The presiding justice of superior court and as us attorney who led undercover public investigations that involve wiretaps i have done this a lot and i viewed my role in those approvals as making sure the wiretap application was consistent with the criminal statute that we were trying to prosecute, that it was relevant to that. You werent an investigator, just making sure the material is in the statute. Correct. I think that probably very often took as an established fact that the fbi agent or Police Officer was telling us the truth, not customary prosecutorial practice to do an inquisition or a review of every statement made by an fbi agent or state Police Officer in preparing a warrant. If you have the slightest hint that something is wrong you definitely pursue that but the focus is more does this warrant a criminal case that we are making and that is the nature of the review at that level and you would hope the factual stuff would be sorted out before it got to the Deputy Attorney general. That is a fair rendition of the way the system plays out. I know people are frustrated about accountability, rosenstein did what you are talking about. By virtue of her position a different specific question. I will state for the record i dont believe rosenstein or miss yates intentionally submitted false information to the court. With that, senator klobuchar is next. Thank you, mister chairman. There you go. I want to take a moment after listening to the last questions i want to thank you for your dedicated service to our country. I spent some time in your state of georgia and how respected you are as us attorney on both sides of the aisle and all that you did, such an example for career employees at the Justice Department, that was you, you spent your career working on justice. I want to thank you for that and people watching this hearing have a different impression of you who i greatly admire and it is important as we look at senator hollys questioning not to lose sight of the context in which investigations into Michael Flynn and carter page took place, considered russian efforts, and effort that continues to this day, we all know that many of us had some classified briefings that i cant go into but this is continuing. You received and reviewed intelligence about russian interference in our 2016 election and help to court made the response. The attack that has been verified by trump intelligence officials, and the director of intelligents. Christopher ray said similar things. A coordinated effort by foreign power of this magnitude to interfere in our election. I really appreciate that. The point is spot on. Lets be really clear about this. This was an attack on our democracy, absolutely unprecedented. The russians are coming at us from multiple ways. An organized effort to break into the dnc and hack the email. They were looking around in the state. And trying to put a thumb on the scale, to try to aid the election of donald trump, then we find out Mister Papadopoulos so the russians reached out to the Trump Campaign prior to this release of emails suggesting they assist on the anonymous release of emails. This is an attack on our democracy and an investigation it requires all the Intel Community and everybody else to bear down on this. You testified before this committee, a highranking security official like flynn caught on tape with a born official saying one thing and another thing to the Vice President of the United States, mike pence. Just so we are clear on National Security officials being compromised in this way can you talk about the National Security risk of blackmail. Within the Us Government to be compromised on a foreign adversary. The russians knew that general flynn not only engaged in these discussions, lied about it to the Vice President lied to it seems a lifetime ago. The kind of thing we are fearful about give leverage over general flynn. Special counsel found russian interference in our election was sweeping and systematic, with 34 indictments with associates and advisers on federal charges. Are you are ever in effect for colin to question the finding of a special counsels report, that russia interviewed in the president ial election, the russian government perceived to benefit to secure the outcome. Bipartisan Senate Intelligence committee came to the same conclusion. In effect call into question the assessment of fbi director ray, interference in our election, interference in the 2018 midterm was in his words a dress rehearsal for the 2020 elections . That was something we need to be vigilant about, this was something that happened in the past. It is happening right now. Appointed by donald trump, working to make sure a foreign country does not influence our election but one of the ways we do this hacking and while 50 state election systems is also about what goes on on social media so that is where a lot of education efforts go. Are you are era of any facts that question the findings in the conference report of 120 contacts between the Trump Campaign to russia. Know, i am not. Thank you very much. I want to understand what happened here. Are you saying Mister Papadopoulos met with russians on behalf of the campaign . Approached by that. That is not my question. Is there any evidence Mister Papadopoulos met with russians on behalf of the campaign . Mister papadopoulos was a Foreign Policy advisor met with an individual Mister Papadopoulos charged with colluding with the russians. The context and timing. The Mueller Report is out and we will not go after these people twice and suggest papadopoulos transcribed interviews, would be treason. Dont want to bring these people back up and suggest they did something they didnt do. I think you know, he talked to a confidential human source. A