(Part 7.1) - [Deep State] Hoosier Players: DAN ['RED'] COATS
Dan ['RED'] Coats: Director of National Intelligence | Big Tech/Big Pharma Lobbyist | Ambassador to Germany | U.S. Senator (Indiana)
In a March 2022 interview, Investigative Journalist Lara Logan went out of her way to emphasize the following message about a very important component of the United States Federal Government that most have never even heard of:
The “Senior Executive Service (SES)”1
According to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Members of the SES serve in the key positions just below the top Presidential appointees.
“SES members are the major link between these Presidential appointees and the rest of the Federal workforce. They operate and oversee nearly every government activity in approximately 75 Federal agencies.”
LARA LOGAN:
“The ‘Deep State’ isn’t a ‘theory.’ It’s not a ‘conspiracy theory.’ It’s an actual Deep State.
Look up the ‘SES’ - the ‘Senior Executive Service.’2
Because when that bureaucracy was ushered into law in the United States of America, that’s when we got a bunch of unelected bureaucrats pulling the strings behind the scenes. And these are the people who keep lying to us.”
Before we go any further, I want each of us to stick the following question in the back of our minds for the remainder of these ‘[DEEP STATE] Hoosier’ articles:
What (if any) is the "connection" between:
a) the flag of the Senior Executive Service (‘SES’) of the United States;
b) the flag of the European Union (‘EU’);
c) the flag of state of Indiana
Is it just a ‘coincidence’ that the flags of the Senior Executive Service (‘SES’), the European Union (EU), and the state of Indiana each feature yellow stars arranged in a circle (‘SES’ & Indiana have 13 stars; EU has 12 stars) on top of a blue background?
What is the significance of the KEYSTONE featured on the flag of the Senior Executive Service?
STARTING LINEUP: [DEEP STATE] HOOSIERS
DAN COATS3
— (1976-1980): Coats worked for then-Congressman Dan Quayle, a Republican from Indiana's 4th congressional district, as a District Rep.
In 1980 when Quayle ran for US Senator, Coats ran for & won Quayle’s seat in the U.S. House of Representative.
— (1981-1989): U.S. House of Representatives (Indiana)
In Nov. 1988, Quayle was elected Vice President of the United States on the George H.W. Bush Presidential ticket, resigned from the Senate, and Representative Dan Coats was appointed to Quayle’s former Senate seat.
— (1989-1999): U.S. Senator (Indiana)
After 8 years in the House, Coats was appointed to replace Dan Quayle in the Senate when Quayle became George H.W. Bush’s Vice President in 1988/1989.
Coats was elected in his own right in 1992. He chose not to run in the 1998 elections, saying he ‘wanted to leave government while still young enough to lead a productive career in the private sector.’ [AKA TIME TO CASH IN]
According to a December 2000 Profile on Coats by ABC News4:
Coats was being considered for the position of Secretary of Defense in newly elected 2000 Bush Admin. (ultimately filled by Donald Rumsfeld)
“Coats is a good friend of Vice President-elect Dick Cheney”
— (2000-2001): LOBBYIST
After choosing not to run in 1998 elections, Coats went to work at one of Washington’s most powerful lobbying/law firms — Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand — joining former Senators Bob Dole, George Mitchell and Lloyd Bentsen. [THE REVOLVING DOOR…]
Coats registered as a lobbyist for a foreign interest while he worked at Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand in 2000 and 2001. According to lobbying disclosure documents, he contacted members of Congress trying to get them to invite the Indian prime minister to a joint session of Congress5
— (Sept. 2001-2005): U.S. Ambassador to Germany (George W. Bush)
Coats’ second day on the job was Sept. 11, 2001. (I found this interesting…)
As ambassador during the lead-up to the Iraq War, Coats unsuccessfully pressured the Government of Germany led by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder not to oppose the war & passive aggressively threatened worsened U.S. relations with German if they did not unconditionally support America plans in Iraq6.
