(hat tip to Wikipedia for the picture of Sally Yates)
Vox:
The House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election is embroiled in yet another controversy.If Yates has some incredible evidence of wrongdoing by the White House, why can't she go to the press with it? I have no doubt the New York Times would happily give her the front page to enlighten the American people. CNN might give her several months of coverage.
A new report from the Washington Post’s Devlin Barrett and Adam Entous says that Trump administration officials wouldn’t approve former acting Attorney General Sally Yates’s planned testimony before the committee on certain topics, claiming they were “likely covered by the presidential communications privilege.”
According to documents obtained by the Post, Yates was planning to testify “about the [Justice] Department’s notification to the White House of concerns about the conduct of a senior official” — Michael Flynn, Trump’s fired national security adviser — at a House Intelligence Committee hearing.
The TRUTH is there really isn't much here that Yates could have:
In these documents, the Trump administration never explicitly tells Yates she can’t testify. However, a Justice Department official writes that Yates’s communications with the White House were “likely covered by the presidential communications privilege.” Therefore, the official continued, if Yates wanted explicit permission to testify about this, she should ask the White House.IF it was covered by the presidential communications privilege.
Continuing with her story:
Sally Yates was the holdover Obama Justice Department official who served as acting attorney general when Trump’s administration began (because Jeff Sessions hadn’t yet been confirmed by the Senate).
On January 26, Yates informed Trump’s White House counsel, Don McGahn, that US spies had evidence that then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had misrepresented his communications with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the transition. (Flynn told Vice President Mike Pence and others that he and Kislyak didn’t discuss US sanctions on Russia, but surveillance of Kislyak made clear that the two men had talked about the issue.)All I see here is potentially some sour grapes. She went against her boss and got fired. Even if you think she is right in what she did, that is a risk anyone takes when they openly defy their boss.
A few days later, on January 30, Yates refused to defend Trump’s travel ban aimed at people from seven predominantly Muslim nations in court, and Trump fired her.
Two weeks later, on February 13, the Washington Post published a report on Yates’s conversations with McGahn about Flynn. Later that night, Trump fired Flynn.
Speaking of firing the holdovers...
New York Daily News:
Newly elected Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez has asked all staffers working for the party to resign, according to a report Tuesday.It sounds harsh, but it makes perfect sense. You've just lost an election you were supposed to win. A housecleaning is in order.
Perez...formally requested the resignation letter of all current staffers to be submitted by April 15, NBC News reported.
Political parties typically see top-to-bottom turnover when a new boss comes in, so the move wasn’t entirely unexpected, sources told the network.
Speaking of failures...
CNN:
Republicans insisted they had no "Plan B" for their plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. But a few days later, after crashing into what might be the new third rail of American politics, Republicans are talking publicly and privately about ... Plan B.Here is why they are talking about a plan B so soon:
President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence spoke with several House members over the weekend to discuss a path forward, a senior administration official and Republican official with knowledge of the discussions told CNN. And House Speaker Paul Ryan -- despite saying Friday that "Obamacare is the law of the land" -- appears ready to keep going as well.
...Republicans can't go back to their voters and say they've given up. Moving on from repealing Obamacare would mean Republicans may have to admit defeat and face a sobering new reality, in which, they were not able to deliver on the policy goal that united them and catapulted them to victory in the House in 2010, the Senate in 2014 and the White House in 2016.To paraphrase the old saying, elections have consequences, especially when you win.
By the way, Rand Paul's Obamacare replacement is still available. The fact it is being ignored by both the Right and Left tells you it might be a decent plan.
In other news...
ABC 7 Chicago:
CHICAGO (WLS) -- A man was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood Monday morning, the agency said.When you hear such opposing accounts of the same incident, you know either somebody is wrong, lying, or the truth lies somewhere in-between.
Chicago police said a 53-year-old Felix Torres was shot in his left arm the 6100-block of West Grand Avenue at about 6:20 a.m.
A spokesman for ICE said that ICE Homeland Security Investigations agents were attempting to arrest a person when a second person pointed a weapon toward the agents and as a result, an agent fired his gun and wounded the man.
"Really sad and you know, I'm worried about my dad mostly. He's the one in the hospital. And my baby, we come out, like, with no shoes, nothing, we didn't know what was going on, we was sleeping," said Carmen Torres, daughter of the man who was shot.
Torres said ICE agents told her they were after one of her brothers, who is a U.S. citizen. She denied that her father had a weapon.
"My dad doesn't got no guns. My dad just went to see what's going on and that's why they shot him. He just opened the door and they shot him," Torres said.
This story continues with plenty of outrage from people, but not much in the way of facts. Reserve judgement until more facts are revealed. It is far too early to be outraged here.
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