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Sally Yates says she warned about Michael Flynn

Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates said she had warned the White House, under President Donald Trump, that Michael Flynn “essentially could be blackmailed” by Russians. Flynn, Trump’s former National Security Adviser, was vulnerable to extortion because he misled officials about communications he had with Russian officials — a move that led the Trump administration to fire him. Yates made the remark while testifying at the Senate Judiciary subcommittee’s hearing on Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

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Former President Bill Clinton and author James Patterson are writing a novel together called The President Is Missing .

The Morning Brief is published Mondays through Fridays. Email Morning Brief writer Melissa Chan at melissa.chan@time.com .</s>(CNN) Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper have now filled in some key pieces of the sprawling puzzle presented by the Russia investigations.

Here are the top five things we learned from their appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism on Monday:

1. Yates delivered a forceful argument to the White House that then-national security adviser Michael Flynn could be blackmailed by the Russians

As soon as she read the details of Michael Flynn's interview with the FBI, at the end of January, Yates called White House counsel Don McGahn and said they needed to talk in private, she testified.

Yates brought one of her top staffers with her on the afternoon of January 26 to meet with McGahn and one of his top aides inside a secure facility on the White House grounds so they could discuss the FBI's interview of Flynn. It was then, she testified before senators Monday, that she warned McGahn that President Donald Trump's national security adviser could easily become a blackmail target for Russians, based on the answers Flynn gave to the FBI.

"That created a compromised situation, a situation where the national security adviser essentially could be blackmailed by the Russians. Finally, we told them that we were giving them all of this information so that they could take action, the action that they deemed appropriate," she said. McGahn called Yates and asked her to return the next morning, January 27, when she testified that he asked her about four main concerns:

Why did it matter to the Justice Department if Flynn lied to Vice President Mike Pence?

What criminal statutes did Flynn potentially violate?

Would taking action against Flynn immediately interfere with the FBI's investigation?

Could he see the underlying evidence collected in Flynn's interview?

Yates explained that any official publicly repeating the lie that Flynn had not discussed sanctions with Russian ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, was increasing the chance Flynn would be blackmailed.

"Every time this lie was repeated and the misrepresentations were getting more and more specific, as they were coming out, every time that happened, it increased the compromise and to state the obvious: You don't want your national security adviser compromised with the Russians," Yates said.

Flynn's lawyer, Robert Kelner, declined comment when reached by CNN Monday.

2. Trump is increasingly looking alone in his belief that Russia did not interfere to help him in the 2016 election

Trump has repeatedly called the investigations of possible coordination between his campaign aides and Russia "fake news" and, last week, said it may have been China that was behind the hacking.

That's an assessment that's looking increasingly detached from US intelligence officials.

"To me, the evidence was overwhelming, and very compelling, that the Russians did this," Clapper testified, when asked about Trump's most recent assertions.

Then, prompted by Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, Clapper said Trump may still be helping the Russians by denying their involvement.

"You could rationalize that it helps the Russians by obfuscating who was actually responsible," Clapper said.

3. Clapper and Yates undercut one of the Trump White House's strongest arguments

Throughout the Russia probes, the Trump White House has pointed to testimony earlier this year from Clapper that he had seen no evidence in the January intelligence report of collusion between the President's campaign and Russia. That was before FBI Director James Comey publicly revealed that the FBI was, in fact, investigating that question.

Clapper said Comey's March 20 testimony was the first he heard of the FBI investigation. He later said that his original assessment was that there was no evidence he had seen worth including in the intelligence assessment -- but Yates later said that she could not answer the question because she did not want to reveal any classified information.

The implication from both officials' testimonies was that there may, indeed, be evidence of collusion -- this after months of the White House arguing that Clapper was clear there is no evidence.

4. The Senate investigations have strong strains of partisanship

Monday's hearing with Yates and Clapper was clearly focused on Russia's interference in the 2016 election, but Republican and Democratic senators still used it to land some partisan shots.

Republican senators grilled Yates on why she refused to enforce the first executive order that imposed a travel ban issued by Trump.

"I don't mean any disrespect: Who appointed you to the Supreme Court?" Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, told Yates in a comment that immediately lit up Twitter.

And Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz went to town on Yates, arguing that she may have broken the law by refusing to defend the order. She rebutted him by pointing to a later court ruling that supported her argument that she had a greater duty to protect against discrimination and uphold the Constitution.

Democrats, meanwhile, pushed hard with lines of attack clearly aimed at damaging Trump himself, not necessarily digging into what happened in the 2016 elections.

Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, one of the Senate's most staunchly liberal members, took Yates on a winding line of questioning that ended with Trump possibly appearing on the witness stand in a hypothetical court trial against Flynn. At the end of the hypothetical exercise, Blumenthal pressed Yates if that was even remotely possible.

Yates responded: "Potentially."

The Senate Russia investigators may have maintained the air of being the adults in Congress investigating Russia's interference. But the Senate Judiciary Committee has proved over the last two hearings (including last week's with Comey) that partisanship is still a powerful force in its own inquiry.

5. The media matters

Yates was fired by Trump one day after it came out that she had refused to defend his travel ban and four days after she first alerted McGahn about Flynn. Meanwhile, it took 18 days for the White House to fire Flynn after Yates first told McGahn about his FBI interview.</s>The allegations of collusion between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia are a "total hoax," President of the United States wrote on his Twitter account on May 8, TASS reports.

"The Russia-Trump collusion story is a total hoax, when will this taxpayer funded charade end?" Trump wrote.

The commentary followed a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Two former U.S. officials, CIA director James Clapper and acting attorney general Sally Yates, testified at the hearing.

"Director Clapper reiterated what everybody, including the fake media already knows- there is "no evidence" of collusion with Russia and Trump," the U.S. President wrote.

"Sally Yates made the fake media extremely unhappy today - she said nothing but old news," he added.</s>Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper were interviewed by the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on crime and terrorism on Monday about Russia's interference in the 2016 election. The subcommittee's chairman, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, said in his opening statement that "when one party is attacked, all of us should feel attacked ... when a foreign power interferes in our election, it doesn't matter who they targeted.

Start the conversation, or Read more at SFGate.</s>Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates will discuss what she told the White House about ties former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn had to Russia at a Senate hearing on Monday.

Yates will appear before the Senate Judiciary subcommittee to deliver testimony and answer questions. Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper will also appear at Monday's hearing.

In the early days of the Trump administration, Yates served as acting Attorney General and reportedly warned the White Hous e that Flynn may have misled officials about communications he had with Russian officials. The Washington Post also reported that Yates said Flynn was potentially vulnerable to blackmail . She is expected to confirm the warning at Monday's hearing.

Yates was fired from the Trump administration after she said she would not defend the president's controversial travel ban in court. Flynn resigned from his White House role in February.

Watch the hearing in the video above starting at 2:30 p.m. ET</s>WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork/AP) — An Obama administration official who warned the Trump White House about contacts between one of its key advisers and Russia is set to speak publicly for the first time about the concerns she raised.

Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates is testifying Monday before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Yates’ testimony is expected to include at least a few bombshells, CBS News’ Jeff Pegues reported.

The highly anticipated hearing, Yates’s first appearance on Capitol Hill since her firing in January, is expected to fill in key details in the chain of events that led to the ouster of Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, in the early weeks of the administration.

The February resignation followed media reports that Flynn had discussed U.S.-imposed sanctions on Russia with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition period, which was contrary to the public representations of the White House.

Yates is expected to contradict public White House official statements about this issue, Pegues reported.

“She apparently has some information as to who knew what when, that she is willing to share,” said Senate Judiciary Committee member Dianne Feinstein.

Yates is likely to testify Monday that she warned White House counsel Don McGahn on Jan. 26 that Flynn’s contacts — and the discrepancies between what the White House said happened on the calls and what actually occurred — had left him in a compromised position, the Associated Press reported, according to a person familiar with her expected statements.

The person was not authorized to discuss the testimony by name and requested anonymity.

In a Twitter post ahead of the hearing Monday morning, Trump said “General Flynn was given the highest security clearance by the Obama Administration – but the Fake News seldom likes talking about that.”

White House officials have said publicly that Yates merely wanted to give them a “heads-up” about Flynn’s Russian contacts, but Yates is likely to testify that she expressed alarm to the White House about the incidents, according to the person.

Trump has said he has no nefarious 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. He’s also accused Obama officials of illegally leaking classified information about Flynn’s contacts with Kislyak.

Also scheduled to testify is former National Intelligence Director James Clapper, who attracted attention for a March television interview in which he said that he had seen no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia at the time he left government in January. Republicans have seized on that statement as vindication for the Trump campaign, but investigations are ongoing.

Yates, a longtime federal prosecutor and Obama administration holdover, was fired Jan. 31 by Trump after refusing to defend the administration’s travel ban.

She had been scheduled to appear in March before the House intelligence committee, but that hearing was canceled.

The subcommittee meeting Monday is one of three congressional probes into the Russia interference, along with House and Senate intelligence panels. Yet questions remain about whether the Republican-led committees can conduct truly independent investigations.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and chair of the Senate Judiciary crime and terrorism subcommittee, has been outspoken about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and called for a stronger U.S. response than the sanctions currently levied.

