WASHINGTON _ Two senior U.S. intelligence officials repeatedly refused to say Wednesday whether President Donald Trump had asked them to intervene or to publicly downplay the FBI investigation into supposed ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Daniel R. Coats, the director of national intelligence, and Adm. Michael S. Rogers, head of the National Security Agency, instead told a Senate committee that they didn't feel pressured to do anything improper.
The carefully worded denials appeared aimed at drawing a distinction between being asked by Trump to influence an ongoing investigation, and feeling pressured to do so.
"I have never felt pressure to intervene in any way in shaping intelligence or in an ongoing investigation," Coats told the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The testimony came near the start of two days of hearings that will look, in part, at whether Trump sought to obstruct an FBI investigation. Former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired last month, will testify on Thursday.
The Justice Department has appointed a special counsel, Robert Mueller III, to oversee the widening investigation into members of the Trump campaign and at least one of the president's top aides for their dealings with Russia during the campaign and the transition.
Coats declined to address a Washington Post report Tuesday that said Trump had urged him to ask Comey to back off the FBI's investigation of former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn,
Coats offered to talk about his personal interactions with Trump in a closed committee hearing planed for Tuesday afternoon.
Rogers, who also declined to talk specifically about his dealings with Trump, said that in his three years at NSA, "I have never been directed to do anything I believed to be illegal, immoral, unethical, or inappropriate."
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said the two intelligence officials owed the public an account of their dealings with Trump and his aides.
"If any of this is true, it would be an appalling and improper use of our intelligence professionals _ an act that could erode the public's confidence in our intelligence institution," Warner said. "Any attempt by the White House or even the president himself to exploit this community as a tool for political purposes is deeply, deeply troubling."
