Trump has a lot of ties to Russia. From his disgraced former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Attorney General Jeff Sessions to his son-in-law Jared Kushner, all of which made contact with Russian officials and tried to cover them up until the press found out. Once these contacts were made public, it was a mad frenzy of lies trying to cover them back up. So, it begs the question, what are they trying to hide? In any other situation, you would imagine that if these allegations of treason are being said, you would do anything to exonerate your name. Instead, the Trump administration is trying to hide it all. Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified before the U.S. Senate regarding the Russia/Trump investigation. Here are a few things we learned.

After Trump had been elected, President Obama placed some pretty tough sanctions on Russia because of their actions to try to interfere in our election. That same day, Michael Flynn called Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, and discussed lifting those sanctions once Trump was sworn in. As a result, Russian president, Vladimir Putin, announced that Russia would take no action against the sanctions from President Obama. Trump, of course, says that Putin is a "smart man." On January 12th, The Washington Post gets a tip about the Flynn and Kislyak call. They ask Press Secretary Sean Spicer if sanctions were discussed, and he emphatically says no. January 15th, Vice-President Mike Pence goes on "Meet the Press" and is asked about the phone call. The VP says he has spoken with Flynn and he can confirm that the sanctions were not discussed at all. January 26th, just seven days after Trump is sworn in as President, acting AG Sally Yates tells White House Counsel, Don McGahn that despite what Flynn is telling everyone, sanctions were discussed as discovered by intelligence agencies.

Sally Yates went to the W.H. Council because she knew that Flynn was lying and so that they could do something about it. McGahn called her back the very next day so that they could talk some more about the matter. He wanted to know, according to Ms. Yates testimony, why the Justice Department wanted to know whether one White House official lied to another. Ms. Yates explained that the Russians knew that Flynn was lying and that he could potentially be blackmailed, putting American lives at risk. He also wanted to know if Yates was pursuing a criminal case against Flynn, and while she did not go into detail, she did mention that the FBI had already interviewed Flynn. According to Sean Spicer, the president was "immediately informed of the situation." So, Trump knew about this meeting with Yates and McGahn, which was about Flynn potentially being blackmailed by the Russians, the same day that it happened.

After a damning Washington Post article was posted, citing nine sources, where it was leaked that Michael Flynn did, in fact, discuss sanctions with Kislyack in that December phone call, he was finally forced to resign. That is 18 days. Eighteen days from the day Yates told the administration about Flynn lying until he was forced to resign. Flynn was still seeing highly classified documents and sitting in on highly classified meetings during these 18 days. The statement that was released by the administration was that Flynn was let go because he lost the trust of the president and vice president. No mention of the fact that he potentially put Americans in danger. No mention of the fact that he could have likely been blackmailed by the Russians. No mention of the fact that he lied to the American people, although this administration lies to us all the time so what should this time be any different? Sally Yates was fired by Trump on January 30th because she would not defend Trump's unconstitutional travel ban. That is just three days after she told the administration about Michael Flynn. Sally Yates was fired for doing the right thing. Sally Yates is an American hero.

Meanwhile, it seems like all of the Republican Senators are concerned about how this story was leaked to the Washington Post. They grilled both Sally Yates and James Clapper on whether it was them who leaked the information, or if they knew who leaked the information. That is like seeing your house is on fire, and instead of calling 911 you are yelling at a kid with matches in his hand. Without the free press reporting and investigating these reports, Michael Flynn might still be in the White House telling the president to do God knows what. Trump took to Twitter almost seeming to try and intimidate Yates by saying that the committee should "ask Sally Yates, under oath, if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to W.H. Council," while of course misspelling the word 'counsel.' This Russian story is just beginning to heat up. Stay tuned for the next episode.