(with hindsight, the following statements are demonstrably reckless, dangerous, and should be viewed as nothing less than bullying another nation to go along with its unfounded reign of terror against an undeserving nation which has done nothing to warrant the kind of international invasion being planned against its sovereignty)
Per German website Spiegel Online7,
“The US Ambassador to Germany, Daniel Coats, attacked the German government in sharp words:
‘If resistance to a possible Iraq attack persists, there is a risk that relations with the USA will deteriorate. Germany is in the process of isolating itself with its position in the European Union … the government's current policy isolates Germany from the mainstream of opinion even within the European Union."
[REMEMBER, AMERICA: THERE WAS NEVER ANY EVIDENCE THAT SADAAM / IRAQ HAD ANY KIND OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION (NEITHER BEFORE THE U.S. INVADED, NOR WHILE OCCUPYING THEIR COUNTRY FOR ALL THOSE YEARS), AND IRAQ PLAYED *NO ROLE* IN THE 9/11 ATTACKS.
THE USA HAD ABSOLUTELY NO LEGITIMATE BUSINESS INVADING IRAQ & YET THERE’S DAN COATS & THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION LAYING IT ON HARD TO ALMOST BULLY ANOTHER NATION INTO JOINING THEIR UNFOUNDED WAR EFFORTS AGAINST BETTER JUDGMENT]
As U.S. Ambassador to Germany, Dan Coats also played a critical role in establishing robust relations with *THEN-OPPOSITION LEADER* Angela Merkel, WHO APPROVED THE IRAQ WAR, and in the construction of a new United States Embassy in the heart of Berlin next to the Brandenburg Gate8.
STARTING TO SEE THE FULL PICTURE YET…?
Which one is not like the rest…?
Was Angela Merkel, could you say, ‘elevated’ onto the international stage by Warmongering Westerners because of her PRO Iraq War stance?
… becoming BFFs with the war-hungry Bush Administration…
… becoming BFFs with the Predator Drone bombing O-BOMB-a Administration…
We must not forget…
OBAMA BOMBED SEVEN (7) COUNTRIES IN SIX (6) YEARS!
According to a Council on Foreign Relations article titled “Obama’s Final Drone Strike Data” dated Jan. 20, 20179:
The 542 drone strikes that Obama authorized killed an estimated 3,797 people, including 324 civilians. As he [OBAMA] reportedly told senior aides in 2011:
“Turns out I’m really good at killing people. Didn’t know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine.”
His famous 'A New Beginning' speech in Cairo saw the President declare he was seeking a fresh start "between the United States and Muslims around the world", increasing hopes he would be the antidote to George W. Bush's controversial term.
Almost six years later, Mr Obama has approved military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya & now Syria.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) estimates the Obama administration has launched more than 390 drone strikes in five years across Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia – eight times as many approved during the entire Bush Presidency.
“Map shows where President Barack Obama dropped his 20,000 bombs”
Outgoing US leader carries out 3,000 more strikes in 2016 than year before10
It’s actually quite hilarious to look back on a lot of these (legendary) clips & how so many of these ‘Republicans’—even in 2016 like in the clip below—were either totally asleep to, or conveniently ignoring, the massive disaster of the Iraq war & “the worst decision any President has made [Bush’s decision to invade Iraq] in the history of this country. That’s how bad it is,” as then-Presidential candidate Donald Trump put it back responding to a Town Hall questioner who was upset about Trump repeatedly saying George W. Bush lied about getting us into the Iraq war.
Fast forward to the Warmongers’ previously unimaginable scenario…
A Donald Trump Presidency.
Dan Coats is installed as Director of National Intelligence
for the Trump Administration, and the entire US Intelligence Community (under command of Dan Coats as DNI) worked endlessly to try to undermine President Trump’s messaging, his domestic/foreign policy decisions, and how President Trump was perceived by the public (via their friends in the dishonest media).
Remember their coverage of defeating ISIS?
Trump: “We have won against ISIS. We have beaten them & we have beaten them badly.”
Coats: “ISIS will continue to be a threat to the United States.”
HMMM… WHAT’S THIS ALL ABOUT…?
And this isn’t even getting into (YET) the Intelligence Community’s continued [UNSUBSTANTIATED] insistence that Russia was working to undermine the 2016 elections to elect “Putin’s candidate Donald Trump” & all the other FALSE RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA spewed through the U.S. Intelligence Community.
