Sally Yates speaks -- and the strange tale of Michael Flynn begins to unwind a little
TUESDAY, MAY 9, 2017 12:00 PM EDT
Sally Yates speaks — and the strange tale of Michael Flynn begins to unwind a little
Whatever Flynn said to the Russians was "problematic in itself," Yates said — and the 18-day gap remains a mystery
HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
Forty-five years ago next month a White House conversation took place that will be remembered by history as the one containing the infamous “18-minute gap.” That was the day after the Watergate break-in, when 18-1/2 minutes of a recorded conversation between President Richard Nixon and his top lieutenant, H.R. Haldeman, were mysteriously erased from a tape. It was apparently the first time they discussed the event, and quite likely began to plan the ensuing coverup.
Many events pertaining to that crime were revealed over the course of the following two years, the story unfolding in fits and starts, but that remains one of the most memorable and mysterious of the details that finally led to the resignation of Nixon in August of 1974.
Watergate buffs undoubtedly heard the echoes of that famous occasion on Monday, when they heard the news media’s repeated references to an “18-day gap” in regards to former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s and former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates’ testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism. That’s the length of time it took between the day Yates informed the White House that its national security adviser, Michael Flynn, had possibly been compromised by the Russian government and the day President Donald Trump finally fired him from his post.
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The story is pretty straightforward. Yates met with White House counsel Don McGahn on Jan. 26 and 27 and had one follow-up phone call to inform the administration of the Department of Justice’s concerns about Flynn. The Washington Post reported back in February that McGahn then “immediately” briefed Trump on the matter. Nonetheless, Flynn participated in an hour-long phone call with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Jan. 28, for which the official read-out was brief and uninformative.
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http://www.salon.com/2017/05/09/sally-yates-speaks-and-the-strange-tale-of-michael-flynn-begins-to-unwind-a-little/