Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats appears in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday morning after a bombshell Washington Post report revealed that he was asked by President Trump to push back publicly against the FBI probe into allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians. He is testifying in an unrelated hearing on “worldwide threats,” but it is likely that the allegations in the Washington Post report will come up.
According to the Post, Trump reached out to Coats after then-FBI Director James Comey revealed in public testimony that the FBI was investigating links between Trump affiliates and Russia. Coats did not comply with Trump’s request to shoot down the claims about the investigation, as a former senior intelligence official told the Post, “The problem wasn’t so much asking them to issue statements, it was asking them to issue false statements about an ongoing investigation.” Trump went on to fire Comey earlier this month.
Watch the hearing live below:
