Cover Up as Reality Show - Josh Marshall
By JOSH MARSHALL Published MAY 23, 2017 9:12 AM
Let me share a few more thoughts about yesterday evening’s breaking news about President Trump’s overtures to the head of the NSA and the Director of National Intelligence.
Given what we knew already, these new details cannot be terribly surprising. Indeed, they fit a clear pattern. But they show just how far-reaching, widespread and brazen President Trump was in trying to shut down the investigation into his campaign and Russia.
We know from Comey’s accounts that Trump repeatedly tried to get pledges of loyalty from Comey. He purportedly asked Comey privately to drop the investigation the day after he fired Flynn. Of course, Trump eventually fired Comey, by his own account over frustration with the Russian probe. Now we learn that after Comey’s March testimony in which the FBI Director first confirmed the existence of a collusion/coordination probe, Trump personally reached out to Admiral Rodgers at NSA and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats to push back against or dispute Comey’s revelation. Both apparently politely demurred.
Some minor props here for Coats. The former Indiana Senator’s qualifications for this position were slim. He’s a career politician, not an intelligence professional, with the different political antennae and loyalties that go with being a career elected official. Unlike almost all the rest involved – Comey, Rodgers, et al., he’s in his position because of Trump. Yet he appears to have seen the overtures in the same light and similarly rebuffed Trump’s requests.
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