REPORT: Intel Chief told House Intel today that Trump asked him to say there was no evidence of collusion

MSNBC is reporting, based on what I’m guessing is a Democrat leak from a classified House Intel Committee briefing today, that Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told the committee that Trump did in fact ask him in March to publicly say there was no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia:

Ken Dilanian, the reporter, said that Coats found the request to be inappropriate and ignored it, which is understandable.

What’s also understandable is Trump trying to get people in his administration to fight back on his behalf against all the negative press. Just as he wanted the FBI director to admit that he wasn’t under investigation, it makes sense that in light of the fact that no evidence of collusion existed at the time (and even now), Trump would also want to get that message out.

Now that’s not to say that it was an appropriate request – indeed Coats believed it wasn’t. But I honestly don’t think Trump was trying to get Coats to lie on his behalf or anything so deceitful. Based on everything we’ve learned up to this point, I think Trump was just trying to get something out there in the media that he could tweet on his behalf and push back against the onslaught of bad press.

That’s at least what my gut tells me on this, but I could be wrong. We’ll know more when all of this finally comes out in the wash.


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