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Also see:
Investigation; Robert Mueller; Herbert McMaster; Michael Flynn; Sergey Kislyak; Jared Kushner; elections 2016; Russia;
McFarland began her political career in the 1970s as a
night-shift typist and assistant press liaison for
National Security Council staff. In the 1980s she worked in the
Department of Defense as a
speechwriter and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs.
After retiring from public life for 20 years to focus on her family, McFarland
ran unsuccessfully for the
Republican nomination for the
2006 election for U.S. Senator from New York. In the 2010s she was a
Fox News
national security analyst and online commentator.
On November 25, 2016, it was reported that McFarland was selected as
President-elect
Donald
Trump's
Deputy National Security Advisor, a position that does not require Senate
confirmation.[48][49]
McFarland had no existing relationship with Trump before his campaign but knew
his two older sons from their appearances on Fox News, while he liked her
appearances on that channel.[16]
It would represent McFarland's first government position in over 30 years.[23]
Following her selection, McFarland pulled down her website and expunged her
public social media accounts.
The selection surprised some people given McFarland's length of time away from
government and the fact that she had little experience with intense extra-hours
positions and personnel and crisis management. However, her former boss
Henry Kissinger praised the selection.[16]
Retired general
Michael T. Flynn, who had been selected as President Trump's
national security adviser, had ties to McFarland[50]
and tweeted a welcome to her.[18]
Hawk and former Senator
Joe
Lieberman also praised McFarland for being "one of our country's most
experienced, informed and wise foreign policy and national security experts".[28]
On December 1,
Robert Mueller's
Special Counsel investigation named McFarland as one of the people involved
with
Michael Flynn, her former supervisor, and
Jared Kushner in developments leading up to Flynn's guilty plea to lying to
the
Federal Bureau of Investigation.[72]
In particular, Kushner and McFarland reportedly briefed Flynn on what to say
about
U S. sanctions against Russia.[73][not
in citation given] The next day, an email McFarland wrote
during the transition surfaced; it read: "If there is a tit-for-tat escalation
Trump will have difficulty improving relations with Russia, which has just
thrown U.S.A. election to him."[74]
After talking to Kislyak, Flynn informed McFarland of the contents of the
conversation, who in turn passed on the information to one of her colleagues.[75]
At the end of 2017, the U.S. Senate sent McFarland's nomination back to the
White House rather than tabling it until 2018, along with other pending
nominations.[80][81]
On January 10, 2018, the administration renominated McFarland.[82]
On 2 February 2018, McFarland withdrew her nomination, writing "I have come to
this decision reluctantly, because I believe in your mission" in her resignation
letter to Trump.[83][84]
In response, Trump blamed the Democrats, noting that they "chose to play
politics rather than move forward with a qualified nominee for a critically
important post" even though Senate Republicans could have approved her
nomination unilaterally given their majority, which suggests that some of them
may have been hesitant to approve her.[4]
In the month of September 2018 it became known that she had indeed walked back
her story to the special prosecutor. The FBI accepted McFarland's contention
that she had not misstated factualities intentionally.[85]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._T._McFarland
