U.S. Department of Justice
Attorney Work Product // May Contain Material Protected Under Fed. R. Crim. P. 6(e)
that right after Coats's meeting with the President, on the walk from the Oval Office back to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Coats said that the President had kept him behind to ask him what he could do to "help with the investigation."[1] Another ODNI staffer who had been waiting for Coats outside the Oval Office talked to Gistaro a few minutes later and recalled Gistaro reporting that Coats was upset because the President had asked him to contact Comey to convince him there was nothing to the Russia investigation.[2]
On Saturday, March 25, 2017, three days after the meeting in the Oval Office, the President called Coats and again complained about the Russia investigations, saying words to the effect of, "I can't do anything with Russia, there's things I°d like to do with Russia, with trade, with ISIS, they're all over me with this."[3] Coats told the President that the investigations were going to go on and the best thing to do was to let them run their course.[4] Coats later testified in a congressional hearing that he had "never felt pressure to intervene or interfere in any way and shape—with shaping intelligence in a political way, or in relationship ... to an ongoing investigation."[5]
On March 26, 2017, the day after the President called Coats, the President called NSA Director Admiral Michael Rogers.[6] The President expressed frustration with the Russia investigation, saying that it made relations with the Russians difficult.[7] The President told Rogers "the thing with the Russians [wa]s messing up" his ability to get things done with Russia"? The President also said that the news stories linking him with Russia were not true and asked Rogers if he could do anything to refute the stories.[8] Deputy Director of the NSA Richard Ledgett, who was present for the call, said it was the most unusual thing he had experienced in 40 years of government service.[9] After the call concluded, Ledgett prepared a memorandum that he and Rogers both signed documenting the content of the conversation and the President's request, and they placed the memorandum in a safe.[10] But Rogers did not perceive the President's request to be an order, and the President did not ask Rogers to push back on the Russia
- ↑ Gistaro 6/14/17 302, at 2. 443
- ↑ Culver 6/14/17 302, at 2-3. 44
- ↑ Coats 6/14/17 302, at 4.
- ↑ Coats 6/14/17 302, at 4; Dempsey 6/14/17 302, at 3 (Coats relayed that the President had asked several times what Coats could do to help "get [the investigation] done," and Coats had repeatedly told the President that fastest way to "get it done" was to let it run its course).
- ↑ Hearing on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Before the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, 115" Cong. (June 7, 2017) (CQ Cong. Transcripts, at 25) (testimony by Daniel Coats, Director of National Intelligence).
- ↑ Rogers 6/12/17 302, at 3-4.
- ↑ Rogers 6/12/17 302, at 4.
- ↑ Ledgett 6/13/17 302, at 1-2: see Rogers 6/12/17 302, at 4. 350 Rogers 6/12/17 302, at 4-5; Ledgett 6/13/17 302, at 2.
- ↑ Ledgett 6/13/17 302, at 2.
- ↑ Ledgett 6/13/17 302, at 2-3; Rogers 6/12/17 302, at 4.
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