Trump asked intel chiefs to push back against FBI collusion probe after Comey revealed its existence

[Tour2ma]

Trump asked intelligence chiefs to push back against FBI collusion probe after Comey revealed its existence
By Adam Entous and Ellen Nakashima May 22 at 6:23 PM

President Trump asked two of the nation’s top intelligence officials in March to help him push back against an FBI investigation into possible coordination between his campaign and the Russian government, according to current and former officials.

Trump made separate appeals to the director of national intelligence, Daniel Coats, and to Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, urging them to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion during the 2016 election.

Coats and Rogers refused to comply with the requests, which they both deemed to be inappropriate, according to two current and two former officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private communications with the president.

Trump sought the assistance of Coats and Rogers after FBI Director James B. Comey told the House Intelligence Committee on March 20 that the FBI was investigating “the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.”

Trump’s conversation with Rogers was documented contemporaneously in an internal memo written by a senior NSA official, according to the officials. It is unclear if a similar memo was prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to document Trump’s conversation with Coats. Officials said such memos could be made available to both the special counsel now overseeing the Russia investigation and congressional investigators, who might explore whether Trump sought to impede the FBI’s work.

Current and former senior intelligence officials viewed Trump’s requests as an attempt by the president to tarnish the credibility of the agency leading the Russia investigation.

A senior intelligence official said Trump’s goal was to “muddy the waters” about the scope of the FBI probe at a time when Democrats were ramping up their calls for the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel, a step announced last week.

Senior intelligence officials also saw the March requests as a threat to the independence of U.S. spy agencies, which are supposed to remain insulated from partisan issues.

“The problem wasn’t so much asking them to issue statements, it was asking them to issue false statements about an ongoing investigation,” a former senior intelligence official said of the request to Coats.

More at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-asked-intelligence-chiefs-to-push-back-against-fbi-collusion-probe-after-comey-revealed-its-existence/2017/05/22/394933bc-3f10-11e7-9869-bac8b446820a_story.html?utm_term=.b29845d88006

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So we now have requests by our President to:

• the FBI Director,
• the Director of National Intelligence,
• the NSA Director and
• the Chairmen of both the House and Senate intelligence Committees...

... to make false, push back statements.

 

Two, Comey and Admiral Rogers, are known to have documented the request made of them. Only one, former House Chairman Nunez, fully embraced his assignment which lead to his resignation from the House Committee.

[Westside Steve]

I would imagine the friends and family of the women being persecuted in Salem Massachusetts probably asked the authorities if leniency was possible.

 

WSS

[Tour2ma]

OOOOooooo... a witch hunt reference... nice...

 

[Westside Steve]

Yep. Special prosecutors are almost always witch hunts.

Not even exclusively special prosecutors but...

WSS