前副司法部长萨利·耶茨周三出现在参议院的一个小组面前，她在会上回击了共和党人旨在削弱俄罗斯干涉2016年选举调查合法性的攻击。
耶茨在奥巴马政府的最后一年担任副司法部长，随后在特朗普总统时期短暂担任代理司法部长，直到2017年1月被解雇。她为自己在监督调查的各个方面所扮演的角色进行了辩护，有时还直接反驳共和党人的指控，这些指控称唐纳德·特朗普总统及其同伙受到了美国联邦调查局的不公平对待。
叶茨反驳了特朗普的一个关键说法，她告诉委员会，她不相信前总统巴拉克奥巴马(Barack Obama)或前副总统乔拜登(Joe Biden)试图影响美国联邦调查局对前国家安全顾问迈克尔·弗林的调查，她回忆起2017年1月5日在椭圆形办公室的一次会议上，她第一次从奥巴马那里得知弗林与前俄罗斯大使的接触。
“这样的事情会给我敲响警钟，无论是在当时还是在我的记忆中，它都会一直存在。”没有这样的事情发生，”耶茨说。“在过渡期间，总统将注意力完全集中在与弗林将军分享敏感情报对国家安全的影响上，这一过程已经在白宫展开。”
听证会开始时，特朗普在推特上抨击耶茨“毫无可信度”，是“本世纪最大的政治犯罪的一部分。”
莎莉·叶茨没有可信度。她是本世纪最大的政治犯罪的一部分，奥巴马本知道一切!莎莉·叶茨泄露了弗林将军的谈话?向她发誓。共和党应该开始玩民主党的游戏!
——唐纳德·特朗普2020年8月5日
相比之下，参议院司法委员会主席林赛·格拉汉姆(Lindsey Graham)在听证会上的开场白中表示，他认为2017年1月联邦调查局(FBI)调查弗林与俄罗斯大使谢尔盖·基斯利亚克的接触时，叶茨的行为是恰当的，而且“行使了良好的法律判断”。
格雷厄姆说:“我对叶茨的看法是，她在2017年1月做出了良好的法律判断，如果人们听从了她的建议，今天的情况可能会有所不同。”“我想让你知道，耶茨女士，从我的角度来看，你对形势的分析相当正确，我们将在以后讨论这个问题。”
格拉汉姆的声明是针对叶茨对前联邦调查局局长詹姆斯·科米的批评，叶茨在授权两名联邦调查局调查员访问白宫采访弗林时，也认为这位局长“行为不端”。
耶茨说，她认为正确的做法是首先向白宫通报弗林关于他与基斯利亚克谈话的虚假公开声明，她说这构成了潜在的反情报威胁，可能使他容易受到俄罗斯的讹诈。
叶茨几次试图纠正格雷厄姆，因为他说，调查弗林的依据是根深蒂固的洛根法案——一项禁止美国公民未经授权与外国政府谈判的过时法律。
耶茨说:“这是一个反情报威胁，而不是洛根法案的刑事起诉，这是重点。”
此外，耶茨还反驳了格雷厄姆的说法，即在采访弗林之前，联邦调查局已于1月4日结束了对弗林的调查——以及他的说法，即弗林被调查仅仅是因为与奥巴马政府针对俄罗斯干预选举的制裁存在“政策差异”。
“我们关心的不是这里的政策差异，参议员。人们担心他削弱奥巴马政府，然后掩盖事实。”
今年早些时候，司法部长威廉·巴尔决定放弃DOJ对弗林的刑事指控，因为弗林在白宫接受联邦调查局的采访时向他撒谎。耶茨称这一决定“极不正常。”
耶茨说:“我在司法部做了将近30年的检察官，我肯定从来没有见过这样的恳求。”
耶茨还被问及她在2016年10月和2017年1月签署的两份授权监视前特朗普竞选助手卡特·佩吉的FISA申请。
DOJ监察长迈克尔·霍罗威兹去年的一份报告详细列出了申请中一系列令人不安的遗漏和错误，耶茨说她在批准时并不知道这些。
当格雷厄姆问她是否会在知道自己现在所知道的情况下签署申请时，耶茨回答说:“我知道的任何包括错误或遗漏的东西，她都不会签署。”
Former deputy AG Yates pushes back on Republican criticism of Russia investigation origins
Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates appeared before a Senate panel Wednesday where she pushed back against attacks by Republicans aimed at undercutting the legitimacy of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Yates, who served as deputy attorney general in the final year of the Obama administration and then briefly as acting attorney general under President Trump until her firing in January 2017, defended her role in overseeing aspects of the probe and at times directly disputed claims by Republicans who have alleged President Donald Trump and his associates were unfairly targeted by the FBI.
