Trump asked spy chiefs to counter Russia allegation

President Donald Trump is reported to have asked his top intelligence chiefs to dispute allegations of collusion between his campaign aides and Russia in the 2016 elections, a revelation that could provide more ammunition to those arguing for a case of obstruction of justice against him.

Trump reportedly asked his director of national intelligence Dan Coats and national security agency head Mike Rogers to push back against the allegations after former FBI director James Comey flagged them at a Congressional hearing in March. Both turned him down, according to US media reports, as they believed the request to be inappropriate.

Written contemporaneous notes of the request by Rogers’ office might be turned over to special counsel Robert Mueller, appointed recently to head the FBI’s Russia probe.

Trump had also asked Comey to end the FBI probe against Michael Flynn, his first national security adviser he fired for lying about his contacts with Russians. Comey refused, and his contemporaneous notes — a legally admissible evidence — of that conversation could be headed for Mueller’s table as well.

Critics of Trump have called these requests, along with his dismissal of Comey from the FBI, attempts to force agencies reporting to him to shut down the Russia probe.

Trump’s pith to Coats and Rogers appears to have been to discredit the FBI probe. “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 told the Washington Post.

The White House, in a statement, said that it “does not confirm or deny unsubstantiated claims based on illegal leaks from anonymous individuals … (and) … the president will continue to focus on his agenda that he was elected to pursue by the American people.”