Q: Do you have evidence of collusion between Trump campaign & Russians?
Yates: I can’t answer that without revealing classified information
At a Senate subcommittee hearing this afternoon, Sally Yates said that she can’t talk about whether the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia because doing so would cause her to reveal classified information.
This came during a Senate hearing on Russia’s role in the 2016 election. Yates, the former acting U.S. attorney general, said in her opening statement that she would talk about as much as she could without revealing classified information.
Senator Lindsay Graham soon asked Sally Yates whether she has evidence that the Trump 2016 campaign colluded with Russia. Sally Yates did not say yes or no; rather, she said that any answer to the question would involve classified information.
“My answer to that question would require me to reveal classified information, and so I can’t answer that,” she said.
Yates continued on to say, however, that we should not draw any conclusions based on the fact that she can not answer Senator Graham’s question.
“Just because I say I can’t answer it doesn’t mean you should draw from it the assumption that the answer is yes,” she said.