dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

chat occurred May 17, 2017

this was news on May 23, 2017

==Trump sought to discount FBI probe

Asked Coats to deny evidence, officials say==

Adam Entous and Ellen Nakashima | Washington Post

https://journalgazette.net/news/us/20170523/trump-sought-to-discount-fbi-probe

President Donald 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, Dan Coats, and to Adm. Michael Rogers, 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 help of Coats and Rogers after FBI Director James 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 coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts.”

Trump's conversation with Rogers was documented in a memo written by a senior NSA official, according to the officials. It is unclear whether a similar memo was prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to document Trump's conversation with Coats.

White House officials say Comey's testimony about the scope of the FBI investigation upset Trump, who has dismissed the FBI and congressional investigations as a “witch hunt.” The president has repeatedly said there was no collusion.

A senior intelligence official said Trump's goal was to “muddy the waters” about the scope of the FBI probe as Democrats ramped up calls for the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel.

“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.

The NSA and Brian Hale, a spokesman for Coats, declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.

In addition to the requests to Coats and Rogers, senior White House officials sounded out top intelligence officials about the possibility of intervening directly with Comey to encourage the FBI to drop its probe of Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, according to people familiar with the matter.

The officials said the White House appeared uncertain about its power to influence the FBI. “Can we ask him to shut down the investigation? Are you able to assist in this matter?” one official said of the line of questioning from the White House.

Trump made his appeal to Coats days after Comey's testimony, according to officials. That same week, Trump called Rogers to make a similar appeal.

As director of national intelligence, Coats, a former senator from Indiana, leads the vast U.S. intelligence community, which includes the FBI. But that does not mean he has full visibility into the FBI probe. Coats' predecessor, James Clapper, recently acknowledged that Comey did not brief him on the scope of the Russia investigation.