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Key Intelligence Law Enforcement Officials Testify on Growing Russia Probe

by Ken Bredemeier

   Top U.S. intelligence and law enforcement chiefs are testifying
   Wednesday about the growing investigation into Russia's meddling in
   last year's election and President Donald Trump's attempts to rein in
   the probe of his aides' possible collusion with Russian officials to
   help him win the White House.

   Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, National Security Agency
   chief Michael Rogers, acting FBI director Andrew McCabe and Deputy
   Attorney General Rod Rosenstein are all appearing before the Senate
   Intelligence Committee.

   It is the first of two days of high-profile hearings in Washington
   focused on Trump's efforts to curb the investigation of what he says is
   a "witch hunt" aimed at undermining the legitimacy of his upset victory
   in the November election -- an excuse by opposition Democrats to
   account for Trump's stunning defeat of former U.S. secretary of state
   Hillary Clinton.
   On Thursday, former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired last
   month while he was heading the agency's Russia investigation, is set to
   testify before the same Senate panel. According to associates of Comey,
   Trump earlier this year asked the former FBI chief for personal loyalty
   and then to drop his investigation of Trump's first national security
   adviser, Michael Flynn, the day after the president fired Flynn in
   February for lying to Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with
   Russia's ambassador to Washington.

   U.S. broadcast networks, in an unusual occurrence, are dropping their
   daytime programming to air Comey's testimony, while some bars in
   Washington are opening earlier than usual Thursday, offering Russia-
   and White House-themed drinks to anyone who wants to watch the Comey
   testimony.

   Request to intervene?
   Coats quickly faced questions about a new Washington Post report saying
   that Trump in March, less than a week after the Senate confirmed Coats
   to oversee the 17 U.S. intelligence agencies, asked him to intervene
   with then-FBI director Comey to back off the investigation of Flynn,
   who had campaigned for Trump but held the key White House security post
   for just 24 days.
   WATCH: Coats on whether he was asked to intervene in Russia probe

   Trump, according to the Post's account, complained to Coats and Central
   Intelligence Agency chief Mike Pompeo about Comey's handling of the
   Russia probe. Coats discussed Trump's request, but decided that
   intervening with Comey was inappropriate. As he decided to fire Comey,
   Trump said he was thinking of "this Russia thing."

   The key testimony comes as a new Post-ABC News poll said that a
   56-percent majority of U.S. adults think Trump is interfering with
   several Russia investigations rather than cooperating, while 61 percent
   think Trump fired Comey to protect himself rather than for the good of
   the country.

   But the news organizations' survey also said that Americans are
   skeptical about what Comey says about Russian meddling in the election.
   The FBI and other U.S. agencies concluded earlier this year that Moscow
   interfered to help Trump win, but the poll said only 36 percent of
   those surveyed say they trust what he says about Russia "a great deal"
   or "a good amount."

   But the survey also said that only slightly more than 1 in 5 people
   trust what Trump says about Russia's role in the campaign.

   Some opposition Democrats say Trump's actions to curb the Russia probes
   could amount to obstruction of justice, an impeachable offense
   comparable to that which led to the 1974 resignation for former
   President Richard Nixon.

   Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, whose tenure
   ended when former President Barack Obama left office as Trump assumed
   power, told an audience in Australia Wednesday that he considers the
   current Russia probes more serious than the Nixon-era Watergate scandal
   that started with a break-in at Democratic headquarters in Washington.

   "I think [when] you compare the two that Watergate pales really, in my
   view, compared to what we're confronting now," Clapper said.
   WATCH: Clapper statement in Australia

   "The Russians have a long history of interfering in elections, theirs
   and other people's," Clapper said. "They've tried to interfere in our
   elections going back to the '60s but, let me stress, never like this,
   like they did in 2016."

   He said Moscow used "social media trolls planting false information,
   orchestrated fake news, which many other news outlets picked up and
   amplified either wittingly or unwittingly, and a very sophisticated
   campaign by the regime-funded propaganda arm, the RT, broadcasting arm,
   against Hillary Clinton and for Donald Trump."

   He concluded, "The Russians are not our friends. They and [Russian
   President Vladimir] Putin specifically, despite his disingenuous
   denials, are avowedly opposed to our democracy and values and see us,
   particularly the United States, as the cause of all their problems and
   frustrations."