Top intelligence official told associates Trump asked him if he could intervene with Comey

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

Source: Washington Post

The nation’s top intelligence official told associates in March that President Trump asked him if he could intervene with then-FBI Director James B. Comey to get the bureau to back off its focus on former national security adviser Michael Flynn in its Russia probe, according to officials.

On March 22, less than a week after being confirmed by the Senate, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats attended a briefing at the White House together with officials from several government agencies. As the briefing was wrapping up, Trump asked everyone to leave the room except for Coats and CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

The president then started complaining about the FBI investigation and Comey’s handling of it, said officials familiar with the account Coats gave to associates. Two days earlier, Comey had confirmed in a congressional hearing that the bureau was probing whether Trump’s campaign coordinated with Russia during the 2016 race.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/top-intelligence-official-told-associates-trump-asked-him-if-he-could-intervene-with-comey-to-get-fbi-to-back-off-flynn/2017/06/06/cc879f14-4ace-11e7-9669-250d0b15f83b_story.html?pushid=593743cd2e12651d0000003c&sw_bypass=true&tid=notifi_push_breaking-news&utm_term=.8ca2e4ff0064

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Obstruction of Justice, right there. Question of impeachment is only timing.

It has to wait for the power-mad Republicons to come to their senses and impeach the toxic Republican President tRump in a last ditch desperate attempt to save the Republican brand.

Voters must be continually reminded that Republicans Pence and tRump are the culmination of 40 years of effort by the Republican Party. They are not an aberration. They ARE the ESSENCE of the Republican Party.

[Major Nikon]

4. If you can impeach a sitting President over a blowjob...

it's not as if he hasn't already done enough.

[Juliusseizure]

9. Its legal for Presidents to get blowjobs

Otherwise JFK would have been impeached on day one sometime around noon. Just saying

[Major Nikon]

17. Clinton was never criminally charged for anything

[Volaris]

7. So next july then...

So theres still enough time left t run on the impeachment of their own Party Head to in an attempt to save their own seats in the midterms.
AFTER the Primaries when they can't be punished by their own deplorables.

[nycbos]

2. I thought we already knew this?

Didn't this come out a few weeks ago that Trump asked the intel folks to push back against the FBI?

[calimary]

5. He asked the Intel committee chairmen in the House and Senate to do that. And then two others

including Coats:

TRUMP ASKED INTELLIGENCE CHIEFS TO PUSH BACK AGAINST FBI’S RUSSIA INVESTIGATION, OFFICIALS SAY (May 22, 2017)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-trump-intelligence-chiefs-russia-investigation-20170522-story.html

(snip)

Trump made separate appeals to the director of national intelligence, Daniel Coats, and to Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, urging them to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion during the 2016 election.

(snip)

Senior intelligence officials also saw the March requests as a threat to the independence of U.S. spy agencies, which are supposed to remain insulated from partisan issues.

“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 said of the request to Coats.

(snip)

While relations between Trump and Comey were strained by the Russia probe, ties between the president and the other intelligence chiefs, including Rogers, Coats and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, appear to be less contentious, according to officials.

----------

That last paragraph there, btw, has the ONLY mention of Mike Pompeo in the article. The story also says a spokesman for Dan Coats and a spokesman for the NSA both saying they couldn't comment because an investigation was underway.

[Botany]

3. But Fox News* just had a crawl on their screen about 3 hours ago saying

Sources: Say that Comey will not say that Trump asked him to obstruct justice.


* My local bar has that crap on all the time. Did you know that Hillary Clinton
had somebody murdered to keep him from talking about something?

[BadgerMom]

8. Time to find a new bar?

[roscoeroscoe]

16. Seriously

Drink good Democratic beer!

[Juliusseizure]

10. Comey sure to disappoint unless emails

[Honeycombe8]

12. No, Comey will not use those words. He is not there to give legal interpretations.

He is going to give facts, answer questions. It's not HIS decision as to whether something was an obstruction of justice.

They will ask him if he FELT like Trump was trying to interfere w/the investigation. The Repubs love that question. It doesn't matter how Comey FELT about it. What matters are the facts. What did Trump say, what did Comey say, what did Trump do, what did Comey do.

Because Comey didn't FEEL pressure does not mean it wasn't an attempt to obstruct justice. And because Comey DID feel pressure doesn't mean it WAS an attempt to obstruct justice.

[calimary]

13. Any chance they'd respond to a request to change the channel?

Hey, you never know. I've only been rebuffed once. Every other time, the management either immediately complied, or eventually complied.

[Botany]

18. Not this place

No point in even asking.

[riversedge]

6. Maddow discussing this article now.

[Honeycombe8]

11. OMG. What did he do...ask EVERYONE he knew to bear down on Comey's investigation?

Is he STOOOOPID? Silly question.

If you're going to try to obstruct justice, you should be discreet about it.

[tclambert]

15. Discreet? Hell, i'll bet Trump has recordings of it.

[Honeycombe8]

14. Also in that article: TRUMP MAY BE GOING AFTER TAKING POWER AWAY FROM THE INTEL AGENCIES

This is scary. This is dictatorship scary.

"Trump announced in January that he was nominating Coats to serve as director of national intelligence, responsible for overseeing U.S. intelligence agencies and for briefing the president on global developments.

In February, as tensions flared between intelligence agencies and the White House over Russia and other issues, some of Trump’s advisers floated the idea of appointing a New York billionaire, Stephen A. Feinberg, to undertake a review of the ODNI. Coats, who was preparing for his confirmation hearing, felt blindsided, officials said.

The White House backed away from the idea of naming Feinberg after Coats, members of the intelligence community and Congress raised objections.

Officials say Trump’s advisers have since revived their proposal to appoint Feinberg to a senior position, possibly to review the roles of the ODNI and other intelligence agencies."

Trump's advisors are talking about appointing a billionaire TO REVIEW THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND OTHER INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES. "Review" means changing their position and to bring them under control of the Executive Branch.

This is Nazi Germany scary. Someone needs to get this person out of power before he does permanent damage.