*UPDATED TO INCLUDE RESPONSE FROM WHITE HOUSE*
A decision to abruptly cancel House Intelligence Committee hearings this week was reportedly forced by the Trump administration.
The Washington Post obtained letters regarding a forthcoming appearance of former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates before the committee, as part of its investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.
Yates was slated to appear before the panel on Tuesday, but the correspondences retrieved by the Post suggest that the White House moved to block her testimony. Committee chair Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) assented to the request.
Yates was fired by President Trump early in his administration for ordering the Justice Department to not defend his Muslim ban executive order in court. Yates’ decree was leaked to the press shortly after it was issued.
Her testimony, however, could be particularly valuable to the intel committee as she played a key role in the ouster of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, over phone calls he made to the Russian ambassador.
While serving as AG in late January, Yates informed White House counsel Donald McGahn that Flynn was misleading officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, on the nature of his phone calls with the Russian ambassador. The deception could leave Flynn vulnerable to blackmail, Yates warned the administration.
In a March 24 letter, Yates’ attorney, David O’Neill informed McGahn that his client intended to testify before the House Intelligence Committee at the invite of Chairman Nunes, and would accept questions related to Flynn.
“We believe that Ms. Yates should not be obligated to refuse to provide non-classified facts about the department’s notification to the White House of concerns about the conduct of a senior official,“ O’Neill wrote.
In a prior letter, the Department of Justice informed Yates’ counsel that she would need to seek permission from the White House since her testimony may involve matters covered by “the presidential communications privilege and possibly the deliberative process privilege.”
O’Neill disputed the DOJ’s recommendation as “incorrect,” citing the department’s “historical approach to congressional testimony of current and former senior officials.”
He added that numerous administration officials have already commented publicly about the matter that Yates would be testifying about. “Requiring Yates to refuse to provide such information is particularly untenable,” O’Neill stated.
O’Neill’s notice was sent to McGahn on Friday. On that same day, Chairman Nunes cancelled the scheduled hearing–an indication that the Trump administration invoked privilege over her testimony.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer flat-out denied the Post’s reporting, calling it “100 percent false.”
“We have no problem with her testifying,” Spicer told the press corps. “The White House does not exert executive privilege over these matters.”
The Ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), called for the proceedings to be immediately rescheduled.
“We would urge that the open hearing be rescheduled without further delay and that Ms. Yates be permitted to testify freely and openly,” Schiff stated, “so that the public may understand, among other matters, when the President was informed that his national security advisor had misled the Vice President and through him, the country, and why the President waited as long as he did to fire Mr. Flynn.”
Prior to Tuesday’s revelations about Yates, tensions were already ratcheting up on the House intel panel over the White House’s perceived influence on its chairman.
On Monday, Schiff, along with other Democrats, called on Nunes to recuse him from the investigation, following some recent erratic behavior.
Last week, Nunes informed the press and the White House about information he had learned from an intelligence official that suggested improper surveillance might have been conducted on Trump and his associates during the transition period.
It was later confirmed this week that Nunes first learned of this information during a meeting in a secure room on White House grounds.
Nunes has close ties to the Trump administration. He served as a member of the President’s transition team last December.
