Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said Tuesday that former acting Attorney General Sally Q. Yates’ testimony proves the White House was more concerned with protecting President Trump than the country’s national security interests.
Mr. Whitehouse said on CNN that Ms. Yates’ warning about former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s Russian ties may have been seen as a political attack.
“I think that’s true. I think they may very well have seen Sally Yates’ warning as just a political attack and not seen the fact that she was there with a very serious national security concern,” he said.
But Mr. Whitehouse said it is concerning that the administration waited 18 days to act on the warning, especially since it related to national security, regardless of whether they felt it was politically motivated.
“They’re attuned it seems more to defending the president than to taking care of national security business in an appropriate way,” he said.
“That would help explain why for those 18 days until this story actually appeared in The Washington Post and threatened to embarrass the president that they didn’t appear take any serious action to limit this guy’s access to classified information or sensitive meetings,” Mr. Whitehouse said.
Mr. Whitehouse is a member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, which Ms. Yates testified before on Monday.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.