[LATE ADDITION PRE-POSTING — MAY 19, 2022]
— A MOMENT SEEMING ALMOST “TOO PERFECT” & DESIGNED FOR THIS VERY ARTICLE…
— GEORGE W. BUSH WALKS BACK ONTO THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE IN 2022 & WHILE CONDEMNING RUSSIA’S VLADIMIR PUTIN (aka furthering the ‘FALSE RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA’ referenced above), THE [STILL-AT-LARGE] IRAQI WAR TERRORIST & 43RD PRESIDENT, GEORGE W. BUSH, HAS A FREUDIAN SLIP FOR THE ‘HISTORY BOOKS’:
“The decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified & brutal invasion of IRAQ… I mean of Ukraine”
[noticeable chuckle, shakes head. And then under his breath, as if he didn’t even remember the microphone was there] says:
“IRAQ TOO… ANYWAY…”
— said THE MAN who launched the BRUTAL INVASION of IRAQ in 2003.
CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP…!!!
More on all this later… I’m getting ahead of myself & will be back to discuss Coats as Trump’s DNI in sections below.
SORRY TO BOUNCE AROUND — BACK TO THE TIMELINE!!!
— (2005-2010): LOBBYIST
Co-Chairman of the Government Advocacy Division of King & Spalding, an international advocacy firm.
Represented the interests of corporate clients such as:
Google, GE, Roche, Bank of America, PhRMA, Amgen, and the Medicines Company.
In 2007, Coats served as co-chairman of a team of lobbyists for Cooper Industries, a Texas corporation that moved its principal place of business to Bermuda, where it would not be liable for U.S. taxes. He successfully blocked Senate legislation that would have prevented a tax loophole, worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Cooper Industries.
According to a February 2010 Washington Examiner article titled,
“Dan Coats, Lobbyist For Fat Cats, Plots Senate Return,”11
Former Sen. Dan Coats wants to pass through the revolving door again, leaving his plush job at a K Street lobbying firm to challenge the Senate seat Coats held for a decade before he cashed out.
Democrats have been quick to attack Coats as a lobbyist who has done the bidding of the fattest fat cats. But, ironically, the policies Coats advanced on behalf of his corporate clients are the same bailouts, regulations, and overspending that President Obama has championed in the name of "change."
And Coats' biggest clients -- GOOGLE & the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America (‘PhRMA’) -- have been intimate Obama allies.
Coats represented Bank of America in the third quarter of 2008, when the collapsing bank begged for and received tens of billions of bailout dollars -- a bailout that was passed with Obama's blessing and that enflamed the populist anger that led to the tea-party rebellion of 2009.
“THE NUKING OF DAN COATS”
Politico (Feb. 10, 2010)12
CERBERUS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT
One of Coat's principal clients was the influential private equity firm CERBERUS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, headed by John Snow, the former Secretary of the Treasury under George W. Bush.
Cerberus' foreign investments are piloted by DAN QUAYLE, the former vice-president during the George H.W. Bush Administration & fellow “Hoosier”
“DAN COATS’ HYPOCRITICAL LOBBYING: FLOORPLANS, NOT CARS” — (March 13, 2010): 13
[PLEASE SEE “(PART 7.4) - [DEEP STATE] HOOSIER PLAYER: DAN QUAYLE” FOR A MORE EXTENSIVE DISCUSSION ABOUT CERBERUS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT — AS FORMER INDIANA SENATOR & 44TH VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, DAN QUAYLE, IS CURRENTLY THE CHAIRMAN OF CERBERUS GLOBAL INVESTMENTS]
— (2010-2016): U.S. Senator (Indiana)
Days after Coats declared he was re-entering politics & running for his “old Senate seat” — occupied by Democrat Evan Bayh, the son of an extraordinarily popular progressive senator, Birch Bayh — Evan Bayh himself decided not to seek reelection against Coats & retired from the Senate (to enter the life of SPECIAL INTEREST LOBBYING).
