Testifying under oath before the Senate Intelligence Committee about Russian interference in the 2016 election, 76-year-old former National Security advisor James Clapper admitted he was involved in “unmaking” the names of Trump campaign staff during the 2016 campaign. Unmaking is the technical name referred to Americans caught up in “incidental” collection of foreign officials. Also asked about unmasking, 56-year-old former Atty. Gen. Sally Yates admitted she was also privy to the names of Trump officials under surveillance, mainly former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page and Trump’s former legal Counsel Roger Stone. Yates said she went to Trump Counsel Don McGahan Jan. 26 to warn him Flynn was compromised by the Russians. While Yates denied “unmaking” former Trump officials, someone did.
Yates wouldn’t admit whether or not former Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch asked that the names of former Turmp campaign officials be unmasked while the Department of Justice, National Security Agency and FBI conducted covert surveillance on Russian agents. What’s significant of Yates’ testimony was her insistence in her conversation with McGahn that she had knowledge of Flynn’s conversations with Russian Amb. Sergey Kislyak, showing he talked about Russian sanctions. Whatever Flynn talked about with Kislyak, there was nothing illegal or unethincal, other than denying he talked to Kislyak about anything substantive like Obama’s Dec. 28, 2016 sanctions for interfering with the 2016 presidential election. No one on the Senate Intelligence Committee asked Yates whether her certainty about Flynn’s “compromise” came from incidental data surveillance.
Yates refused to discus details of her information about Flynn citing classified information. Republican committee members wanted to find out how the classified information found its way to the Washington Post. Clapper and Yates denied being the source of the leaks to the Washington Post but didn’t say whether someone with whom they shared the information could have leaked. Yates talked confidently about Flynn being compromised by Russian Amb. Sergey Kislyak, yet did not say what Flynn talked about. Trump asked for Flynn’s Feb 13 resignation not for content of his communication that Yates seemed to know about but because he didn’t inform Vice President Mike Pence about the specifics of his talks with Kislyak. When you think about what Flynn talked about, namely, Obama’s sanctions, there’s nothing illegal or unethical about Flynn’s conversations.
Yates testified before the Committee today as if Flynn engaged in treason or compromised U.S. national security. When you consider he talked to Kislyak about Obama tossing out of Washington 35 Russian diplomats, that’s pretty big news. Obama’s knee-jerk reaction to alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election drove U.S.-Russian relations to a lower point than the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Of course, Flynn, as incoming National Security Advisor, would want to do everything possible to defuse a diplomatic crisis with Russia. Democrat members of the Senate Intelligence Committee want to make a big deal about the 18-day gap between Yates informing McGahan Jan. 26 and Flynn’s Feb. 13 resignation. White House officials weren’t concerned about Flynn vulnerability to Russian blackmail, they were evaluating whether he should be fired.
Trump White House officials had been arguing with former Obama officials about whether Flynn was properly vetted. “General Flynn was given the highest security clearance by the Obama administration,” Trump tweeted. “But the Fake New seldom likes talking about this.” Vetted by the Obama administration before heading the Defense Intelligence Agency July 14, 2012, Flynn needed the same scrutiny for the Jan. 20, 2017 job of National Security Advisor. Since leaving the DIA Aug. 7, 2014, the House Oversight Committee found April 25 that Flynn took a $45,000 payment in 2015 from Russia Today [RT] for a speaking fee. Whether Flynn was required to disclose the payment or was properly registered as a foreign agent is anyone’s guess. Yates admitted clearly today that she had all the dirt on Flynn gleaned from the NSA’s so-called incidental data collection.
Today’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing with Clapper and Yates confirms beyond any doubt that Trump campaign officials were under surveillance by the Attorney General, National Security Agency and FBI since at least July 2016. When Trump tweeted March 3 that former President Barack Obama “had his wires tapped,” it no longer looks so outrageous, despite the press insisting Trump Tower was not tapped. Clapper admitted today that the FBI was using former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s paid opposition research by former MI6 agent Christopher Steel for probable cause to investigate Trump campaign people. Clapper admitted to Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Ia) that Steele’s report was not used in the NSA report on Russian influence in the 2016 campaign because it could not be verified. Yet FBI Director James Comey found “probable cause” to investigate Trump officials.
