Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Dan Coats submitted a letter of resignation to President Trump on Sunday. Coats was often at odds with Trump, mainly on the issue of Russia.
Coats rebuked Trump after the president’s controversial comments at the Helsinki summit in July of last year, when he said of election meddling, “President Putin says it’s not Russia. I don’t see any reason why it would be.”
Coats released a statement on Trump’s Helsinki comments and said, “We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security.”
The New York Times said a secret report prepared by Coats on alleged Russian interference in the 2018 midterms was altered by the White House. The public statement on Coats’ conclusions contained less critical language than the one Coats prepared, according to the Times.
Coats resignation comes just a few days after Robert Mueller’s testimony before congress and after the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report on supposed Russian interference in the 2016 election. The Senate Intelligence report made the claim that Russia interfered in the elections, but no hacking was detected, no votes were changed and there was no proof to back up the claim that the Russian government was involved (more on that here).
Having a DNI who spent most of his time in office on an investigation that fell flat, could have made Trump put the pressure on him to resign.
In a tweet Sunday Trump announced he was nominating Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) for the position. Ratcliffe has been a defender of Trump, their critics in the media and intelligence community are concerned with Trump putting a political ally in the DNI position.
During Mueller’s testimony Ratcliffe said, “It was not the special counsel’s job to conclusively determine Trump’s innocence or to exonerate him, because the bedrock principle of our justice system is a presumption of innocence.”
Coats is expected to leave office on August 15th.
This administration sure features a high turnover rate. Too bad Bolton and Pompeo are still around.
And with each successive replacement we see no improvement over the previous baggage. Still waiting to see one swamp critter replaced with someone with an ounce of dignity and a set of balls(figuratively).
Good riddance, never trusted the loyalty of this Ghoul!!
So we have Barr, who mislead Congress in the past and mislead everyone currently (when he said he didn’t know if Mueller agreed with his summary or not), as AG, a political acolyte as DNI (pending confirmation) and a liar as President. Meanwhile Trump has ordered his people to not cooperate with any Congressional inquiries, subpoenas and document requests. Plus he has thrown a blanket over all underlying evidence surrounding the Mueller investigation. The only individual, beside the President, with access to this information is Barr, and Trump claimed on FOX that he authorized Barr to give any information he sees fit to another liar, Devin Nunes, for release to the public- he is the President’s designated leaker.
Whether or not you agree with the Mueller investigation, this is an unacceptable situation. This President controls all the intelligence, all the information. And what’s to stop him from applying this control to any facet of intelligence? Not this Congress.
How can Congress have oversight of the President if the President controls the information? And if Barr accuses anyone (Democrat) of wrongdoing related to the Russian investigation, or anything else, how can they defend themselves?
Case-in-point: Jared Kushner is accused of using his personal phone to conduct government business with MBS and perhaps others. Team Trump is not allowing Congress access to this information, therefore, Congress has no oversight ability. Ratcliffe will only help shield the admin from oversight.
It would be too much to hope for a replacement that wasn’t just as bad or worse.