Current and former officials: Trump asked Director of National Intelligence and head of National Security Agency to supersede FBI investigation

Developments on Day 122 of the Trump Adminstration:

Trump Asked Top Officials to Overrule FBI and Deny Russia “Collusion”

Donald Trump asked two leaders of the US intelligence community to supersede the FBI investigation and publicly deny any evidence of collusion between his 2016 campaign and Russian officials, according to “multiple current and former US officials”.

Trump made the requests to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers within days of FBI Director James Comey’s testimony to the House Intelligence Committee on March 20 that the bureau was pursuing the investigation into “coordination” between Trump associates and Russia to influence the election.

Both Coats and Rogers refused to comply, “two current and two former intelligence officials” said.

“The problem wasn’t so much asking them to issue statements, it was asking them to issue false statements about an ongoing investigation,” a “former senior intelligence official” said of the request to Coats.

Soon after Trump’s inauguration in January, the administration made a similar request to the FBI, asking it to push back against stories in the press about potential coordination. The bureau also refused.

A record of Trump’s recent request to Rogers is in a memo from a senior NSA official. That document, and any similar record from the DNI’s office, will be available to Robert Mueller, the former FBI Director appointed last week as a special counsel to lead the Justice Department’s investigation.

Mueller has already been briefed on the memos by Comey, fired on May 9 by Trump, about his conversations with Trump. These include the former FBI director’s record of Trump asking him to end the investigation into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn over his Russia contacts.

Reinforcing Comey’s account, the intelligence officials said that, in addition to Trump’s requests to Coats and Rogers, “senior White House officials” asked intelligence agencies about the possibility of intervening directly with Comey to encourage the dropping of the inquiry into Flynn.

The White House asked, “Can we ask him to shut down the investigation? Are you able to assist in this matter?”, one official said.

Congressional investigators have also requested copies of Comey’s memos. The former FBI director was scheduled to testify publicly to the Senate Intelligence Committee this week, but on Monday he asked to meet Mueller before appearing.

Both Coats and Rogers are scheduled to appear before Congress this week, but not before the House or Senate Intelligence Committees.

A White House spokesperson said on Monday: “The White House does not confirm or deny unsubstantiated claims based on illegal leaks from anonymous individuals. The President will continue to focus on his agenda that he was elected to pursue by the American people.”

Flynn Refuses to Hand Over Documents

Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, refuses to hand over documents subpoenaed by the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Flynn had said last month that he was ready to testify before the committee, but has come under increased scrutiny amid revelations about Donald Trump’s effort to halt the FBI investigation into Flynn’s connections with Russian officials.

Richard Burr, the GOP chair of the committee, responded:

The ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Elijah Cummings, said documents in the committee’s possession suggest the former Trump advisor “may have lied to security clearance investigators conducting Flynn’s background check in 2016”.

Cummings said a report dated March 16 shows Flynn said he was paid by “US companies” when he traveled in December 2015 to Moscow, where he sat next to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a ceremony for Russian State broadcaster RT.

In fact, RT paid Flynn’s expenses and his consultancy received more than $55,000 from the Russian State and linked companies.

Flynn’s attorney Robert Kelner wrote committee chairmen on Monday, “[My client is] the target on nearly a daily basis of outrageous allegations, often attributed to anonymous sources in Congress or elsewhere in the United States Government, which, however fanciful on their face and unsubstantiated by evidence, feed the escalating public frenzy against him.”

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former advisor Roger Stone said on Monday that they will comply with subpoenas and provide documents.

Donald Trump in September 2016: “The mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”

“Trump Close to Choosing Legal Team” for Trump-Russia Investigations

Donald Trump is close to naming a legal team for the Trump-Russia investigations, according to “four people briefed on the discussions”.

The sources said Trump and his advisors have approached “several prominent attorneys” for a formal legal team to guide the President “as he responds both to the ongoing federal probe and the congressional investigations”.

Those approached include Marc Kasowitz, who has known Trump for decades and represented him in numerous cases; Robert Giuffra Jr.; Reid Weingarten; and Theodore Olson, Solicitor General in the George W. Bush Administration.

TOP PHOTO: Donald Trump with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, May 22, 2017

Trump’s Denial Unwittingly Confirms His Leak of Israeli Intelligence to Russians

Trying to deny that he gave sensitive Israeli intelligence to high-level Russian officials, Donald Trump only unwittingly confirms the leak.

Speaking at a joint press appearance with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Trump said, “Just so you understand, I never mentioned the word or the name Israel.”

But the widespread reports, from US officials, of Trump’s disclosure on May 10 to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak did not mention that he said “Israel”.

Instead, the accounts said he had bragged about an infiltration operation by a US ally of the Islamic State — later established to be in Raqqa in northern Syria — that had brought information of a plot for an attack using a laptop computer.

It was only in subsequent days that officials gave further information that the ally was Israel, under a special intelligence-sharing arrangement with the US.

States to Pay Up to 400% More for Medicaid Under GOP Healthcare Bill

Figures from GOP Representative Bill Cassidy’s office detail that states will have to pay up to 400% more for Medicaid recipients under the GOP’s replacement for ObamaCare.

The American Health Care Act will reduce the Federal Government’s contributions by 2020 for newly-eligible enrollees. The rises range from 400% for 11 states, including California and New York, to “only” 80% for West Virginia.

Report: Kushner Retains 90% of Real Estate Projects Despite Ethics Questions

The Washington Post reports that Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, has retained almost 90% of his real estate holdings despite questions of ethics and conflict of interest.

The value of Kushner’s retained real estate interests is between $132 million and $407 million. Some of the investments are held by shell companies that are virtually impossible to track. Kushner has declined to make public more information about them.

The 124 real estate assets retained by Kushner include residential real estate in suburban Maryland, a Times Square retail complex, apartments across the midwestern US, and a New Jersey mobile-home park.

Kushner did divest from a New Jersey project, One Journal Square; however, his sister Nicole Kushner Meyer provoked controversy with a tour in China promising special US visas to Chinese investors in return for at least $500,000 into the project.

Essential Reading: That $110 Billion Arms Deal with Saudi Arabia

“There’s Less than Meets the Eye in Trump’s Saudi Arms Deal”

William Hartung, writing for Defense One, explains that Donald Trump’s headline deal of $110 billion in US arms to Saudi Arabia is made up of “existing offers and future promises”:

From his insistence that the crowd at his inauguration numbered over one million people to his claim to have rebuilt the military before his first budget was even announced, the President is perfectly comfortable claiming credit for things that have not, in fact, occurred.

So it may be with the new arms deal with Saudi Arabia, pegged by the Trump Administration as worth up to $110 billion. Many of the items mentioned as part of the package had already been offered to Riyadh during the Obama administration, including a Patriot missile defense system, Multi-mission Surface Combatants, attack and transport helicopters, and artillery systems.