Sally Yates Testifying News Today

>> reporter: sally yates testifying to a senate judiciary subcommittee that she spoke to the white house on three occasions about flynn. the first two happened in white house where she said flynn lied to vice-president pence about conversations he had with the russian ambassador. the vice-president maybe unintentionally disseminating that to the american people. >> we felt the vice-president was entitled to know that the information he had been given and that he was relaying to the american publ...

That we get this information to the white house, because in part because the vice-president was unknowingly making false statements to the public and because we believed that general flynn was compromised with respect to the russians. >> reporter: sally yates testifying to a senate judiciary subcommittee that she spoke to the white house on three occasions about flynn. the first two visits happened in the white house where she said flynn lied to vice president pence about the conversations he ha...

Yates when she was in place still as the acting attorney general. so im sure the administration is not looking forward to this testimony on either end. >> sean spicer claimed at the time that he was okay, that the white house was okay with sally yates testifying. but that was after the fact. the most interesting thing is the idea this is expanding beyond the roll. shifting gears over to europe right now, ivanka trump, daughter of the president, official white house advisor, that was some pickly ...

Were back with congressman adam schiff. now in turmoil as the parallel probe in the senate is moving forward. chairman devin nunes says the hearing probably wont hold any hearings until after the easter recess. thats almost a month away. do you believe he is trying to delay any serious progress in this investigation? >> it certainly is deeply disappointing if thats the pog he is taking because theres no reason to delay the hearing that we had scheduled for this week. as we were talking about ear...

Heres what ranking democrat adam schiff said about that canceled hearing late today. >> theres no reason to delay the hearing that we had scheduled for this week. as we were talking about earlier, if this is all about trying to avoid sally yates testifying, we now have the white house saying theyre in favor of it. were in favor of it. the public is in favor of it. so theres no reason to put this off. >> joining me right now is msnbc political analyst robert acosta and april ryan, white house cor...

And move ahead with the investigation just like chairman nunes said hes going to. >> and jeremy dimon getting a statement from deputy press secretary sarah sanders about the question of sally yates testifying and that hearing being canceled, as we were discussing. let me just read it, because the white house should have their say in this. this is a statement -- "the "washington post" storys entirely false. the white house has taken no action to prevent sally yates from testifying, and the depart...

It says it did not stand in the way of sally yates testifying. have you seen any evidence that the white house got involved? >> well, it depends on whether you call the department of justice part of the white house. i believe the department of justice was trying to silence her. >> well, but -- >> they wrote -- they wrote a left saying that you need to check with the white house essentially to see if the white house is going to invoke executive privilege. the white house didnt do that, so as far ...

The action was if you dont act well assume the following. great. i dont think you can read that any other way. shes im sure -- he is a very talented lawyer and wrote it specifically for it. we read it that way and chose not to act because we have no problem with her testifying. plain and simple. >> so executive privilege is not an issue for sally yates testifying. >> thats correct. >> one issue. you want to add? >> no. its interesting, this is very clearly worded. and yet somehow youre asking me...

The big question, why did it take the president weeks to act on flynn. we have it all covered. jessica schneider. >> reporter: chris, that is the question. why did it take 18 days for michael flynn to resign? former acting attorney general sally yates tried to lay it all out for lawmakers disclosing she warned the white house three times about michael flynns misstatements and filled in the chain of events that led to general palestinians ouster as national security adviser. >> we felt it was c...