NSA chief says was never asked to act illegally

With carefully parsed wording, two top us intelligence officials told a Senate committee today that they were never directed by the White House to intervene on the FBI's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Rosenstein's public testimony will be the first since he appointed - in the face of rising pressure from Congress - former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel investigating possible links between Russian Federation and the election. And asking them to interfere in the investigation is precisely what Trump did, The Washington Post reported last month.

The nation's top intelligence chiefs were supposed to spend Wednesday talking about foreign surveillance, but were instead grilled for more than two hours by senators angry at stonewalling over questions about President Donald Trump's influence in the Russian Federation probe.

"I had understood the president to be requesting that we drop any investigation of Flynn in connection with his false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador in December", added Comey, who was sacked by the United States president early last month.

Trump's surrogates may have said earlier this week that the President will not block Comey from testifying by claiming executive privilege. "I do not recall ever feeling pressured to do so". This frustrated several members of the committee.

"After Zazi and his co-conspirators were arrested, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board stated in its report, and I quote, 'without the initial tip-off about Zazi and his plans, which came about by monitoring an overseas foreigner under Section 702, the subway bombing plot might have succeeded.'" said Coats. Neither would directly answer that query.

Both Coats and Rogers said they were still awaiting word from the White House counsel on the issue of executive privilege.

HEINRICH: So you don't think the American people deserve to know the answer to that question. Mark Warner, D-Va., said during the hearing. Angus King (I-ME), who pressed both Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Agency chief Mike Rogers to talk about their discussions with President Trump. "Directed", of course, is different than being asked. After the hearing, Sen.

Rogers continued: "I have also answered that those conversations were classified".

KING: Then why are you not answering the questions?

KING: Then why are you not answering?

Rogers also refused to answer Warner's questions about his conversations with Trump about the Russian Federation investigation. "I'm not interested in repeating myself, sir". King asked in response. "I don't understand why you're not answering our questions". He told Rogers the committee had "facts " that other individuals were aware of his conversation with Trump and that a memo had been written about it.

"But I will make the following comment".

HORSLEY: Coats suggested he might be willing to answer in a closed-door hearing without the television cameras rolling. "What is the legal basis for your refusal to testify to this committee?"

The conversations with Coats and Rogers took place in the wake of Comey testifying on March 20 that the FBI was investigating possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives. Democrats on the committee were upset by this, but only a few Republicans seemed bothered.

To get a clearer picture of how the hearing went, check out this exchange between Sen.