Sally Yates, the Obama appointee who served as acting Attorney General for 10 days under President Trump, testified before the Senate Subcommittee On Crime And Terrorism today. You can watch footage of the three-and-a-half-hour hearing here.

Yates detailed the conversations she had with the White House counsel, Donald McGahn, regarding former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn's contact with a Russian official in December. James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, also testified today. We live-blogged the highlights from Yates' and Clapper's testimony, which appear in reverse-chronological order below.

Senator Chuck Grassley asks Yates if she believes "that the government's response so far has been enough to deter future attacks of this kind" (in reference to Russian interference with democratic processes). "If not, what else would you think we should be doing?" Yates minces no words in her reply:

I think they're coming back, Senator. And I think that we have to do a whole lot more, both to harden our election systems, our state election systems, to ensure that folks out there know when they're looking at news feeds that it may not be real news that they're reading. I think that we have to do more to deter the Russians. And it wouldn't hurt to prosecute a few folks, but I don't think we should kid ourselves that we'll be able to prosecute our way out of this problem.

Republican John Neely Kennedy, the junior senator from Louisiana, goes back to the topic of leaks, which have been amply covered already. He ends up going a bit overboard in defining what qualifies as a "leak."

Clapper: Well, unclassified is not leaking. [ laughter ] Unclassified … that's somewhat of a non sequitur.

Kennedy: General Clapper, have you ever leaked information, classified or unclassified, to a member of the press?

Kennedy tries to come back with a punch line of his own.

Kennedy: Have you ever given information to a reporter that you didn't want to have your name connected with but you wanted to see it in the paper? Clapper: I have not. I've had many encounters with media over my career. Kennedy: I'm sorry about that.



Yates Says She Learned About Trump's Travel Ban From The Media, Not The White House

Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar pointed out that Yates' second in-person meeting with McGahn "was the same day that this refugee order came out, and it was the same day that you had to leave the Justice Department." Klobuchar asked Yates what time she met with McGahn on January 30, and Yates said it was around 3 o'clock.

Klobuchar: And during that meeting, did anyone mention that this refugee order was about to come out? Did the acting attorney general of the United States? Yates: No, and that was one thing that was of concern to us, that not only was department leadership not consulted here, and beyond department leadership really the subject matter experts, the national security experts, not only was the department not consulted, we weren't even told about it. I learned about this from media reports. Klobuchar: So you learned about it after the meeting with the White House counsel from the media? Yates: Right.

Ted Cruz Tries To Turn The Hearing Into A Referendum On Hillary's Emails

Senator Cruz is now asking Clapper what he would do in a hypothetical case in which a person forwarded emails with classified information to a person without security clearance — a clear reference to the emails Clinton aide Huma Abedin forwarded to her husband Anthony Weiner, as per FBI director James Comey's testimony last week. Clapper seems confused.

Wow, Ted Cruz uses the Clapper/Yates hearings to make the case against Hillary Clinton's email server management. — Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) May 8, 2017

Yates Explains Why She Declined To Defend Trump's First Travel Ban

Under fire from Republican Senator John Cornyn, Yates explained why she couldn't defend an executive order that she believed was unconstitutional.

Sally Yates concludes exchange with @JohnCornyn: "Senator I did not say it was lawful. I said it was unlawful." pic.twitter.com/pypY569Zz8 — CSPAN (@cspan) May 8, 2017

Yates Says 'This Was A Matter Of Some Urgency' Because Flynn Was 'Compromised'

"We felt like it was critical that we get this information to the White House," Yates said, "in part because the vice president was unknowingly making false statements to the public and because we believed that General Flynn was compromised with respect to the Russians." Later, she added, "To state the obvious, you don't want your national security advisor compromised by the Russians."

Sally Yates: "We believed General Flynn was compromised with respect to the Russians" pic.twitter.com/Cd2sH4KSl9 — Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) May 8, 2017

Yates Says She Had Three Conversations With White House Counsel Donald McGahn About Flynn

I had two in-person meetings and one phone call with the White House counsel about Mr. Flynn. The first meeting occurred on January 26. I called Don McGahn first thing that morning and told him that I had a very sensitive matter that I needed to discuss with him, that I couldn't talk about it on the phone, and that I needed to come see him. And he agreed to meet with me later that afternoon. I took a senior member of the national security division who was overseeing this matter with me to meet with Mr. McGahn. We met in his office at the White House, which is a SCIF, so we could discuss classified information in his office. We began our meeting telling him that there had been press accounts of statements by the vice president and others that related conduct that Mr. Flynn had been involved in that we knew not to be the truth. And as I tell you what happened here, again, I'm going to be very careful not to reveal classified information.

At this point Graham interrupted her, but he let her return to her account of this conversation a few minutes later. She said she described Flynn's conduct to McGahn in detail and told him that she felt that administration officials, and the American people, had been misled by Flynn.

We weren't the only ones that knew all of this — that the Russians also knew what General Flynn had done, and the Russians also knew that General Flynn had misled the vice president and others. Because in the media accounts, it was clear from the vice president and others that they were repeating what General Flynn had told them, and that this was a problem, because not only did we believe that the Russians knew this, but that they likely had proof of this information, and that created a compromise situation, a situation where the national security advisor essentially could be blackmailed by the Russians. Finally, we told them that we were giving them all of this information so that they could take action, the action that they deemed appropriate. I remember that Mr. McGahn asked me whether or not General Flynn should be fired, and I told him that that really wasn't our call, that was up to them, but that we were giving them this information so that they could take action. And that was the first meeting.

Yates Declines To Say Whether There's Any Evidence Of Collusion Between Trump's Team and Russia

From NPR's live-blog:

Yates refused to say whether intelligence exists that shows a member of the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin. "My answer to that question would require me to reveal classified information," Yates said. But she urged the senators not to take that non-answer as confirmation that evidence does exist, saying she was taking the same approach as FBI Director James Comey to a question that centers on a classified investigation.

[NPR]

Yates Warns That Many "Topics Of Interest" Are Classified

In her prepared introductory remarks, Yates emphasized that she won't be able to speak freely about topics that concern classified information.

I also want to note that I intend my answers today to be as fulsome and comprehensive as possible while respecting my legal and ethical boundaries. As the Subcommittee understands, many of the topics of interest today concern classified information that I cannot address in this public setting, either directly or indirectly. My duty to protect classified information applies just as much to me as a former official as it did when I led the Department.