A lawyer for former deputy Atty. Gen. Sally Yates wrote in letters last week that the Trump administration was trying to limit her testimony at congressional hearings focused on Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The hearing was later canceled by the House intelligence committee chairman. In the letters, attorney David O’Neil said he understood the Justice Department was invoking “further constraints” on testimony Yates could provide at a committee hearing that had been scheduled for Tuesday. He said the department’s position was that all actions she took as deputy attorney general were “client confidences” that could not be disclosed without written approval. “We believe that the Department’s position in this regard is overbroad, incorrect, and inconsistent with the Department’s historical approach to the congressional testimony of current and former senior officials,” O’Neil wrote in a March 23 letter to Justice Department official Samuel Ramer.
The White House said Tuesday it did not interfere with Yates’ plans to testify. “We have no problem with her testifying, plain and simple,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said.
Yates’ lawyer said she still intended to testify and would not disclose any classified information. A requirement that she not discuss even nonclassified material “is particularly untenable given that multiple senior administration officials have publicly described the same events,” O’Neil said.
House committee Chairman Devin Nunes announced on Friday he was canceling the hearing, days after the committee’s first hearing in which FBI Director James Comey confirmed that the bureau was investigating President Trump’s associates’ ties to Russia. Cancelling the hearing was one of several moves that have sparked outrage among Democrats on the committee. The typically bipartisan panel has been torn by disputes over Nunes’ ties to Trump’s campaign and questions about whether he can lead a probe independent of White House influence.
Full Article: White House stopped Yates testimony about Russian meddling in presidential election, lawyer says – LA Times.