The Trump administration has done all it can to silence her, but Ranking Member of the Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff says if he has anything to do with it, former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates will get a chance to tell her story.
Schiff told CBS This Morning that with Devin Nunes’ recusal, the Intel Committee is “back on track”:
Schiff says the Intel Cmte is "back on track" following Nunes' recusal—says he's pushing for Sally Yates to testify. pic.twitter.com/AyeFPxr5St
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 19, 2017
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According to Schiff, the committee’s new lead, Republican Rep. Mike Conaway of Texas, is “a very serious guy” and that they have had “a number of good conversations since he took the Republican reigns” and that he is “quite determined.”
Be that as it may, the San Antonio Current doesn’t share Schiff’s optimism, reporting that,
Conaway isn’t exactly a neutral replacement. Often seen wearing a “Make American Great Again” cap during the presidential campaign, Conaway has been a emphatic Donald Trump supporter from the start, and he’s already made his skepticism of the Russia election hacking claims clear.
He even mocked Democrats to The Dallas Morning News, nonsensically comparing Russian hackers to Mexican singers campaigning for Hillary Clinton.
Asked how soon committee hearings will resume, Schiff responded that “We are in the process of agreeing” on witnesses and hearing dates. Part of that process is obviously the touchy subject of Sally Yates.
Schiff says that it is not entirely up to him if Yates will be allowed to testify, but added that he wants to do as much as possible in public rather than in private, in order to maintain the public’s trust. Certainly, having Sally Yates testify, and being able to hear her testimony, would do much to restore the public’s trust in government.
It will be remembered that Devin Nunes canceled his committee’s hearings in order to prevent Sally Yates’ testimony after running to the White House for a secret meeting two days before.
There is no doubt that Sally Yates knows something that will hurt if not destroy outright the Trump administration. Otherwise, Nunes would not have colluded with the White House to silence her. Sean Spicer can protest all he wants, but nobody is fooled. The chain of causation is too clear.
It will be a huge victory if Sally Yates is allowed to testify. Failure to do so will only leave Conaway’s motives as open to question as Nunes’. It will require Conaway to set aside his support for Donald Trump in pursuit of the facts for Yates to get her public hearing.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
