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Obama Knew Details From Wiretapped Flynn Phone Calls, Surprising Top DOJ Official: Documents
WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 13: U.S President Barack Obama speaks as Vice President Joe Biden listens during a meeting with FBI Director James Comey, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) Nicholas Rasmussen, and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates in the Oval Office of the White House June 13, 2016 in Washington, DC. President Obama received an update on the investigation into the attack in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Outgoing President Barack Obama revealed in early 2017 that he knew details from phone calls incoming Trump administration National Security Advisor Michael Flynn made, surprising one of the Department of Justice’s top officials, according to newly released documents.
The department on Thursday moved to dismiss the criminal case against Flynn that rested on the phone calls.
Sally Yates, the deputy attorney general at the time, recalled meeting with Obama at the White House on Jan. 5, 2017, along with a number of other officials, including then-FBI Director James Comey.
After dismissing everyone but Yates, Comey, then-National Security Advisor Susan Rice, and then-Vice President Joe Biden, Obama told them he had “learned of the information about Flynn” and the lieutenant general’s discussion with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.ADVERTISING
Kislyak’s phone calls were being wiretapped by government officials, allowing them to hear what Flynn told him.
Obama told the trio he didn’t want additional information about the matter but wanted to know whether the White House should, in light of the information, treat Flynn differently.
Yates “was so surprised by the information she was hearing that she was having a hard time processing it and listening to the conversation at the same time,” FBI agents who interviewed her wrote in a report about the interview.
Yates told the agents that she didn’t know what Obama was talking about but figured it out based on the conversation. She did not know who told Obama about the details. She recalled Comey mentioning the Logan Act, a centuries-old law that’s never been successfully prosecuted.