On January 26, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and Mary McCord, a senior Justice Department official, visited the White House and took the unusual step of informing White House Counsel Don McGahn that Flynn had lied to Pence and Spicer. Yates warned that Flynn’s continued false statements made him vulnerable to blackmail by Russian officials, who could threaten to reveal that Flynn had misled the vice president. It was an extraordinary moment. The White House national security advisor—the senior-most official charged with protecting the country—was vulnerable to Russian blackmail.
