Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton appeared Tuesday morning on the Sirius/XM “Breitbart News Daily” program to discuss former acting Attorney General Sally Yates’ testimony before a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding her involvement in the eventual firing of former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn.
Here’s what he had to say about her testimony and its impact on the as-yet unfounded liberal narrative that Russia directly colluded with President Donald Trump’s campaign to ensure he won the 2016 election:
“No collusion between the Russians and the Trump people,” he said. “The remaining legal issue of any serious note is the nature of the surveillance, whether it was licit or illicit; the unmasking, whether it was licit or illicit; and the leaking, which we know was illicit.
“That’s what the criminal investigation ought to be focused on. That’s what the Senate investigation and the House investigations ought to be focused on. I don’t know how many times we need to have someone like James Clapper testify there’s no evidence of collusion before we stop asking the question.”
Fitton was also asked about Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that was filed against the Department of Justice at the same time Yates was testifying. The watchdog group had previously requested all of her work-related emails, but had not received any response.
Judicial Watch issued the following statement about the lawsuit:
Judicial Watch announced today that it has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for emails of former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates from her government account. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:17-cv-00832)).
The suit was filed after the Justice Department failed to respond to a February 1, 2017, FOIA request seeking access to her emails between January 21, 2017, and January 31, 2017.
Yates was appointed by President Obama as U.S. attorney in northern Georgia and was later confirmed as deputy attorney general. In January 2017, she became acting attorney general for President Trump.
Ms. Yates was involved in the controversy concerning Gen. Michael Flynn, allegedly warning the Trump White House in early January about General Flynn’s contacts with the Russian ambassador, Sergei Kislyak. (Judicial Watch is separately suing for records concerning the surveillance and subsequent leaks regarding General Flynn.)
On January 30, Yates ordered the Justice Department not to defend President Trump’s January 27 executive order seeking a travel ban from seven Middle- Eastern countries. That same day, President Trump fired her for refusing to defend the action.
“Between her involvement in the Russian surveillance scandal and her lawless effort to thwart President Trump’s immigration executive order, Sally Yates’ short tenure as the acting Attorney General was remarkably troubling,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Her email traffic might provide a window into how the anti-Trump ‘deep state’ abused the Justice Department.”
Tuesday morning, Fitton said the FOIA request was a “simple” one, but rather than comply with it, the Department of Justice again forced his organization to take legal action. He said it is important to know what is in those emails because they could provide a window into how the Deep State was “abusing” the Department of Justice.
Fitton also discussed Yates’ decision not to uphold the Trump administration’s original executive order limiting the entry of foreign nationals while the government took steps to begin the president’s “extreme vetting” program. Click here to read excerpts of that conversation. {eoa}
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