5 big things we still don't know after Sally Yates' testimony

Sally Yates, the Obama-appointed deputy attorney general who briefly served as acting attorney general before being fired by President Trump, became something of a heroine to the president's opponents Monday with her testimony before a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee. Appearing with former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper — former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice refused to testify — Yates talked about Trump, Russia, Michael Flynn, the travel ban executive order, and more.

The only problem was, Yates' testimony added little to the public's knowledge about Trump, Russia, Michael Flynn, or the travel ban executive order. On a number of occasions, Yates refused to answer questions, explaining that to do so would reveal classified information. But on other occasions, senators just didn't ask, or didn't allow Yates to fully answer questions. The bottom line was that many of the things we didn't know before the hearing, we still didn't know after. Here are five:

1) What did Michael Flynn do? Yates told the subcommittee about her January 26 visit to the White House to tell White House counsel Don McGahn of serious concerns about Flynn, the newly-installed national security adviser. Flynn's transition conversation(s) with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak had been wiretapped, and Yates had read the transcripts. In addition, Yates, along with a Justice Department associate who went with her to the White House, knew what Flynn had told the FBI when agents questioned him on January 24.

"The first thing we did was to explain to Mr. McGahn that the underlying conduct that General Flynn had engaged in was problematic in and of itself," Yates told the subcommittee.

But what was the underlying conduct? Was it the very fact that the incoming national security adviser talked to the Russian ambassador during the transition? Was it that they had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia? Was it Flynn not telling Vice President Mike Pence the truth about those conversations? Whatever it was, it left Flynn "compromised" and vulnerable to "blackmail" by the Russians, Yates testified.