Sally Yates to testify on Crossfire Hurricane and Michael Flynn's lawyer has questions
Powell was asked what questions she would ask Yates pertaining to Crossfire Hurricane
Sidney Powell, a lawyer of Michael Flynn, told FOX Business on Tuesday that she had a list of questions for Sally Yates, the former deputy US attorney general, who attended a mysterious meeting in the Oval Office with President Obama in the waning days of his presidency and who is set to appear Wednesday in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify about Crossfire Hurricane.
Powell said that records indicate that Yates was briefed by the FBI after agents initially interviewed Flynn and they told her that they believed Flynn was telling the truth and that he was forthcoming. She said her client showed no traces of deception, believed he was telling the truth and “they believed he was telling the truth, which completely eviscerates any sort of crime,” she said.
“Yet, the very next day, she runs to the White House not once, but two times and on the day after that, also, to try to get Gen. Flynn fired. It’s absolutely inexplicable.”
Flynn, who was briefly Trump’s national security adviser, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition period.
The Justice Department later dropped its case against Flynn in a dramatic court filing “after a considered review of all the facts and circumstances of this case, including newly discovered and disclosed information.” DOJ officials said they concluded that Flynn’s interview by the FBI was “untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn" and that the interview was "conducted without any legitimate investigative basis.”
Flynn had moved to withdraw his guilty plea for lying to the FBI in the Russia probe, citing “bad faith” by the government. Trump has called the entire investigation a "witch hunt."
Crossfire Hurricane is the FBI counterintelligence investigation that was underway when President Trump took office and sought to determine if Trump’s campaign coordinated with Russia to tip the election. Former FBI acting Director Andrew McCabe has said the FBI also began investigating whether Trump might have been acting on behalf of Russia.
Documents that were declassified earlier this year showed that at a Jan. 5, 2017 meeting, prior to the FBI's interview with Flynn, Obama was aware of the details of Flynn's intercepted December 2016 phone calls with a Russian ambassador. This apparently surprised Yates, who did not know about Flynn's calls at the time.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham has said he wants to ask Yates how Obama would have known about Flynn's calls before she did. He also wants to know about Joe Biden's role in that meeting.
Fox News' Ronn Blitzer and the Associated Press contributed to this report