Story highlights
Trump reportedly complained to Coats about Comey's handling of the FBI investigation
Coats is testifying before the Senate intelligence committee Wednesday morning
The top US intelligence official told associates in March that President Donald Trump asked him if he could assist in getting former FBI Director James Comey to stop investigating former national security adviser Michael Flynn as part of its Russia probe, The Washington Post reported.
Following a briefing at the White House attended by officials from several government agencies, Trump asked everyone to leave the room except for Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, according to the Post.
The President then complained about Comey’s handling of the FBI investigation, officials familiar with Coats’ account told the paper. The sources said Coats concluded after the meeting that Trump’s suggestion that he intervene with Comey’s investigation would be inappropriate.
Coats, who was testifying before the Senate intelligence committee Wednesday morning, denied he felt pressured when asked about the Post report.
“I’ve never felt pressure to intervene or interfere in any way with shaping intelligence in a political way or in relation to the ongoing investigation,” he said.
But Coats and National Security Agency Director Adm. Michael Rogers refused to say on the record whether Trump asked them to downplay investigations into whether there was collusion between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign last year.
CNN previously reported, citing multiple current and former US officials, that Trump asked Coats and Rogers to publicly deny evidence of cooperation between his campaign and Russia during the 2016 election.
Comey, who will testify before Congress Thursday, reportedly wrote a memo saying Trump asked him to back off investigating Flynn. Trump has since said he was considering “this Russia thing” in his decision to fire Comey.
In his much-anticipated testimony, Comey is expected to dispute Trump’s interpretation of their conversations, sources familiar with Comey’s thinking have told CNN.
Trump has made a blanket claim that Comey told him multiple times that he was not under investigation. But a source told CNN Comey is expected to explain that those were much more nuanced conversations from which Trump concluded that he was not under investigation.
Another source has told CNN that the President may have misunderstood the exact meaning of Comey’s words, especially regarding the FBI’s ongoing counterintelligence investigation.
