The night before the Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, answers questions before the Senate Intelligence Committee, a new WAPO report comes out based on anonymous sources that indicates Coats was asked by Trump about the appropriateness of intervening with Comey on the Russia probe:
The nation’s top intelligence official told associates in March that President Trump asked him if he could intervene with then-FBI Director James B. Comey to get the bureau to back off its focus on former national security adviser Michael Flynn in its Russia probe, according to officials.
On March 22, less than a week after being confirmed by the Senate, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats attended a briefing at the White House together with officials from several government agencies. As the briefing was wrapping up, Trump asked everyone to leave the room except for Coats and CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
The president then started complaining about the FBI investigation and Comey’s handling of it, said officials familiar with the account Coats gave to associates. Two days earlier, Comey had confirmed in a congressional hearing that the bureau was probing whether Trump’s campaign coordinated with Russia during the 2016 race.
After the encounter, Coats discussed the conversation with other officials and decided that intervening with Comey as Trump had suggested would be inappropriate, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters.
Coats will testify on Wednesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Lawmakers on the panel said they would press him for information about his interactions with the president regarding the FBI investigation.
Unlike the NY Times report that came out tonight, this report seems verifiable – not only by Coats, but by Pompeo.
Of course Coats will be before the Senate Intel Committee tomorrow morning at 10am and you know he will be asked about it then and he can have a chance to say yes, no, or indicate that he won’t discuss presidential conversations.
I expect the latter to be his answer and I think the people who leaked this know that will be his answer. In other words, they know a non-answer will create the impression that Trump intended to interfere with the investigation, regardless of whether he did or not.
The problem if Coats does answer the question emphatically, yes or no, then it puts him on the record as discussing his private conversations with the president and could put him in a precarious spot in the future.
These charges may be true, or not. Nothing wrong with asking for advice on it, I suppose.
I do feel like a game is being played here. With the reporting coming out today that Comey won’t accuse Trump of interfering, it seems as though people are now trying to create the impression that Trump did interfere so that regardless of what Coats or Comey say in their testimonies, his reputation will be tarnished by it.