NSA chief, intelligence director won’t comment on Trump conversations

McCabe and Rosenstein said they had not spoken to the White House, while Rogers said he and Coats did not receive a “definitive answer” to the question.

HEINRICH: I’m asking you. And does that not deny newspaper reports suggesting quite the opposite, that Dan Coats was pressured?

Comey’s testimony, legal experts say, could go a long way toward establishing whether Trump’s conversations with him amounted to the kind of confidential chatter two high officials thrown together in an unusual situation might be expected to share – or, alternatively, to something bordering on, or crossing into, illegality.

Wednesday’s hearing was a blockbuster in its own right – but Comey’s written testimony, released Wednesday by the Senate intelligence committee, shows that Trump was intensely interested in top officials rebutting the Russian Federation stories in public.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said it’s standard practice for executive branch officials, such as the ones who testified, to decline to discuss conversations with the president.

MARTIN HEINRICH: I think your unwillingness to answer a very basic question speaks volumes.

Sen. Angus King of ME, an Independent who caucuses with Democrats, picked up on Heinrich’s questions, demanding a “legal justification” for why Rogers and Coats were not answering questions.

KING: Then why are you not answering? Is there an invocation by the president of the United States of executive privilege?

DAN COATS: I have never been pressured. “If there isn’t, answer the questions”.

Both Coats and Rogers are testifying before the Senate committee on Wednesday, as well as Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Both McCabe and Rogers replied that they did not “feel it would be appropriate” to comment on something that may fall under the FBI Special Counsel’s purview.

ROGERS: Not that I’m aware of.

“We have gotten no answer from any of you”, Warner said.

Flynn had served as an enthusiastic surrogate for Trump during the campaign and then was sacked after just 24 days as national security adviser over revelations he misrepresented his discussions with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

“I am not asking for classified information, I am asking whether or not you have been asked by anyone to influence an ongoing investigation”, Republican Senator Marco Rubio said, in a particularly tense exchange. Why would it not be appropriate for you to share that conversation with us?

The most awkward moment might have come toward the end of the open session, when there was visible confusion about a line of questioning from Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the committee, lamented that the witnesses could have laid to rest questions about what the president told them about the Russian Federation probe, but they chose not to answer.

In an interview on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” following the hearing, Republican Sen.

Coats says he is not sure he has a legal basis for refusing. Comey said the meeting made him uncomfortable and prompted him to start taking notes about his conversations with the president. But Democratic senators, in particular, want to know what he’s told intelligence officials in private discussions.

Mr Coats echoed Mr Rogers’ statements as senators pressed the pair on their interactions with the president. A follow-up session behind closed doors is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

Officials speaking before the Senate Intelligence Committee is usually routine and for the most part a mundane experience.

“You know, my job – I’m sitting there, representing the people of Maine saying here are the questions we want answered”, he said.