In the 114th Congress, Senator Coats served on 3 Senate committees: Finance, Select Intelligence and the Joint Economic Committee (JEC).
On the bicameral JEC, Senator Coats served as the Chairman.
I believe these 2 key details about Dan Coats tenure in the U.S. Senate will go on to play a much larger role in Coats’ next job after leaving the Senate in 2016 & might help us to better understand the role Dan Coats played in the [sabotaging of the] future Trump Administration:
1. “A RUSSIA HAWK”
In 2014, as part of the Kremlin’s response to U.S. and European sanctions on Russia for its actions in Ukraine (Crimea), Senator Coats was one of several members of Congress who were banned from Russia.
“While I’m disappointed that I won’t be able to go on vacation with my family in Siberia this summer,” Coats said at the time, “I am honored to be on this list,”
The Indiana Republican was seen as a hawk on Russia issues in the Senate.
A member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, he pushed for even heavier Russian sanctions over what he called Russia’s territorial aggression, particularly its annexation of Crimea and military backing of separatists in eastern Ukraine.
2. Member of the SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE on INTELLIGENCE (SSCI)
Senator Dan Coats14: “As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee [of the 114th Congress], I remain committed to passing cyber security legislation to address the serious threat of cyber attacks against our government and key sectors of our economy. We also must continue to be vigilant against terrorist threats and those committed to harming American citizens.”
The United States “Senate Select Committee on Intelligence” (SSCI), along with the United States “House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence” (HPSCI — House Intel Committee), have primary Congressional oversight jurisdiction over the United States Intelligence Community (“IC”).
The Intelligence Community (“IC”) is overseen by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which itself is headed by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI).
The DNI reports directly to the President of the United States
[Upon leaving the Senate, Dan Coats will go on to become the Director of National Intelligence, from 2017 - 2019]
(MORE ON DNI POSITION BELOW)
(Jan. 5, 2017 - Aug. 15, 2019): Director of National Intelligence (‘DNI’)
On January 5, 2017 it was announced that President-elect Donald Trump was expected to name former Senator Dan Coats to be his Director of National Intelligence. The Washington Post reported15 that,
“[this is] a position [DNI] some of Trump’s own advisors suggest is unneeded, a Trump transition team official said.”
The Post would go on to describe Coats as “a traditional Republican, served a total of 16 years in the Senate during two separate stretches and was ambassador to Germany during George W. Bush’s presidency.”
“His selection comes at a time when the incoming administration’s views on the quality and value of U.S. intelligence-gathering are unclear at best.”
“Trump has directly cast doubt on intelligence findings that Russia interfered in the Nov. 8 election and caused a stir when he waved off some in-person briefings from intelligence professionals to which he was entitled as president-elect. He is due to receive a classified briefing Friday on the intelligence community’s finding that Russia meddled in the election, at least in part to help get Trump elected.”
“Coats would probably bring a strongly skeptical view of Russia to the job. In 2014, as part of the Kremlin’s response to U.S. and European sanctions for its actions in Ukraine, Coats was one of several members of Congress who were banned from Russia.”
The following article is extremely important, as we begin to see that going back to Coats’ 2nd go-around as Washington Lobbyist & before his 2nd stint in the Senate (where he would serve on the Senate Intelligence Committee (‘SSCI’)), Coats had unprecedented proximity to the most extensive reforms to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (‘FISA’) in US history — which has ultimately infringed on the privacy rights of every American in this country & granted unprecedented surveillance powers (immunity from prosecution) to US Telecom/Communications Corporations who help the NSA facilitate all this mass-scale domestic communications espionage. [SEE: EDWARD SNOWDEN]
[It’s worth noting that the corruption of the FISA Courts & the systematic abuse of the FISA surveillance process by the FBI, DOJ, and Intelligence Community at large — via outright lying on FBI 302s & approvals of FISA Surveillance Warrants based on known-false and/or woefully unsubstantiated intelligence such as the bogus Steele Dossier — is AT THE HEART OF THE BOGUS TRUMP-RUSSIA COLLUSION HOAX]
The scathing article was from The Guardian on January 7, 2017 titled “Intelligence Pick Coats Had Kind of Lobbying Career Trump Has Targeted” 16
[Article Subtitle] “Promise to ‘drain the swamp’ targets the kind of revolving-door career pursued by the former Indiana senator in foreign and communications policy”
In and out of government, Coats dealt with intelligence, which he would oversee for the Trump administration if confirmed by the Senate.
