According to NBC, the Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats will go back before the Senate Intelligence Committee tomorrow to answer questions in a closed session. This new hearing comes after Coats testified before the same committee in an open session last week but refused to discuss direct conversations with the President in a public session.
Of course, just like with Comey’s ‘private session’, somehow we suspect that if anything material is divulged in tomorrow’s ‘private session’ with Coats it will be promptly leaked to the media.
DNI Coats will testify in closed Senate Intel session tomorrow, sources tell @kasie & @frankthorp
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) June 14, 2017
As we pointed out last week, Intel Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner didn’t get the response he had hoped for when he asked DNI Director Coats and National Security Agency Director Admiral Mike Rogers whether they had ever been pressured by the Trump administration to downplay the Russian investigation. Here are the headlines:
*NSA’S ROGERS: I’VE NEVER FELT PRESSURED TO DO ANYTHING ILLEGAL
*NSA’S ROGERS: I’VE NEVER BEEN DIRECTED TO DO ANYTHING ILLEGAL
*COATS: I’VE NEVER FELT PRESSURE TO SHAPE ONGOING INVESTIGATION
And here is the full quote from Coats:
“In my time of service in interacting with the President of the United States, or anybody in his administration, I have never been pressured, I have never felt pressure to intervene or interfere in any way with shaping intelligence in a political way or in relationship to an ongoing investigation”
NBCPolitics: RT NBCNews: Intel Director Coats: “I have never felt pressure to intervene or interfere in any way” w… https://t.co/LCW7NOGS7p
— Channel 1 Politics (@ch1election) June 7, 2017
But, and to our complete ‘shock’ we might add, democrats and the mainstream media ignored the most relevant comments of the entire hearing, namely that, like Comey, none of the witnesses had ever felt ‘pressured’ by Trump to “intervene or interfere in any way,” and instead decided to focus on Coats’ unwillingness to openly discuss his private conversations with the President.
Here are just a few of the headlines:
Reuters:
The Hill:
Axios:
To summarize where things stand:
They made up a phony collusion with the Russians story, found zero proof, so now they go for obstruction of justice on the phony story. Nice
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2017
You are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history – led by some very bad and conflicted people! #MAGA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2017
via http://ift.tt/2sfWrJY Tyler Durden