Graham and top Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island promised a bipartisan probe, but last week it was revealed that Graham independently invited Rice to testify, without Whitehouse’s sign-on. Rice, a longtime target of Republicans, declined because her attorney said the invitation came late and without bipartisan consent.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — An Obama administration official who warned the Trump White House about contacts between one of its key advisers and Russia is set to speak publicly Monday for the first time about the concerns she raised.

Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates is testifying before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The highly anticipated hearing — it is Yates’s first appearance on Capitol Hill since her firing in January — is expected to fill in key details in the chain of events that led to the ouster of Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, in the early weeks of the administration.

The February resignation followed media reports that Flynn had discussed U.S.-imposed sanctions on Russia with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition period, which was contrary to the public representations of the White House.

Trump moved to distance himself from his former adviser’s troubles Monday, tweeting that it was the Obama administration that gave Flynn “the highest security clearance” when he worked at the Pentagon. The president made no mention of the fact that Flynn was 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 White House counsel Don McGahn on Jan. 26.

Yates is expected to testify that she warned McGahn that Flynn’s contacts — and the discrepancies between what the White House said happened on the calls and what actually occurred — had left him in a compromised position, according to a person familiar with her expected statements. The person was not authorized to discuss the testimony by name and requested anonymity.

White House officials have said publicly that Yates merely wanted to give them a “heads-up” about Flynn’s Russian contacts, but Yates is likely to testify that she expressed alarm to the White House about the incidents, according to the person.

Trump has said he has no nefarious 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. He’s also accused Obama officials of illegally leaking classified information about Flynn’s contacts with Kislyak.

Also scheduled to testify is former National Intelligence Director James Clapper, who attracted attention for a March television interview in which he said that he had seen no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia at the time he left government in January. Republicans have seized on that statement as vindication for the Trump campaign, but investigations are ongoing.

The Associated Press meanwhile reported last week that one sign taken as a warning by Obama administration officials about Flynn’s contacts with Kislyak was a request by a member of Trump’s own transition team made to national security officials in the Obama White House for the classified CIA profile of Kislyak. The revelation came after interviews with a host of former U.S. officials, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive national security information.

Marshall Billingslea, a former Pentagon and NATO official, wanted the information for Flynn, his boss. Billingslea knew Flynn would be speaking to Kislyak, according to two former Obama administration officials, and seemed concerned Flynn did not fully understand he was dealing with a man rumored to have ties to Russian intelligence agencies. When reached by the AP last week, Billingslea refused to comment. Last month, Trump announced his intention to nominate Billingslea to serve as assistant secretary for terrorist financing at the Treasury Department.

Obama aides also described Flynn as notably dismissive of the threat Russia posed to the United States when discussing policy in transition meetings with outgoing national security adviser Susan Rice and other top officials.

Yates’s warning about Flynn in January capped weeks of building concern among top Obama officials, the officials told the AP. President Barack Obama himself that month told one of his closest advisers that the FBI, which by then had been investigating Trump associates’ possible ties to Russia for about six months, seemed particularly focused on Flynn.

Yates, a longtime federal prosecutor and Obama administration holdover, was fired Jan. 31 by Trump after refusing to defend the administration’s travel ban. She had been scheduled to appear in March before the House intelligence committee, but that hearing was canceled.

The subcommittee meeting Monday is one of three congressional probes into the Russia interference, along with House and Senate intelligence panels. Yet questions remain about whether the Republican-led committees can conduct truly independent investigations.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and chair of the Senate Judiciary crime and terrorism subcommittee, has been outspoken about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and called for a stronger U.S. response than the sanctions currently levied.

Graham and top Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island promised a bipartisan probe, but last week it was revealed that Graham independently invited Rice to testify, without Whitehouse’s sign-on. Rice, a longtime target of Republicans, declined because her attorney said the invitation came late and without bipartisan consent.</s>A former senior U.S. law enforcement figure said on Monday she warned Trump's White House in January about then-national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Sally Yates, who was briefly the acting U.S. attorney general earlier this year, told White House counsel Don McGahn on Jan. 26 that Flynn had not been telling the truth about his contacts with Russia's ambassador to Washington.

Yates, originally appointed by former President Barack Obama's administration, said she feared Moscow could try to blackmail Flynn because it also knew he was not being truthful about conversations with Ambassador Sergei Kislyak about U.S. sanctions on Moscow.

Flynn, a retired general who advised Trump's election campaign, has emerged as a central figure in probes into allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and possible collusion between Trump's campaign and Moscow. Russia has repeatedly denied any such meddling.