Announcing his selection on Saturday, Trump cited Coats’ “deep subject matter expertise and sound judgment” and government service but did not mention his lobbying.
If confirmed, Coats would head an agency created after the September 11 attacks TO IMPROVE COORDINATION AMONG US SPY and law enforcement agencies.”
Let’s have a quick review of the responsibilities of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI)
Director of National Intelligence (DNI):
Serves as executive head of the United States Intelligence Community (IC)
Directs and oversees the National Intelligence Program (NIP).
Advisor to the President of the United States and the executive offices of the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council about all intelligence matters.
Produces the President's Daily Brief (PDB), a top-secret document including intelligence from all IC agencies, given each morning to the President.
As the designated leader of the United States Intelligence Community, the DNI is prohibited from serving as the CIA director or the head of any other intelligence community element at the same time. Additionally, the CIA Director is required to report his agency's activities to the DNI.
[Of note: the Department of Defense in charge of the National Security Agency (NSA), National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).]
Last week, ‘Dauntless Dialogue’ put out Volume 4 of the “Devolved” series which is truly excellent top to bottom & I strongly suggest you check it out in full if you haven’t already. In particular I want to draw your attention towards the key role of John Ratcliffe as so well highlighted in the first 7 or so minutes:
DEVOLVED | VOLUME 4 | Drain the Swamp (Dauntless Dialogue)
One of Trump’s biggest allies in Congress in his fight against the Russian Collusion Hoax, was John Ratcliffe.
Ratcliffe is well known for criticizing the FBI and the Special Counsel investigation as being biased against Trump; staunchly supporting Trump criticism of investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. In particular the origin of the investigation saying:
“it does appear that there were crimes committed during the Obama administration. We have specific intelligence that Hillary Clinton was creating a plan to vilify Donald Trump, to falsely accuse him of ties to Russia.”
“And the Intelligence Community & the FBI knew this.
And President Obama, Vice President Biden were briefed by John Brennan [CIA] and James Clapper [DNI] and Jim Comey [FBI] in early August 2016.”
John Ratcliffe would go on to say the following about Robert Mueller & the (bogus) Mueller Report, which was in effect nothing more than a deliberately orchestrated investigation of “crimes” [they] knew didn’t exist in the first place because [they] created the bogus narrative & laundered the misinformation to their friends in the fake news media who then projected it onto the American public as truth/fact at nauseam for the next 3+ years… Per Ratcliffe:
“The Mueller Report & its conclusions weren’t from Robert Mueller. They were written by what a lot of people believe was Hillary Clinton’s de facto legal team. People that had supported her, even represented some of her aides.”
Democrats accused Donald Trump of a crime, and then tried to reverse engineer a process to justify that accusation.
When Special Counsel Robert Mueller went before the House Intelligence Committee on July 24, 2019 to answer questions about the Special Counsel’s Report, John Ratcliffe’s line of questioning was designed to expose the blatant hypocrisy surrounding the entire investigation, the overall weaponization of the Special Counsel’s office, the fact that no crimes were found to have taken place, and the elimination of the presumption of innocence until proven guilty for Mr. Trump.
“The basic premise of the [Steele] Dossier, as you know, was that there was a well developed conspiracy of cooperation between the Trump Campaign & the Russian Government, but the Special Counsel’s investigation didn’t establish any conspiracy.”
That was the (future) HEAD OF THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY [immediately following DAN COATS]… BIG statements. But this article is not about John Ratcliffe. No, he’s not on the [DEEP STATE] Hoosier Team we analyze here. I wanted to include DNI Ratcliffe’s background above to contrast him with that of his predecessors & draw our focus to the person whose job Ratcliffe would be taking over for as Director of National Intelligence — longtime Indiana “Republican” Senator, Lobbyist, and Ambassador to Germany: Dan [RED] Coats.
