ms. yates: thank you for your kind words. i appreciate that. your point is spot on. ,his attack, and let's be clear this was an attack on our democracy. this attack was absolutely unprecedented. the russians were coming at us through multiple means. effort toan organized break into the dnc and hack the emails and systematically release them. there was a social media campaign aimed at hillary and they were looking around in the state election system. all of this is going on and then we find it is for the purpose of trying to put a thumb on the scale for one particular candidate, to try to aid the election of donald trump and to hurt hillary clinton. beyond that, we find out early thatom mr. papadopoulos the russians had actually reached out to the trump campaign prior to this release of emails, offering or suggesting that they can assist with the anonymous release of emails. this was an unprecedented attack on our democracy, an investigation that requires all of the intel community and everybody

ms. yates. >> senator coons. >> thank you, chairman graham and ranking member feinstein. thank you, ms. yates for your 20 some years of service to the united states department of justice and foror your testimony here today. let me just begin at the outset sort of a framing here. do youou have any doubt that russian attack the united states during the 2016 presidential election with the intention of changing the outcome or influence the outcome of that election? >> none. >> you have any reason to be concerned with the russians man fact, be trying to do that again for the 2020 election? >> i think all of us should be very concerned about that. our intelligence committee has told us that. >> let me go back to some issues that event touched on before but make sure we've had a chance to explore them. carter page was never charged in the russian investigation and out of the whole 448 pages of the mueller report only eight pages pertain to carter page but there's been some focus on it today. just tell

ms. yates: thank you for your kind words. i appreciate that. your point is spot on. ,his attack, and let's be clear this was an attack on our democracy. this attack was absolutely unprecedented. the russians were coming at us through multiple means. effort toan organized break into the dnc and hack the emails and systematically release them. there was a social media campaign aimed at hillary and they were looking around in the state election system. all of this is going on and then we find it is for the purpose of trying to put a thumb on the scale for one particular candidate, to try to aid the election of donald trump and to hurt hillary clinton. beyond that, we find out early thatom mr. papadopoulos the russians had actually reached out to the trump campaign prior to this release of emails, offering or suggesting that they can assist with the anonymous release of emails. this was an unprecedented attack on our democracy, an investigation that requires all of the intel community and everybody

ms. yates appeared before the committee on may 18th, 2017. that was before the mueller investigation really got started. it was before the horowitz report about the mueller investigation was issued, and i believe much has been learned since may of 2018 -- 2017. and we would like to discuss certain topics with ms. yates. my view of ms. yates is that she exercised good caution and legal judgment in january of 2017, and if people had followed her advice, things might be different today, so i just 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. what's the purpose of this hearing? it's to ask questions of ms. yates knowing then what she knows now -- carter page warrant application, in may of 2017, we didn't know that the russian sub source presented evidence to the fbi in the form of a dossier that was full of hearsay and bar talk that was eventually repudiated by the russian sub source. we didn't know in may of

ms. yateshe russians did interfere in our elections. the russians stole the clinton emails and the russians were up to no good. that is not a bone of contention with me. what happened during crossfire hurricane is very much a concern of mine. so on january 4th, 2017, we now know that the f.b.i. agents who were investigating general flynn as part of a counter intelligence investigation, had recommended that general flynn be dropped from the crossfire hurricane investigation. the counter -- the crossfire hurricane team determined that crossfire razor, flynn investigation, was no longer a viable candidate as part of the larger crossfire hurricane umbrella case. a review of logical databases did not yield any information on which to predicate further investigative efforts. this is on january 4th, 2017 where the f.b.i. was making a recommendation through a memo to drop general flynn from the counter intelligence investigation called crossfire hurricane. we now know that peter strzok told mr. barnett

there's -- ms. yatess she has no idea what her deputy doing as he facilitates contact between political party research and the fbi, now idea these applications materially misrepresented a federal court. nobody appears to know anything in this government, and yet somehow a federal court was deliberately and systematically misled so severe hi that they now say they can't trump anything the fbi e did. if this doesn't call for a cleaning of house, i don't know what it is. i just know that bruce ohr is still on the payroll. lou: and bries other on -- bruce ohr on the payroll, by the way, is the least of the offenses off the obama era fbi. president trump tweeted this, quote: big news, the political crime of the century e is up folding. obama/biden illegally spied on the trump campaign both before and after the election. treason. with an exclamation point. president trump today also railed against the radical dems' latest efforts to subvert his presidency. here's what he said just moments ago during his meeting

