Trump Asked Top Intel Officials To Push Back Publicly on Russia Probe
Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN) (C) speaks with reporters before heading into the weekly GOP policy luncheon at the Capitol on February 3, 2015 in Washington. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
President Trump asked two top intelligence officials in March to say publicly that they saw no evidence the Trump campaign had colluded with the Russian effort to interfere in the 2016 election, a former senior intelligence official told NBC News.
Trump asked both the director of national intelligence and the director of the National Security Agency to make the statement, and both declined, the former official said,.
The officials, DNI Dan Coats and Adm. Mike Rogers, were sufficiently concerned about the requests that one of them wrote a memo about it, the former official told NBC News. The two men also exchanged notes about their conversations with the president, the source said.
The Washington Post, which first reported Trump's request Monday evening , says Trump's conversation with Rogers was documented in an internal memo written by a senior NSA official.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment. The NSA did not respond to a request for comment.
A CIA spokesperson declined to comment when asked if CIA Director Mike Pompeo was also asked by President Trump to push back against an FBI investigation into possible collusion between his campaign and the Russian government.
The former official told NBC News that Coats and Rogers did not believe they were being asked to do something illegal. It was more of a public relations request, they believed, according to the official.
Related: Comey Wrote Memo Saying Trump Urged Him To Drop Flynn Investigation
"I don't think (Trump) ever asked somebody to say something that they didn't believe was true," the former official said.
He said the two officials were "sufficiently concerned that it was an extraordinary thing that they took care to write it down, but not sufficiently concerned that they reported it."
The former official said Rogers saw the request as a threat to the NSA, which generally doesn't wade into public debates.
"The White House does not confirm or deny unsubstantiated claims based on illegal leaks from anonymous individuals," a White House spokesman told the Washington Post. "The president will continue to focus on his agenda that he was elected to pursue by the American people."
Coats is scheduled to testify at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Rogers is slated testify at 3:30 p.m. before the House Armed Services Committee.
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"The White House does not confirm or deny unsubstantiated claims based on illegal leaks from anonymous individuals," a White House spokesman told the Washington Post. "The president will continue to focus on his agenda that he was elected to pursue by the American people."
"The White House does not confirm or deny" Interesting words. Before they always struck out at stories like this. Now, not so much. The truth i wearing them down. The case against Trump for obstruction of justice just grows and grows and grows.
''Trump's conversation with Rogers was documented in an internal memo written by a senior NSA official.''
Oppps
Trump's biggest problem is one that anyone would have when you hear all of these people say you need to run the country like a business. The truth is that you can not. Trump thinks he is the CEO of a privately held company. He doesn't understand that he is nothing more then a temp employee! He honestly thinks he was elected to some kind of all powerful position and never counted on the whole system of checks and balances and rules he has to follow that he was supposed to have learned about instead of just screwing around in all of those schools his daddy bought his way through. He thinks he is some sort of mafia boss or king and he simply is not! he U.S. government does not work that way! That's why Congress pisses him off and judges and the Intel community and so on. He can't deal with the truth that they don't all answer to him and have to do what he says to do.
He also never figured on people actually taking notes.
It seems that the right wingers have nothing to say. I thought for sure you would at least get a ''fake news'' comment Randy.
Or because its meaningless. It only matters if Trump colluded with the Russians or had knowledge that such collusion occurred. To date, as we know, there is zero evidence of any collusion.
Unless Trump had knowledge of collusion, he's merely asking to have his innocence confirmed. Asking the intelligence services to confirm that " water is wet" is not a crime.
'' It only matters if Trump colluded with the Russians or had knowledge that such collusion occurred''
And that's what the investigation will determine, Sean...If he or other members of the administration are not guilty then there is nothing to worry about.
And that's what the investigation will determine, Sean...If he or other members of the administration are not guilty then there is nothing to worry about.
And the investigation continues. The White House and right wingers like to bleat out that several investigations have proven that there has been no collusion, when the truth is that those investigations are not finished and no one they point to as saying that there is no collusion have not said any such thing and deny saying so. If the FBI has information showing collusion then it certainly would not make that information public until it has concluded it's investigation and was ready to recommend criminal charges.