Ex-CIA head was concerned about Russia
Former director testified that he personally warned against election intervention
WASHINGTON— Former CIA director John Brennan told Congress Tuesday he personally warned Russia last summer against interfering in the U.S. presidential election and was so concerned about Russian contacts with people involved in the Trump campaign that he convened top counter-intelligence officials to focus on it.
Brennan’s testimony to the House intelligence committee was the clearest public description yet of the significance these contacts play in counter-intelligence investigations that continue to hang over the White House.
Brennan, who was former president Barack Obama’s CIA director, said he couldn’t say whether there was collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, an issue being investigated by the FBI and congressional committees.
“I don’t have sufficient information to make a determination about whether or not such co-operation or complicity or collusion was taking place,” Brennan said. “But I know there was a basis to have individuals pull those threads.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has predicted the investigations won’t find collusion, and his efforts to cast doubt and curb the probes have led to the appointment of a special counsel at the Justice Department.
News reports that Trump asked his national intelligence director and National Security Agency chief to state publicly there was no evidence of collusion have heightened criticism.
Dan Coats, the current U.S. director of national intelligence, declined to comment Tuesday on a Washington Post report that said the president had asked him to publicly deny any collusion between Russia and Trump’s campaign.
Coats told senators at a separate hearing that it would be inappropriate to discuss private conversations with the president.
Nevertheless, Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, said Coats and NSA director Mike Rogers should provide explanations.
The White House said the hearings support the administration’s version of events.
A day earlier, Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, invoked his constitutional right not to incriminate himself in response to the Senate committee’s request for details about interactions between him and the Russians. Trump associates Paul Manafort and Roger Stone have provided the committee with information, while former campaign adviser Carter Page has not.
“I can only say I have fully complied with their specific request,” Stone told The Associated Press in an email Tuesday. He said he told the committee he remains ready to testify without immunity and in public.
The Senate panel on Tuesday decided to issue two additional subpoenas to Flynn’s businesses and sent a letter to his lawyer asking about the legal basis for his invoking his Fifth Amendment right over documents as opposed to testimony. The chair of that committee, Richard Burr of North Carolina, said if there is no response from Flynn, the committee may consider pursuing a contempt of Congress charge.
“Everything is on the table,” Burr said. Everything but immunity, he added.
Investigators also have questions about contacts between the Russians and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Brennan said he had seen intelligence that “revealed contacts and interactions” between Russian officials and Americans “involved” in the Trump campaign. He said this is cause for concern “because of known Russian efforts to suborn such individuals, and it raised questions in my mind, again, whether or not the Russians were able to gain the co-operation of those individuals.”