Donald Trump dismisses Russian Federation collusion claims as a total hoax

She was joined in the meeting by a senior career official in the Justice Department.

Trump, who fired Yates soon after taking office, shot off a series of pre-emptive strikes ahead of her appearance on Capitol Hill, accusing Obama of enabling Flynn, and assailing Yates for allegedly leaking classified information.

Perhaps that was for the ridicule he saw online, as Twitter users heckled the president for using software to pair his tweet with a picture of him surrounded by a huge group of people in the Oval Office giving a thumbs up to the camera. Obama himself told one of his closest advisers that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which by then had been investigating Trump associates’ possible ties to Russian Federation for about six months, seemed particularly focused on Flynn. McGahn asked Yates how Flynn did in the interview, but Yates said she could not answer.

She said Monday she did not – and that she had revealed no classified information herself.

The nature of Obama’s misgivings about Flynn was not clear.

Clinton last week partly blamed her upset loss to Trump on the release of the emails before the November election. Mr. Clapper said that he had at least on one occasion requested unmasking involving a Trump associate. And several opinion pieces are harshly critical of the former acting AG – but mostly for refusing to enforce the travel ban or, in the views of the authors, improperly carrying out the duties of her job, incluing following presidential orders. “Logic would tell you you don’t want the national security adviser to be in a position where the Russians have leverage over him”.

Weeks later, Yates reportedly warned the White House that Flynn’s phone calls with Moscow envoy Sergey Kislyak, which USA intelligence secretly monitored, could leave him open to blackmail.

By early Tuesday morning, the banner had been removed.

After Cornyn expressed “disappointment” about her decision on the executive order, the steely Yates responded by pointing out that during her confirmation hearing to the Department of Justice she was specifically asked by Cornyn, “If the president asked me to do something that was unlawful or unconstitutional. would I say no?”

Among the first set of advises President-elect Donald Trump received from his predecessor Barack Obama was to not hire retired general Michael Flynn, according to aides of the former president, but he chose to ignore it.

Mr Flynn’s links to Russian Federation are being scrutinised by the FBI and the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, as part of wider investigations into claimsMoscow sought to tip the election in favour of Mr Trump, and into contacts between Russian Federation and members of the president’s campaign team.

Yates was joined at the hearing by former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

The real news is that neither Yates nor Clapper had any direct proof of Russia-Trump campaign collusion.

“Director Clapper reiterated what everybody, including the fake media already knows – there is “no evidence” of collusion w/ Russian Federation and Trump”, Trump said.

Clapper previously made a similar comment in an interview on NBC.

He said the lessons of 2016 should be a “clarion call” for vigilance and action in future elections.

“They must be congratulating themselves for having exceeded their wildest expectations with a minimal expenditure of resources”, Clapper said.

Social media users on Twitter were prompt enough to mock and criticize the change to the president’s Twitter account, while some also pointed out it did not appear correctly on many devices.

Yates told the hearing she had been concerned that “the national security adviser essentially could be blackmailed by the Russians”. A source familiar with Rice’s discussions told CNN that when Graham invited her, Rice believed it was a bipartisan overture and was prepared to accept.

Donald Trump has been refuting reports about his campaign links with Russian Federation for months. At Monday’s hearing, Yates provided two important pieces of information that highlight just how reckless Trump was in dealing with his disgraced national security adviser.

US intelligence agencies have been blunt in their assessment that the hacks of Democratic email accounts were meant to benefit Republican Trump and harm Clinton. He said Flynn’s security clearance had been renewed in April 2016, and the Obama White House had not stepped in to revoke it. When reached by the AP last week, Billingslea refused to comment. She said she was not sure what the White House had done after she left.