WASHINGTON — (CNN) Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates is set to testify May 8 before a Senate judiciary investigation into Russia’s interference in last year’s elections, her second congressional hearing at which she’s scheduled to testify within the span of a week.
Yates’ appearance before the Sen. Lindsey Graham-led Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism would mark her second time when the former Obama appointee has been called to the Hill to testify on Russia’s meddling. Yates has been invited to testify at a public hearing of the House intelligence committee to be scheduled after May 2. A date has not been confirmed yet.
James Clapper, director of national intelligence under former President Barack Obama, was also scheduled to appear before the Senate judiciary subcommittee in the same hearing as Yates.
Yates was originally expected to tell lawmakers last month about phone calls between President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. But House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes abruptly postponed that hearing as part of a maneuver with the White House, which ultimately ended in him stepping away from the Russia investigation two weeks later and becoming the subject of a House ethics probe himself. Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan had also been scheduled to appear before that March hearing.
The Washington Post reported last month that the White House sought to block Yates’ testimony, citing attorney-client and presidential communications privileges — but White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump had no objection to Yates testifying.
The House and Senate intelligence committees have been running the primary investigations into Russia’s meddling in the election and possible coordination with Trump campaign aides. But other investigators, including Graham, have been probing those connections as well.
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