Countering a key claim by Trump, Yates told the committee that she did not believe former President Barack Obama or former Vice President Joe Biden sought to influence the FBI's investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, recalling a Jan. 5, 2017 Oval Office meeting where she first learned from Obama about Flynn's contacts with the former Russian ambassador.
"Something like that would have set off alarms for me and it would have stuck out both at the time and in my memory. No such thing happened," Yates said. "The president was focused entirely on the national security implications of sharing sensitive intelligence information with Gen. Flynn during the transition, a process at was already underway at the White House."
Early in the hearing, Trump took to Twitter to attack Yates as having "zero credibility" and being "a part of the greatest political crime of the Century."
Sally Yates has zero credibility. She was a part of the greatest political crime of the Century, and ObamaBiden knew EVERYTHING! Sally Yates leaked the General Flynn conversation? Ask her under oath. Republicans should start playing the Democrats game!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)August 5, 2020
Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, by contrast, said in his opening remarks at the hearing that he believed Yates acted properly and "exercised good legal judgment" in January 2017 when the FBI was investigating Flynn's contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
"My view of Ms. Yates is that she exercised good legal judgment in January 2017 and if people had followed her advice, things might be different today," Graham said. "I want to let you know, Ms. Yates, from my point of view, you analyzed the situation fairly correctly and we will get into that later on."
Graham's statement was in reference to Yates' criticism of former FBI Director James Comey, who Yates agreed "went rogue" when he authorized two FBI investigators to visit the White House to interview Flynn.
Yates has said she believed the proper course was to instead inform the White House first about Flynn's false public statements regarding his conversations with Kislyak, which she said posed a potential counterintelligence threat that could make him vulnerable to Russian blackmail.
Yates sought to correct Graham several times as he stated that the basis for the investigation of Flynn was rooted in the Logan Act -- an antiquated law barring U.S. citizens from unauthorized negotiations with foreign governments.
"It was a counterintelligence threat, not a criminal prosecution of the Logan Act that was the focus," Yates said.
Additionally, Yates disputed Graham's repeated claims that the FBI had closed its investigation into Flynn on Jan. 4, prior to their interviews with him -- as well as his claim that Flynn was being investigated over a mere "policy difference" with the Obama Administration's sanctions targeting Russia's election meddling.
"The concern was not about the policy difference here, senator. The concern was about him undercutting the Obama Administration and then covering it up," Yates said.
Earlier this year, Attorney General William Barr moved to drop the DOJ's criminal case against Flynn for lying to the FBI in his interview at the White House, a decision which Yates described as "highly irregular."
"I was a prosecutor in the Department of Justice for almost 30 years, and I've certainly never seen a pleading like this," Yates said.
Yates was also questioned about her sign-off on two FISA applications authorizing surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page in October 2016 and January 2017.
A report last year from DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz detailed a troubling series of omissions and errors in the applications, which Yates said she was unaware of at the time she approved it.
Asked by Graham about whether she would have signed off on the applications knowing what she knows now, Yates answered she "would not sign anything I knew to include errors or omissions."
