Intelligence Heads Won't Say If Trump Asked Them To Intervene

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The hearing comes the day before Comey is set to testify before the same Senate committee, where he is expected to discuss his conversations with Trump and whether the president pressured him to drop the investigation.

"I have never been pressured".

Angus King repeatedly asked Rogers and Coats what was the legal basis for their refusal to answer questions.

Trump fired Comey last month in a move that led many to suggest he was trying to undermine the ongoing investigation.

Two top U.S. intelligence officials on Wednesday testified that they had never been "pressured" to intervene in any investigation, disputing reports that President Trump had asked them to back off a probe into Russian Federation meddling in the election and any collusion by the Trump campaign.

All gave vague answers about never feeling pressured by Trump to do anything they felt was inappropriate, but none would definitively say whether an ask was, in fact, made.

The Senate Intelligence Committee grilled the nation;s top intelligence officials on whether President Trump had invoked executive privilege.

Coats said he would not share with the general public any conversations that he had with the president or his colleagues within the administration that he thought should not be shared. All three officials claimed they thought it would be inappropriate to discuss conversations with Trump that may be part of the federal investigation into Trump's team and Russian Federation.

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The two were actually on Capitol Hill for a hearing on the reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Acting director of the FBI Andrew McCabe refused to answer when asked whether he had talked to Comey, his predecessor, about claims that Trump put pressure on him to close down Russia-related inquiries.

- McCabe said he will let Comey answer that question tomorrow, and Coats repeated his statement that it is inappropriate to discuss conversations had with the president.

The newspaper reported on Tuesday that Coats told associates in March that the president asked him if he could intervene Comey to get the bureau to back off its focus on Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser.

Both Coats and Rogers said they had contacted the White House to ask whether it meant to invoke executive privilege regarding the president's conversations with them, which could prevent the intelligence chiefs from testifying about them.

"What was the answer to that question?"

But when pressed on the question of conversations McCabe had with Comey about Trump, McCabe said, "Those matters also begin to fall within the scope of issues being investigated by the special counsel".

Heinrich replied: "You realize - and obviously this is not releasing any classified information - you realize how simple it would simply be to say, no, that never happened".

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