Yates told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing she had been concerned that "the national security adviser essentially could be blackmailed by the Russians."

"Logic would tell you that you don't want the national security adviser to be in a position where the Russians have leverage over him," she said.

Trump waited more than two weeks after the warning before firing Flynn for failing to disclose the content of his talks with Kislyak and then misleading Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations.

Obama warned Trump, then president-elect, not to give the post of national security adviser in his administration to Flynn, a former Obama aide said.

The Democratic president gave the warning in an Oval Office meeting with Trump two days after the Republican's surprise Nov. 8 election win. The warning, first reported by NBC News, came up during a discussion of White House personnel.

reports of the warning, told reporters: "It's true that the president, President Obama, made it known that he wasn't exactly a fan of General Flynn's, which frankly shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, given that General Flynn had worked for President Obama, was an outspoken critic of President Obama's shortcomings."

Flynn had been pushed out by Obama in 2014 from his job as director of the military's Defense Intelligence Agency, or DIA.

Congressional committees began investigating after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered hacking of Democratic political groups to try to sway the election toward Trump. The agencies said Russia was behind "fake news" reports that were disseminated on social media.

The Senate Judiciary subcommittee probe is one of three main congressional investigations of Russia and the 2016 U.S. election. The FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies are conducting separate probes.

Hours before Monday's Senate hearing, Trump insinuated that Yates had leaked information on Flynn to the media.

"Ask Sally Yates, under oath, if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to W.H. Council," Trump wrote on Twitter, apparently misspelling the word counsel.

Trump fired Yates in late January after she defied the White House and refused to defend travel restrictions targeting seven Muslim-majority countries, a policy that Trump has said would help protect Americans from the Islamic State group and other Islamist militants.

In the Senate hearing, the former director of national intelligence, James Clapper, described as accurate a report in the Guardian newspaper that British intelligence officials became aware in late 2015 about suspicious interactions between Trump advisers and Russian intelligence agents, and that the information was passed on to U.S. intelligence agencies.

"Yes, it is (accurate), and it's also quite sensitive. The specifics are quite sensitive," Clapper said.

The Trump administration denies allegations of collusion with Russia.

Questioning in the hearing often broke along party lines.

Some Republicans veered away from questions about Russia’s alleged involvement in the election to focus on issues such as whether Obama administration officials had improperly revealed the names of Trump administration officials contained in surveillance records.

Senator John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, questioned Yates heatedly about her objections to Trump’s travel ban.</s>(CNN) Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates is expected to deliver long-awaited testimony Monday afternoon before a Senate subcommittee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Yates was thrust into the national spotlight after she broke with President Donald Trump over the enforcement of his travel ban, an action which led to her firing in January. But since then, her profile has only risen following revelations that she said she forcefully warned the administration about former national security adviser Michael Flynn's communications with a Russian diplomat weeks before Flynn was fired.

Here are five things to watch in Yates' testimony before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, which is scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m. ET on Capitol Hill.

1. What was the extent of Yates' warning?

Yates told White House staff and other top officials that Flynn could be a security risk after he discussed Russia sanctions with Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak, CNN reported last week . That testimony is expected to contradict the White House's description of her warning, framed by press secretary Sean Spicer as "a 'heads-up' to us on some comments that may have seemed in conflict with what he (Flynn) had sent the vice president."

But did Yates discuss more with the Trump administration? Were other interactions uncovered? Did she find additional information on other top Trump aides at the center of the Russia probes?

2. How limited will Yates be?

Democrats have pinned a lot of hopes on Yates, privately promising blockbuster testimony from the former Obama administration official. But a key question is how much she will be limited in public, either through questions regarding classified material, promises of attorney-client privilege or claims of executive privilege from either Trump or former President Barack Obama.

Yates' first public hearing was scheduled for six weeks ago, but it was canceled at the last minute by Trump ally and House intelligence committee Chairman Devin Nunes. Reports later emerged that the White House blocked her testimony, which press secretary Spicer vehemently denied.

3. Did Yates' warning make it all the way to Trump?

We know now that Yates alerted White House counsel Don McGahn to Flynn's phone calls with Kislyak. Flynn's misleading comments, Yates said, made him potentially vulnerable to being compromised by Russia, according to sources familiar with her version of events. She expressed "serious concerns" to McGahn, making it clear -- without making a recommendation -- that Flynn could be fired.

What happened next isn't clear. After that meeting, the White House took three weeks to fire Flynn, which happened in February. But did McGahn ever tell Trump about Yates' warning?