. >> it appears that ms. yatesittle bit of cya and she called out jim comey for going rogue, that's quite a statement coming from her when you had comey who was going about things, furthering this investigation, going to interview michael flynn against the recommendation of others and sally yates saying she would not of approved that interview if comey had come to her beforehand. liz: sally yates seems to think flynn was investigated because the policy differences with the incoming trump administration. but she could not provide any evidence of a crime flynn had committed and talking to the russian ambassador. the government documents a flynn phone call with the russian ambassador appears legit. and basically what yates is saying, flynn was trying to neuter obama administration sanctions on russia, general flynn's phone call and documents show he don't escalate, we need you on isis, that's the issue two, the brookings institution finds a trump administration has been tougher on russia than the obama administration,

there's -- ms. yatess she has no idea what her deputy doing as he facilitates contact eebentwtwittwolalartyrc d thane fbi,ow ndehehe ionsatioater miaatllyiall goppea arsppears to to kno kw ah hihihi gover gnmov gt,en mealededed court cou cou wasas ly andly alyly sys s severe severi s hihatt t now s they c tmpmp ything thebi e e d.. hisssn't csn'tlor a it is.of house, i't kno't k i just knot k thatha bruce ohr s still on the payroll. lou: and bries other on -- bruce ohr on the payroll, by the way, is the least of the offenses off the obama era fbi. president trump tweeted this, quote: big news, the political crime of the century e is up folding. obama/biden illegally spied on the trump campaign both before and after the election. treason. with an exclamation point. president trump today also railed against the radical dems' latest efforts to subvert his presidency. here's what he said just moments ago during his meeting with the governor of arizona about voter fraud. >> this mail-in voting where they mail

. >> ms. yates obama administration was surveilling the donald trump campaign? >> the obama administration was not surveilling the donald trump campaign >> seth: these guys are so easy to checkmate you despise donald trump, don't you? well, you don't? well, now what am i supposed to do with the rest of my five minutes? that was my ace in the hole. and, ted, you weren't prepared with a follow-up you didn't think she'd just shut down your bull[ bleep ] question in one sentence? "all right, ted. it's all on you today. "don't worry, guys i got this." "i see you only have one index card there, ted. "yep, that's all i need. "you sure? "it's a lock." "what if it doesn't work?" "oh, it will work, or my name isn't ted cruz." "isn't your name rafael? "dammit. well then, i'll just hide behind my facial hair." trump is not unique, and he's not an anomaly he's the culmination of decades of conservative politics his lawlessness, racism, sociopathic incompetence are endemic to the entirety of the modern republican

and i want to let ms. yates know that i have no doubt when she signed the application she did so in good faith relying on information to be truthful and she would not have defrauded the court and i have no belief that she did. >> thank you, mister chairman. why don't we pick up right there because the chairman says he has no doubt that you had no intent to defraud the court. i noticed when mister rosenstein was here before this committee, i'm sure you size testimony or read it a few weeks ago he said he couldn't be to blame or otherwise be held accountable for the falsified fisa applications, many ministerial misstatements of fact because he just relied on the representations that were made to him so we are left wondering who exactly is responsible here? it seems nobody is responsible. somehow or another a federal court, a secret federal court was actively misled, lied to and presented with falsified evidence but nobody in the chain of command is to blame so let me ask did you read these fisa applications? >> ye

ms. yates previously testified she met with president obama and vice president biden.and brennan and a few others. to talk about the ongoing surveillance of general flynn who is the incoming national security advisor. at that meeting, she learned for the first time and she's number two at the justice department on january the fifth, 2017 that's the fbi was surveilling general flynn. what shocked her the most was that obama knew about it and she didn't. i want her to explain to us how is it possible the president of the united states knows about a surveillance of the incoming national security advisor, general flynn, and you didn't. and did she hear vice president biden mention whether or not flynn may have violated the logan act. maria: joining me right now is former federal prosecutor, fox news contributor, andrew mccarthy. great to have you this morning. what are you expecting from sally yates today? >> well, i think based on what senator graham told you, maria, we already know what she'll say about why she didn't know about the flynn surveillance at the time that sh

ms. yates extent there were misrepresentations in the fisa warrant submitted to her she was unaware of it. she thought it was unacceptable and she thinks it's appropriate for there to be an investigation as the inspector general conducted into how that came about. but some of the characterizations that you just played are not accurate. it was clear that general flynn lied to the f.b.i. to conceal his actions and was appropriately convicted an sentenced as a result. and the larger point there is no dispute that russia interfered in our 2016 election. is trying to do so again in 2020. and that should be bringing us together as republicans and democrats to invest in making sure that our election this fall is secure from any foreign interference. >> trace: i think what senator graham was trying to point out is the fact that going into this thing there was pretty good evidence that you say michael flynn lied to the f.b.i. also pretty good evidence that the f.b.i. tried to set him up during that inte