foreign intelligence official in august, absolutely correct. Russian agent. Connected with russian intelligence. Really . Man. That is a new revelation. Miss yates, pull closer to the mike if you can. We are straining to hear. In response to chair grahams questions and senator cornyns questions you characterize comey, when senator graham used the word rogue, that is a word you could use and senator cornyns discussion, there is a violation of the rules and norms and behavior in the investigation. What about mister or . Could we use similar words to describe his behavior in the course of this investigation . Let me clarify because it is important we be accurate. Mister comays positions to interview general smith without coordinating that interview could be characterized as rocha. It was not characterized directly so it is important to be accurate. Mister ohr, in terms of his behavior in 2016 he was apparently aware steel was desperate to prevent donald trump from being elected. With that information is shared with you . No matter, that information was shared, with those conversations. You have been in the department of justice for 27 years. If you take a look, i am not an attorney, not a prosecutor but i have read or a witss report, does any of that make you angry with the lack of what i consider to be professionalism . Folks involved in this investigation are highly trained and educated. Is it fair to say there werent any rookies to provide you with evidence or provide you with information to make a decision . I would agree errors and omissions were unacceptable. A lot of people are interrupting you. It has to do with delay and the fact we are virtual. I apologize for that. It seems to me the cynic in me makes it hard to believe when they knew what they knew about the credibility of the steel dossier that they wouldnt think that was important to bring up the chain of command when making critical decisions and anybody and that process, before he went around you leading up to information you were acting on it seems to me some of these people should have been disciplined or fired. Do you agree with that . Dont know what is going on. Information should have been provided on the National Security position. Go ahead. Trusttes i also sspector general holden decision that he did not find evidence that any of these agents were acting with bias or political motive. When i looked at and read the try to figure to out what went wrong, what he seemed to have were agents who agents who superimpose and use their own judging from what was material are what was exculpatory and decide then what they would provide to the lawyers and the National Security division. Thats not how it should work. They should be giving all of the information to lawyers so those forced lawyers can make that determination. Could you at least understand combine some of the actions, their errors and omissions in some of the personal communications between some of thoseat involved why skeptic would maybe find hard to believe to take a generous view of it just being an honest mistake . Well, senator, the Inspector General would read over a million documents, over 107 interviews. I think hes in a better position that i am to be able to answer that question and he found again there was no evidence on bias or political. Do you believe the doj has everyone been or to believe the doj can actually charge someone under the logan act . Can it . Frankly ive never engaged in the analysis because we were not adequate to make a final determination to whether general flynn will be charged under the logan act. What i was trying to make clear to senator graham, that was not the prism through whiche we were examining this. Did you ever seriously consider prosecuting flynn under the logan act . We did not make an official decision when i was there but i believed it was very unlikely that well prosecute them under the logan act. It wasas a counterintelligence threat, not a criminal prosecution of the logan act that was the focus. Thank you ms. Yates. Senator coons. Thank you, chairman graham and Ranking Member feinstein. Thank you, ms. Yates for your 20 some years of service to the United States department of justice and foror your testimony here today. Let me just begin at the outset sort of a framing here. Do youou have any doubt that russian attack the United States during the 2016 president ial election with the intention of changing the outcome or influence the outcome of that election . None. You have any reason to be concerned with the russians man fact, be trying to do that again for the 2020 election . I think all of us should be very concerned about that. Our Intelligence Committee has told us that. Let me go back to some issues that event touched on before but make sure weve had a chance to explore them. Carter page was never charged in the Russian Investigation and out of the whole 448 pages of the Mueller Report only eight pages pertain to carter page but theres been some focus on it today. Just tell us briefly if you would when did you learn of the errors in the carter page fisa application . Long after i left office. When that fisa application reached a your desk as Deputy Attorney general after several layers of departmental review what were you looking for . What was appropriate for you to be looking for . I would like to explain what the process is for the fisa. I was looking to determine whether or not given the facts that had been sworn to in the affidavit from the fbi why the that met the Legal Standard for fisa. Youre right, theres several layers of review, the seven different lives every year ater the department of justice and i would expect a similar number of layers of review at the fbi. There have been quite a good bit of back and