Senate unlikely to advance McFarland nomination amid questions about Flynn contacts with Russia
Source: CNN
By Manu Raju, CNN Senior Congressional Correspondent
Updated 5:03 PM ET, Wed December 20, 2017
(CNN)President Donald Trump's nominee to be the ambassador to Singapore could be derailed in the Senate amid questions about whether she properly disclosed to Congress her communications with former national security adviser Michael Flynn, according to senators and sources from both parties.
KT McFarland, who previously served as Flynn's deputy and is now Trump's nominee to be ambassador to Singapore, came under renewed scrutiny earlier this month after Flynn's plea agreement with Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller appeared to be at odds with her testimony to Congress.
Lawmakers and senior aides told CNN that they expect the Senate to send her nomination back to the White House when this year's session wraps up at week's end, making her prospects for confirmation increasingly grim. At that point, the White House will have to decide whether to renominate her to the post amid questions over her interactions with Flynn about Russia, and then convince skeptical senators to take up the nomination during the 2018 midterm election year.
If her nomination is derailed, as some senior senators and aides expect, it would mark the second time that Mueller's probe has effectively thwarted a Trump nominee -- the other being Sam Clovis, who withdrew from consideration for a senior Agriculture Department post in November amid questions about his communications with Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty to lying to authorities about his conversations over Russia.
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