Senators grill intel chiefs
Trump nominates new FBI director
WASHINGTON, June 7: Top US intelligence officials refused at a Senate hearing on Wednesday to discuss whether President Donald Trump had pressured them to intervene in an FBI probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US election.
Both National Security Agency Director Admiral Mike Rogers and Dan Coats, the Director of National Intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee they believed their conversations with the president were confidential.
But Rogers said he had never been directed to do anything illegal, immoral or inappropriate during his time as NSA director while Coats said he had never felt pressured to intervene with shaping intelligence.
Allegations that Russia meddled with the US election to help Trump win have hung over the Republican president since he took office in January and threaten to overwhelm his policy priorities. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and several congressional committees are conducting investigations of the alleged Russian interference.
The Washington Post reported on May 22 that Trump had asked the intelligence officials to help push back against the FBI investigation into possible coordination between his campaign and Moscow.
The newspaper reported on Tuesday that Coats, a Trump appointee, told associates in March that the president asked him if he could intervene with then FBI director James Comey to get the bureau to back off its focus on Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser, in its Russia probe.
Allegations
When asked about the allegations that Trump tried to influence the FBI probe, Coats said:
“We are in a public session here, and I do not feel that it is appropriate for me to address confidential information.”
Rogers said he would not address any specific discussions he might have had with Trump.
“I’m not going to talk about theoreticals and I’m not going to discuss the specifics of any interaction or conversations ... that I may or may not have had with the president of the United States,” Rogers said.
The Senate hearing featured officials closely tied to Trump’s abrupt firing last month of Comey, which sparked accusations the president was trying to hinder the FBI investigation and stifle questions about possible collusion between his campaign and Russia.
The top Democrat on the committee said media reports that Trump tried to intervene in the probes are jarring.
“If any of this is true, it would be an appalling and improper use of our intelligence professionals, an act that could erode the public’s confidence in our intelligence institutions,” Senator Mark Warner said.
Trump on Wednesday said he intended to nominate a former Justice Department official, Christopher Wray, to replace Comey
In a much-awaited event, Comey will testify on Thursday before the same US Senate panel, in his first public appearance since Trump fired him on May 9.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced his pick for FBI director — Christopher Wray, a former Justice Department official who served as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s personal lawyer during the George Washington Bridge lane-closing investigation.
Trump’s early morning two-sentence tweet that he intends to nominate Wray came one day before the FBI director that Trump fired last month, James Comey, was to testify in public on Capitol Hill for the first time since his dismissal.
Trump called Wray “a man of impeccable credentials” and offered no more information about the selection, except to end the tweet with “Details to follow.”
Wray served in a leadership role in the George W. Bush Justice Department, rising to head the criminal division and overseeing investigations into corporate fraud, during the time when Comey was deputy attorney general. Wray took charge of a task force of prosecutors and FBI agents created to investigate the Enron scandal.
With a strong law enforcement background, Wray is a traditional choice for the job.