NSA chief, intelligence director won't comment on Trump conversations

[DonViejo]

Source: Reuters

Wed Jun 7, 2017 11:14am EDT

Two top U.S. intelligence officials told a Senate committee on Wednesday they could not comment on conversations with President Donald Trump, in answer to questions on whether he tried to pressure them to curtail the government's Russia probe.

"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," Admiral Mike Rogers, head of the National Security Agency, said at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

Similarly, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said it would be inappropriate for him to discuss his own conversations with the president in a public forum.

###

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-rogers-idUSKBN18Y265?il=0

---

--------------------------------------------------------

Roger, Coats say they did not feel pressure to act inappropriately regarding Russia probe

By KYLE CHENEY 06/07/2017 11:11 AM EDT

Two of the nations top intelligence officials said Wednesday they did not feel pressure to interfere with the FBIs ongoing Russia investigation amid reports that President Donald Trump had asked them to push back against the probe.

"In the three-plus years that I have been director of the national security agency, I have never been directed to do anything I believe to be illegal, immoral, unethical or inappropriate and to the best of my recollection during that same period of service I do not recall ever feeling pressured to do so," NSA Director Mike Rogers told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Dan Coats, who oversees the nations intelligence apparatus, echoed those comments. "I have never felt pressured to interfere or intervene in shaping intelligence in any way," he said.

###

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/07/roger-coats-say-they-did-not-feel-pressure-to-act-inappropriately-regarding-russia-probe-239244

----------------------------------------------------

Top intelligence officials dodge questions about Trump interactions

BY KATIE BO WILLIAMS - 06/07/17 11:29 AM EDT

Two top intelligence officials on Wednesday denied feeling pressured by President Trump to intervene in the handling of intelligence in any inappropriate way — but refused to answer specific questions about their interactions with the president.

“In the three-plus years that I have been the director of the National Security Agency, to the best of my recollection, I have never been directed to do anything I believed to be illegal, immoral, unethical or inappropriate,” NSA head Adm. Michael Rogers told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

"I do not recall ever feeling pressure to do so,” he insisted.

During a tense exchange with the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), Rogers declined to discuss the specifics of his interactions with the president.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, a former Republican senator, similarly refused to address his conversations with the president, calling a public hearing an “inappropriate forum” for the discussion.

more
http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/336728-top-intelligence-officials-dodge-questions-about-interactions-with

[beachbum bob]

1. not discussin usually means hiding info and will not bode well for trump

[renate]

2. if he *hadn't* asked them to intervene, wouldn't they say so?

Also, Rogers' word "directed" isn't the same as "asked."

[beachbum bob]

3. lets see democrats frame their questions

I would be framing my questions with implications of obstruction of justice and complicit with a cover up....

[katmondoo]

4. Has Trump threatened them with something

[Moostache]

5. The spin is going to be "SEE...they said 'no pressure'....FAKE NEWS!!!! FAKE!!!!"

I can already hear the shrill Hannity opening vomit-fest and regurgitation of the talking point on Fox now...

This is exactly what I feared would happen. Comey will be more of the same...vague innuendos of 'troubling' requests, no recollection of direct "pressure" and more cries of fake news from the shit-gibbon and his enablers.

This country is a sham and the sooner it tears itself apart and starts over, the better. On a day when Republican tax and economic policy was DESTROYED in Kansas with the GOP itself over-riding a Brownback veto to try and salvage what's left of the smoking hole in the Earth that used to be Kansas, we are obsessing over the asshole in the Oval Office and his crass but difficult to prove as illegal tactics and buffoonery. Their entire ideology was implemented in Kansas....ALL OF IT....tax cuts, deregulation, eliminating programs...you name it...and the result? A massive debt for the state, no way to sell off any more assets to pay for their thievery and a return to reality in the most embarrassing way possible - an internal rebuke by the party dominated congress.

Instead of the press and the Democrats shouting this from the fucking rooftops, we get what? "I did not feel pressured..."

Stop the fucking ride...I want off.