Remember all of this. Remember that as DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, Dan Coats had access to allllllll the same intelligence that John Ratcliffe was referencing… And you never heard Dan Coats come to the defense of President-elect Trump or President Trump.
“Dan Coats to Step Down as Intelligence Chief; Trump Picks Loyalist for Job17” — (NYT, July 28, 2019)
From both sides of the political aisle, Dan Coats’ nomination to the position of Director of National Intelligence (DNI) was widely applauded — in sharp contrast with seemingly every other decision or appointee or statement that President-elect Trump made, did, or said. The significance I think, especially with the benefit of hindsight, is that the ‘steady state’ [Deep State] Intelligence Community embedded into the system was getting one of their own installed into the Trump Administration.
We can see this in the Jan. 5, 2017 Washington Post article “Trump is expected to nominate ex-senator Dan Coats for director of national intelligence”18:
Confidence & praise for Coats’ pick as DNI from Democrat Intelligence Committee Members like Mark Warner & long-time Republicans like John McCain…
The establishment’s pick.
Similarly, note how The Guardian 19 “aligns” Dan Coats & Vice President Mike Pence, and clearly contrasts their “styles” to that of incoming National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn (who, if you’ll recall, was framed by the FBI’s Peter Strzok, forced to step down from Trump Administration just 22 days into office, and railroaded through an unconstitutional trial for the next 3+ years… only for the case to be eventually all together dropped by the DOJ in May 2020)
Like the influential vice-president elect, Mike Pence, he [Coats] is a strong social conservative from Indiana.
Pence, a former US representative, is much more closely tied to congressional Republicans than Trump and will operate offices on Capitol Hill.
Coats has held views on intelligence and foreign policy that do not tally with those expressed by Trump and close advisers such as national security pick Michael Flynn.
And, as it relates to the massive abuses of the FISA Courts & unlawful surveillance of the Trump Campaign, the Guardian further notes:
In 2015, Coats voted against the USA Freedom Act, which curtailed mass domestic surveillance by US agencies as revealed by the leak of National Security Agency files by Edward Snowden.
On January 7, 2017 NBC News reported20 that the Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr, a committee which Dan Coats had been a member of since rejoining the Senate in 2011, had the following to say about Coats’ nomination as DNI,
"I’m pleased to hear the President-elect has nominated my colleague and friend Dan Coats to be the next head of our Intelligence Community,"
— Senator Richard Burr (R-NC)
“Mike Pence talked Dan Coats out of quitting the Trump administration” 21
NBC News (March 26, 2019) — Whenever Trump is souring on Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, whom he calls "Mister Rogers," Pence encourages him to stick with Coats.
Coats was confirmed as the DNI two years ago with bipartisan support after being recruited to the job by Pence. But the dynamic between Coats and Trump quickly came to mirror the president's relationship with the U.S. intelligence community as a whole, which had been fraught from the start.
“Mike Pence Reportedly Begged DNI Dan Coats Not to Quit Trump Administration” 22 (March 26, 2019)
“Vice President Mike Pence has particularly aligned himself, however, with Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, a former Republican congressman and senator from Pence’s home state of Indiana. And reportedly, Pence has begged Coats to stay on no matter how many reasons their own boss, President Donald Trump, gives Coats not to.
According to a report from NBC News, Pence convinced Coats to stay in the Trump administration until at least the summer after Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, current and former officials told the outlet. Coats reportedly sided with Defense Secretary James Mattis on the policy, according to NBC News, but didn’t know what to do after Mattis’ resignation. Pence then convinced Coats to stay on for longer, arguing that another top national security official’s resignation following Mattis’ would look very bad for the president.”
Pence has reportedly smoothed many patches between Trump and Coats, often “encouraging [Coats] to continue the work he’s doing and reiterating that he has the support of the White House,” while encouraging Trump to keep Coats on. Here’s just a small summary of the conflicts between the president and the DNI, from NBC News:
Among the tensions the officials said have marred the relationship between the president and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats: Trump pushed Coats to find evidence that former President Barack Obama wiretapped him; he demanded Coats publicly criticize the U.S. intelligence community as biased; and he accused Coats of being behind leaks of classified information. More recently Trump also fumed to aides after Coats publicly defended the importance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in countering Russia’s aggression, officials said.