4. Will there be anything left for House investigators?

The House intelligence committee was supposed to get the first crack at Yates in public, on March 28. But that hearing got swept up in the fiasco surrounding Nunes' clandestine White House trip and later led to him stepping aside from leading his panel's investigation.

It took a month for House investigators to even settle on inviting Yates back for a new hearing, but by that point Graham had already booked her for his investigation with the Senate Judiciary subcommittee. As of last Friday, House investigators still had not settled on a date for her new hearing or if there will be one at all.

5. It's not just Sally Yates testifying

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is also set to testify. Look for questions about why his earlier assessment of Russian interference in the election contradicted the well-established version now, which is that not only was Russian interference omnipresent, but it was also designed specifically to help Trump.

Republican lawmakers have periodically brought this up over the last few months. Now will be their chance to hear directly from Clapper about whether his previous belief still stands.</s>EDITOR'S NOTE: This story is an update of a CNN report that published in January . It has been updated to include new information.

(CNN) Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates will testify Monday before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Russia's meddling in the US election last year, the latest public event in a political saga that has spanned President Donald Trump's young presidency.

Yates became a household name after Trump fired her in January after she refused to defend his immigration order.

"The acting Attorney General, Sally Yates, has betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States," White House press secretary Sean Spicer said in a statement explaining the President's action.

But the former Justice Department official re-entered the news cycle a week after her firing when a White House official confirmed that Yates warned the Trump administration earlier in the month that former national security adviser Michael Flynn misled administration officials about his communications with Russia before his entering the White House.

Sources familiar with Yates' account told CNN last week that she is prepared to testify at the hearing that she gave a forceful warning to the White House about Flynn nearly three weeks before he was fired, contradicting the administration's version of events, including that of Spicer, who said in February that Yates had simply "wanted to give a 'heads up' to us on some comments that may have seemed in conflict with what he (Flynn) had sent the Vice President."

Intelligence agencies said Flynn had spoken to the Russian ambassador to the United States about sanctions imposed by former President Barack Obama and was potentially vulnerable to blackmail by the Russians, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.

Other top intelligence officials, including Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and CIA Director John Brennan, were in agreement with Yates that the White House should be alerted about the concerns.

Appointed by Obama, Yates had been running Trump's Justice Department while attorney general nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions awaited confirmation. Before that, she spent years defending Obama administration policies, championing changes to the criminal justice system and curtailing the federal government's use of private prisons.

But when Yates told Justice Department lawyers not to make legal arguments defending Trump's executive order on immigration and refugees, she was thrust into the biggest controversy of the opening days of Trump's presidency.

"My responsibility is to ensure that the position of the Department of Justice is not only legally defensible, but is informed by our best view of what the law is after consideration of all the facts," Yates said in a letter to department lawyers.

Hours later, she was gone, a dramatic end to her lengthy career at the department.

Born in Atlanta in 1960, Yates attended the University of Georgia both as an undergrad and a law student, becoming what the home of the Bulldogs calls a "double dawg."

Yates started there at the end of the 1980s, working as an assistant US attorney in the Northern District of Georgia. She worked her way up in a series of cases the DOJ described as including white-collar fraud and political corruption.

In 1996, Yates aided the prosecution of Eric Rudolph, who pleaded guilty to bombing Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta during the Olympic ceremonies.

In 2010, Obama appointed her to run the local US attorney's office, the first time a woman had reached the position there.

She subsequently climbed the DOJ ladder almost to the very top. When former Attorney General Eric Holder informed Obama of his intention to leave the office, Obama tapped Loretta Lynch for attorney general and Yates for deputy.

Unlike Lynch, who faced a divided Senate for confirmation, Yates made it through her Senate grilling with wide, bipartisan support. Georgia Sens. Johnny Isakson and David Perdue -- both Republicans -- spoke on her behalf.

She did face some pushback from conservative corners, however. Sessions, an Alabama Republican, was among those to question her sharply during her Judiciary Committee hearing, and he ultimately voted against her confirmation.

That final step highlights the irony of the Trump administration asking Yates to stay on as attorney general after the inauguration until Sessions, Trump's nominee, could take over.

Yates accepted the request, and that meant Trump would have someone leading DOJ who was well outside of his ideological mold.

The clash that followed was set up by Trump's decision to move ahead with the immigration executive order -- suspending the refugee program and temporarily halting travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries -- before Sessions was installed.

The day after Trump issued the order, a federal judge blocked part of it. More legal challenges mounted, and Yates instructed the department not to defend the administration against them.

Then, in January, she was hand-delivered a letter from the White House that ended her Justice Department career.
Sally Yates testifies before the United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism concerning investigations into Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and in the Trump administration.