

Yesterday, former acting attorney general of the United States, Sally Yates, finally got to tell her whole story. Of how she went to the White House early this year to convey that President Trump’s top national security adviser was lying about his Russian contacts, that the Russians knew it, that the adviser, General Michael Flynn, was open to blackmail. Then she waited. And was eventually fired herself. This hour On Point, the White House, Russia, and the Senate testimony of Sally Yates. — Tom Ashbrook

Jonathan Landay, national security correspondent for Reuters. (@JonathanLanday)

Byron Tau, reporter in The Wall Street Journal's Washington, D.C. bureau, where he covers Congress and politics. (@ByronTau)

Kristen Welker, White House correspondent for NBC News. (@kwelkernbc)

Eli Lake, columnist for Bloomberg View. (@EliLake)

President Donald Trump fired former Gen. Michael Flynn as his national security adviser on February 13, 2017. His new — and current -- adviser is Gen. H.R. McMaster — and the President isn't so pleased with the staffing decision. "I have been hearing things for about a month now about friction between President Trump and H.R. McMaster," Bloomberg View columnist Eli Lake told host Tom Ashbrook today. "Some of it is stylistic — McMaster is a brilliant straetgic thinker who sometimes like to interrupt the President." Additionally, McMaster appears to have difficulty "reading" the President. In a more structural sense, divisions between members of the White House senior staff  have lead to further concern, especially among those supporting senior advisor Steve Bannon. Many in those ranks, Lake said, fear that McMaster is seeking to push the US toward more nation-building efforts around the world, and "Trump in many ways campaigned against those types of things with his 'America First' slogan," Lake said. It's too soon to say that McMaster is sidelined, Lake told us. But increasing chatter out of the White House and National Security Cabinet reveals a growing tension between the President and the General — and Lake was the first to string it all together. Listen to the conversation above, and read Lake's column, linked below.

Reuters: Obama warned Trump against Flynn as national security adviser: ex-official — "Obama warned Trump against Flynn as national security adviser: ex-official
Former U.S. President Barack Obama warned then-President-elect Donald Trump not to give the post of national security adviser in his administration to Michael Flynn who was eventually fired in a controversy about ties to Russia, a former Obama aide said."

Washington Post: Yates says she warned White House Flynn could be ‘blackmailed’ — "Former acting attorney general Sally Yates said Monday she warned the top lawyer in the White House that then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn could be blackmailed by Russia, and gave the White House a private warning 'so that they could take action.'"

Bloomberg News: Washington Loves General McMaster, But Trump Doesn't -- "For the Washington establishment, President Donald Trump's decision to make General H.R. McMaster his national security adviser in February was a masterstroke. Here is a well-respected defense intellectual, praised by both parties, lending a steady hand to a chaotic White House. The grown-ups are back. But inside the White House, the McMaster pick has not gone over well with the one man who matters most. White House officials tell me Trump himself has clashed with McMaster in front of his staff."