--- title: Sally Yates Told the White House Michael Flynn 'Could Be Blackmailed' by Russia | TIME description: Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, speaking publicly for the first time about concerns she brought to the Trump White House on Russia, told Congress on Monday she warned that Michael Flynn "essentially could be blackmailed" by Russia canonical: https://time.com/video/t1CmGtRt/ og:title: Sally Yates Told the White House Michael Flynn 'Could Be Blackmailed' by Russia og:description: Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, speaking publicly for the first time about concerns she brought to the Trump White House on Russia, told Congress on Monday she warned that Michael Flynn "essentially could be blackmailed" by Russia og:url: https://time.com/video/t1CmGtRt/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/t1CmGtRt/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sally Yates Told the White House Michael Flynn 'Could Be Blackmailed' by Russia twitter:description: Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, speaking publicly for the first time about concerns she brought to the Trump White House on Russia, told Congress on Monday she warned that Michael Flynn "essentially could be blackmailed" by Russia twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/t1CmGtRt/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Sally Yates Told the White House Michael Flynn 'Could Be Blackmailed' by Russia > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Sally Yates Told the White House Michael Flynn 'Could Be Blackmailed' by Russia [Watch (HLS stream): Sally Yates Told the White House Michael Flynn 'Could Be Blackmailed' by Russia](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/t1CmGtRt.m3u8) (1:32)  _Published 2017-05-08. Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, speaking publicly for the first time about concerns she brought to the Trump White House on Russia, told Congress on Monday she warned that Michael Flynn "essentially could be blackmailed" by Russia_ --- Jul 27, 2023 9:54 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Sally Yates and Ted Cruz Have Heated Exchange Over Travel Ban](/video/mF2QLTEg/) ### Sally Yates and Ted Cruz Have Heated Exchange Over Travel Ban [Sally Yates' Testimony Before the Senate Judiciary Committee](/video/HrVWNxRb/) ### Sally Yates' Testimony Before the Senate Judiciary Committee [White House: President Trump Fired Michael Flynn](/video/uwph3OmS/) ### White House: President Trump Fired Michael Flynn --- ## Transcript I had two in person meetings and one phone call with the White House Counsel about Mr. Flynn. We told them that we were giving them all of this information so they could take action, the action that they deemed appropriate. I remember the Mr. McGahn asked me whether or not General Flynn should be fired, And I told him that that really wasn't our call, that was up to them, but that we were giving them this information so that they could take action. We were concerned that the American people had been misled about the underlying conduct and what General Flynn had done, and additionally, that we weren't the only ones that knew all of this. That the Russians also knew about what General Flynn had done. And the Russians also knew that General Flynn had misled the vice president and others, because in the media accounts, it was clear from the vice president and others that they were repeating what General Flynn had told them, and that this was a problem, Because not only did we believe that the Russians knew this, but that they likely had proof of this information. And that created a compromise situation. A situation where the national security advisor essentially could be blackmailed by the Russians. Every time this lie was repeated And the misrepresentations were getting more and more specific as they were coming out, every time that happened, it increased the compromise and to state the obvious, you don't want your national security adviser compromised with the Russians. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Sally Yates Told the White House Michael Flynn 'Could Be Blackmailed' by Russia","description":"Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, speaking publicly for the first time about concerns she brought to the Trump White House on Russia, told Congress on Monday she warned that Michael Flynn \"essentially could be blackmailed\" by Russia","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/t1CmGtRt/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-05-08T21:34:44.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/t1CmGtRt.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/t1CmGtRt/","duration":"PT1M32S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/t1CmGtRt/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```