Barack Obama warned Donald Trump against hiring Michael Flynn as national security adviser during an Oval Office meeting after the 2016 election. Photo / AP
Barack Obama warned Donald Trump against hiring Michael Flynn as national security adviser during an Oval Office meeting after the 2016 election. Photo / AP
Former US President Barack Obama warned Donald Trump against hiring Michael Flynn as national security adviser in the days after the 2016 election.
That's according to three former Obama administration officials. The warning came during an Oval Office meeting between Obama and Trump after the Republican's victory. Flynn had been fired by the Obama administration as the head of the military's intelligence branch.
Trump ultimately tapped Flynn as national security adviser, but fired him after less than a month.
The revelation came as an official in the Obama administration who also warned the Trump White House about Flynn and his ties to Russia is set to speak publicly for the first time about the concerns she raised.
Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates is testifying before a US Senate Judiciary subcommittee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election on Monday (US time).
Sally Yates is expected to testify to Congress that she expressed alarm to the White House about Trump's national security adviser's contacts with the Russian ambassador. Photo / AP
The highly anticipated hearing - it is Yates's first appearance on Capitol Hill since her firing in January - is expected to fill in key details in the chain of events that led to the ouster of Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump's first national security adviser, in the early weeks of the administration.
The February resignation followed media reports Flynn had discussed US-imposed sanctions on Russia with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition period, which was contrary to the public representations of the White House.
Trump moved to distance himself from his former adviser's troubles on Monday, tweeting that it was the Obama administration that gave Flynn "the highest security clearance" when he worked at the Pentagon.
The president made no mention of the fact that Flynn was fired by the Obama administration in 2014.
In a second tweet, Trump said Yates should be asked under oath "if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers" soon after she raised concerns about Flynn with White House counsel Don McGahn on January 26.
General Flynn was given the highest security clearance by the Obama Administration - but the Fake News seldom likes talking about that.
Yates is expected to testify that she warned McGahn that Flynn's contacts - and the discrepancies between what the White House said happened on the calls and what actually occurred - had left him in a compromised position, according to a person familiar with her expected statements. The person was not authorised to discuss the testimony by name and requested anonymity.
White House officials have said publicly that Yates merely wanted to give them a "heads-up" about Flynn's Russian contacts, but Yates is likely to testify that she expressed alarm to the White House about the incidents, according to the person.
Trump has said he has no nefarious ties to Russia and isn't aware of any involvement by his aides in Moscow's interference in the election. He's dismissed FBI and congressional investigations into his campaign's possible ties to the election meddling as a "hoax" driven by Democrats bitter over losing the White House.
He's also accused Obama officials of illegally leaking classified information about Flynn's contacts with Kislyak.
Then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn speaks during the daily news briefing at the White House, in Washington. Photo / AP
Meanwhile, a US federal appeals court on Monday was set to examine the Trump administration's travel ban targeting six Muslim-majority countries which has been held up by a series of legal defeats.
The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals will examine a ruling that blocks the administration from temporarily barring new visas for citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. It's the first time an appeals court will hear arguments on the revised travel ban, which is likely destined for the US Supreme Court.
Pointing to the Republican's promises on the campaign trail to bar Muslims from entering the country, a federal judge in Maryland found in March that the policy appeared to be driven primarily by religious animus.
Attorneys for the US Justice Department say the court shouldn't rely on Trump's statements, but on the text of the policy, which they say is necessary to protect the country from terrorism. The banned countries represent just a fraction of the predominantly Muslim countries worldwide, they note.
As part of the US Senate's Russia probe former National Intelligence Director James Clapper is also scheduled to testify.
Clapper attracted attention for a March television interview in which he said that he had seen no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia at the time he left government in January. Republicans have seized on that statement as vindication for the Trump campaign, but investigations are ongoing.
The Associated Press meanwhile reported last week that one sign taken as a warning by Obama administration officials about Flynn's contacts with Kislyak was a request by a member of Trump's own transition team made to national security officials in the Obama White House for the classified CIA profile of Kislyak.
The revelation came after interviews with a host of former US officials, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive national security information.
Marshall Billingslea, a former Pentagon and NATO official, wanted the information for Flynn, his boss. Billingslea knew Flynn would be speaking to Kislyak, according to two former Obama administration officials, and seemed concerned Flynn did not fully understand he was dealing with a man rumoured to have ties to Russian intelligence agencies.
When reached by the AP last week, Billingslea refused to comment. Last month, Trump announced his intention to nominate Billingslea to serve as assistant secretary for terrorist financing at the Treasury Department.
Obama aides also described Flynn as notably dismissive of the threat Russia posed to the United States when discussing policy in transition meetings with outgoing national security adviser Susan Rice and other top officials.
Yates's warning about Flynn in January capped weeks of building concern among top Obama officials, the officials told the AP. President Barack Obama himself that month told one of his closest advisers that the FBI, which by then had been investigating Trump associates' possible ties to Russia for about six months, seemed particularly focused on Flynn.
Yates, a longtime federal prosecutor and Obama administration holdover, was fired January 31 by Trump after refusing to defend the administration's travel ban.
