--- title: Sally Yates: Russia Put Flynn in Serious Compromise Situation description: Sally Yates, the former acting Attorney General who was fired by Donald Trump, said the Russians had "real leverage" on Michael Flynn canonical: https://time.com/4780307/sally-yates-donald-trump-russia-mike-flynn-cnn-interview/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-16T12:03:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:56:36.861Z article:section: Politics og:title: Sally Yates Warns Russians Had ‘Real Leverage’ on Michael Flynn og:description: She also denied Trump's claims that she leaked information to the media og:url: https://time.com/4780307/sally-yates-donald-trump-russia-mike-flynn-cnn-interview/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte13f2d3470a1594b/6988cd6d0b72e325996edcc1/sally-yates2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2302 og:image:height: 1295 og:image:alt: Senate Holds Hearing On Russian Interference In U.S. Election og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sally Yates Warns Russians Had ‘Real Leverage’ on Michael Flynn twitter:description: She also denied Trump's claims that she leaked information to the media twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte13f2d3470a1594b/6988cd6d0b72e325996edcc1/sally-yates2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sally Yates Warns Russians Had ‘Real Leverage’ on Michael Flynn > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff May 16, 2017 12:03 PM UTC  Former acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill May 8, 2017 in Washington, DC. Former acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill May 8, 2017 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff May 16, 2017 12:03 PM UTC Former acting Attorney General [Sally Yates](http://time.com/4771960/sally-yates-ted-cruz-trump-travel-ban-watch/), who was fired by [President Donald Trump,](http://time.com/4778549/saudi-arabia-donald-trump-visit/) warned that the Russians had “real leverage” on former National Security Adviser [Michael Flynn](http://time.com/4776697/donald-trump-michael-flynn-defends-good-person/). In [an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper](http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/16/politics/sally-yates-anderson-cooper-cnntv/), Yates said Flynn was in a “serious compromise situation, that the Russians had real leverage.” When asked if Flynn’s actions were illegal, she said there was “certainly a criminal statute that was implicated by his conduct” and that Flynn had lied to Vice President Mike Pence. “We expected the White House to act,” Yates said, adding that they should have done so quickly. Before her first on-camera interview since being dismissed from the Trump Administration, Yates testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism. She discussed Flynn’s contact with the Russian Ambassador to the U.S. before Trump himself took office. Yates warned the Trump Administration about Flynn 17 days before he was fired. “Whether he is fired or not is a decision by the President of the United States to make, but it doesn’t seem like that’s the person who should be sitting in the National Security Adviser position,” she told CNN. Yates also told Cooper she had never leaked any classified information to the media — countering a claim Trump made in a [tweet](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/861592420043157504?lang=en) earlier this month. When asked about that tweet, Yates responded, “There have been a number of tweets that have given me pause.” Trump fired Yates in January after she refused to defend his administration’s first iteration of the travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4780307/sally-yates-donald-trump-russia-mike-flynn-cnn-interview/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4780307/sally-yates-donald-trump-russia-mike-flynn-cnn-interview/"},"headline":"Sally Yates Warns Russians Had ‘Real Leverage’ on Michael Flynn","datePublished":"2017-05-16T12:03:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:56:36.861Z","description":"She also denied Trump's claims that she leaked information to the media","url":"https://time.com/4780307/sally-yates-donald-trump-russia-mike-flynn-cnn-interview/","keywords":["Department of Justice","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte13f2d3470a1594b/6988cd6d0b72e325996edcc1/sally-yates2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte13f2d3470a1594b/6988cd6d0b72e325996edcc1/sally-yates2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Senate Holds Hearing On Russian Interference In U.S. Election","caption":"Senate Holds Hearing On Russian Interference In U.S. Election","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/department-of-justice/","name":"Department of Justice"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4780307/sally-yates-donald-trump-russia-mike-flynn-cnn-interview/","name":"Sally Yates Warns Russians Had ‘Real Leverage’ on Michael Flynn"}}]}] ```