Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates on Friday slammed President Donald Trump’s \u00ab\u00a0inexplicable refusal\u00a0\u00bb to confirm Russian interference in the 2016 election, saying it hinders the US Intelligence Community.<\/b>
\n\u00ab\u00a0They had a very robust and lengthy exchange on the subject, \u00a0\u00bb Tillerson added.
But when he spoke at a news conference in Warsaw, Poland, on Thursday, Trump only offered a tepid endorsement of findings by intelligence officials that Russia was behind the election meddling.
\u00ab\u00a0I think it very well could be Russia but I think it could very well have been other countries, \u00a0\u00bb Trump said. After noting \u00ab\u00a0wrong\u00a0\u00bb intelligence that led to the \u00ab\u00a0one big mess\u00a0\u00bb in Iraq, he concluded, \u00ab\u00a0Nobody really knows. Nobody really knows for sure\u00a0\u00bb who did the hacking.
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, appearing on CNN’s \u00ab\u00a0The Situation Room\u00a0\u00bb Thursday, attacked the claim that others may have interfered.
\u00ab\u00a0As far as others doing this, boy, that’s news to me, \u00a0\u00bb Clapper said. \u00ab\u00a0We saw no evidence whatsoever that it was anyone involved in this other than the Russians.\u00a0\u00bb
Yates has voiced concerns about the Trump administration and Russia before. In a May congressional hearing about the firing of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Yates testified: \u00ab\u00a0To state the obvious: You don’t want your national security adviser compromised with the Russians.\u00a0\u00bb
Trump fired Yates in January, citing her decision to not defend Trump’s travel ban. At the time, the White House criticized Yates for \u00ab\u00a0betray (ing) the Department of Justice.\u00a0\u00bb
The tweet was Yates’ second as a private citizen since she launched her account last month.<\/p>\n

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