forth before the original fisa was signed, about a month of back and forth between the National Security division lawyers and the lawyers and agents of the fbi. When you did ultimately learn there were errors, did that strike you as inappropriate, uncalled for, in violation of practice and tradition . Absolutely. Not only was it unacceptable, i had great concern about how this impacts the departments credibility with the fisa court and otherwise and thats why it is incumbent upon Department Lawyers and agents not just in a highprofile case but in any case to work hard to be absolutely scrupulously accurate in every single document that is filed. When you went to the white house january 26, you had something serious to Tell White House counsel dond mcgahn. You went to tell them if i understand correctly that the president s National Security adviser general flynn could be blackmailed because he was lying about the content of this conversation with the russians. Is any there any doubt in yourd that general flynn glide about his conversations with the russians . No, there is not. General flynn pled guilty to lying to the fbi. Some have called lying to the fbi, which is a felony by the way, a process crime. Could you explain why lying to the fbi in the context that we are talking about here strikes at the very heart of the criminal Justice System . Certainly. First, in connection with any investigation the only way the department of justice can go about its job is people when theyre interviewed by the fbi are truthfulin and candid and providend complete information. Thats the only way to figure out what th facts are and to be able to determine if charges should be filed. Given your knowledge, if i could, of the flynn case and your 27 year career at justice, were you surprised when doj moved to dismiss the case after general flynn had pled guilty to lying to the fbi . I was very surprised by that. Let me ask a closing question if you could. Why was it important to interview general flynn . What was the purpose that underlay questioning general flynn . General flynn have had conversation with the Russian Ambassador, back channel come secret conversations and had been covering it up, have been providing false information to the Vice President and others to put out publicly. We, the governor, needed to know what is going on here. Was general flynn acting on his own or was he working with others lacks the investigators needed to be able to figure out what the relationship was between the campaign and the russians. And had general flynn been honest, had he told them the truth in this interview, then the agents would have known then but they only learned much, much later after he finally told the truth, and that is that these were not offthecuff conversations that he was having with theheff Russian Ambassador. But rather these weree conversations that were carefully organized in planned with other members of the trump transition period and he also been very careful to lie about and cover up even to the point of sending his deputy out when the news first broke of this to call the Washington Post and to give them w false information and you to say he had never discussed sanctions at all. Because the covert continued after that [inaudible] thank you, ms. Yates. Thank you for your testament and for your service to our nation. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you. Did general flynn commit a crime . When you say what general flynn did was ithe a crime . Talking to the Russian Ambassador. Again, i know i am on the record on this. We were doing i counterintelligence investigation. Thank you. Snort kennedy. Senator kennedy. Thank you fr appearing today. Violate the law by colluding with russia to influence the 2016 president ial election . Ms. Yates special counsel mueller found there was insufficient evidence to establish a conspiracy between donald trump and the russian campaign. Sen. Kennedy do you agree with that . Ms. Yates [indiscernible] i read the Mueller Report. Sen. Kennedy so there is doubt in your mind . Ms. Yates i did not say that, but i am not in a position to comment on that. Sen. Kennedy you just cant bring yourself to say he did not violate the law . Ms. Yates senator, you are putting words in my mouth. Specialand trust counsel mueller in his determination that there was insufficient evidence. I accept that. Sen. Kennedy you dont like donald trump, do you . Ms. Yates i dont respect the manner in which he has carried out the presidency. Sen. Kennedy you despise donald trump, dont you . Ms. Yates i dont despise anyone, senator. Sen. Kennedy isnt it true that there were a handful of people despised donald trump and wanted to do everything they could do to keep them from being president . Ms. Yates i cant speak as to whether other people despised donald trump. Sen. Kennedy were you part of that group . Ms. Yates no. Sen. Kennedy isnt it true that there were a handful of people at the department of justice during the Obama Administration that despised donald trump and did everything in their power to keep them from being president . Ms. Yates i am not aware of anyone in the department of justice doing anything to keep donald trump from becoming president. Sen. Kennedy were you part of that group . Ms. Yates no and i am not aware of anyone doing that. That was not only surprising but shocking. Sen. Kennedy would it be fair to say that was aeele dossier keystone of the russian collusion investigation, wasnt it . Ms. Yates no it was not. Carter paget of the fisa affidavit. If you read the Mueller Report you will see that the steele dossier does not play a role at all. Sen. Kennedy so you dont think it was important to the fisa applications . Said, yes as i just with respect to the phis a