Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, speaking publicly for the first time about concerns she brought to the Trump White House on Russia, told Congress today she warned that National Security Adviser Michael Flynn "essentially could be blackmailed" because he apparently had lied to his bosses about his contacts with the Russian ambassador.
The statements from Yates, an Obama administration holdover, offered by far the most detailed account of the chain of events that led to Flynn's ouster from government in the first weeks of the Trump administration.
Yates, appearing before a Senate panel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, described discussions with Trump White House Counsel Don McGahn in late January in which she warned that Flynn apparently had misled the administration about his communications with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador.
White House officials had insisted that Flynn had not discussed US-imposed sanctions with Kislyak during the presidential transition period, but asked Flynn to resign after news reports indicated he had misled them about the nature of the calls.
"We felt like it was critical that we get this information to the White House, in part because the vice president was making false statements to the public and because we believed that Gen Flynn was possibly compromised," Yates said.
"We knew that was not a good situation, which is why we wanted to let the White House know about it."
The Jan 26 conversation took place two days after the FBI interviewed Flynn about those contacts. McGahn asked Yates how Flynn did in the interview, but Yates said she could not answer.
She was fired four days later by the Trump administration. James Clapper, director of national intelligence under President Barack Obama, testified as well. He retired when Trump took office.
The hearing came hours after former Obama administration officials revealed that Obama had warned Trump against hiring Flynn as national security adviser during an Oval Office meeting after the 2016 election.
The highly anticipated hearing -- it was Yates' first appearance on Capitol Hill since her firing -- before a Senate panel investigating Russian interference in the presidential election was expected to fill in basic details in the chain of events that led to Flynn's ouster.
Word that Obama directly warned Trump suggests that concern over Flynn's possible appointment spread to the highest level of government months before Flynn's departure.
The Obama-Trump discussion was first reported today by NBC-TV.
Flynn's forced February resignation followed media reports that he had discussed US-imposed sanctions on Russia with Ambassador Kislyak, which was contrary to the public representations of the Trump White House.
Earlier today, former officials said Obama had raised general concerns about Flynn with Trump and told the incoming president there were better people for the national security post.
Trump's White House press secretary Sean Spicer said in response today that if Obama "was seriously concerned" about Flynn's connections to Russia or other foreign countries, he should have withheld Flynn's security clearance. Flynn served under Obama as defense intelligence chief before Obama dismissed him from that post.
Trump moved to distance himself from his former adviser's troubles today, tweeting that it was the Obama administration that gave Flynn "the highest security clearance" when he worked at the Pentagon. Trump made no mention of the fact that Flynn had been fired by the Obama administration in 2014.
In a second tweet, Trump said Yates should be asked under oath "if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers" soon after she raised concerns about Flynn with McGahn.
She said today she did not -- and that she had revealed no classified information herself.
Trump has said he has no ties to Russia and isn't aware of any involvement by his aides in Moscow's interference in the election. He's dismissed FBI and congressional investigations into his campaign's possible ties to the election meddling as a "hoax" driven by Democrats bitter over losing the White House.
(With AP inputs)