“How Adam Schiff secretly thwarted efforts to bring transparency in Russia probe” 23
By: John Solomon (April 20, 2020)
“Democrat demanded DNI keep evidence from Trump, holds transcripts that were supposed to be made public.”
In late September 2018 with a mid-year election approaching, the often bitterly divided House Intelligence Committee forged a rare bipartisan moment: Its Republican and Democratic members voted to make public the transcripts of 53 witnesses in the Russia collusion investigation.
But what was hailed as an act of transparency has not been fulfilled 19 months later, even though U.S intelligence has declassified and cleared the transcripts for release.
The answer why lies in the backroom dealings of Adam Schiff, the committee’s top Democrat and its current chairman.
Shortly after Schiff took over from Republican Rep. Devin Nunes as chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) in 2019, he sent a letter to the office of then-Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats.
The letter obtained by Just the News specifically ordered that the witness transcripts — some of which contained exculpatory evidence for President Trump’s team — not be shared with Trump or White House lawyers even if the declassification process required such sharing.
“Under no circumstances shall ODNI, or any other element of the Intelligence Community (IC), share any HPSCI transcripts with the White House, President Trump or any persons associated with the White House or the President,” Schiff wrote in a March 26, 2019 letter to then-Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats.
“Such transcripts remain the sole property of HPSCI, and were transmitted to ODNI for the limited purpose of enabling a classification review by IC elements and the Department of Justice,” Schiff added.
U.S. intelligence officials said Schiff’s request made it impossible for them to declassify 10 of the transcripts, mostly of current and former White House and National Security Council witnesses, because White House lawyers would have had to review them for what is known as “White House equities" and presidential privileges.
But 43 of the transcripts were declassified and cleared for public release and given to Schiff's team, but they have never been made public despite the committee’s vote to do so, officials said.
Schiff’s letter provides some detail on what prompted his demand to keep the transcripts from Trump or his lawyer. It came just as Special Counsel Robert Mueller was releasing his final report, which declared there wasn’t evidence to prove the core allegation lodged against Trump by Democrats — that Trump had colluded with Russia to hijack the 2016 election.
Schiff’s letter to Coats states that his staff was briefed earlier in March 2019 about how ODNI planned to handle the declassification, including the need for White House lawyers to review certain transcripts for information that could be covered by executive privilege.
It was that process that set off the alarm bells for Schiff’s team, the letter shows.
Republicans had hoped the witnesses’ testimonies would be released before the 2018 election so Americans could see some of the problems with the Russia probe and the false narrative of collusion that had been foisted on the public. That never happened, and the declassification efforts dragged into 2019, when Democrats took control of the House.
GOP lawmakers have emphasized they specifically would like to see the testimonies of key figures like former Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe and Michael Sussmann, a private lawyer for the Democratic Party, be made public for context and new revelations.
While that hasn’t happened yet, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz has released bombshell information, including that the FBI submitted false and unverified evidence to secure surveillance warrants targeting the Trump campaign in the Russia probe.
Nearly 13 months since the letter, that release has not happened.
Why would Dan Coats be named the “IUPUI International Center’s 2021 International Citizen of the Year”???
… having retired from public service in August 2019…?
Could it be for Coats efforts on the election security front in advance of the 2020 elections…? Below is Coats’ resignation letter dated July 28, 2019:
https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/senior-executive-service/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senior_Executive_Service_(United_States)
https://web.archive.org/web/20210215004249/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/28/us/politics/dan-coats-intelligence-chief-out.html
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/indiana-senate-candidate_n_453285
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=122185&page=1
https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/irak-kriegsplaene-us-botschafter-mahnt-die-deutschen-a-212385.html
https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/irak-kriegsplaene-us-botschafter-mahnt-die-deutschen-a-212385.html
https://www.washtimesherald.com/news/local_news/coats-bucshon-to-headline-gop-dinner/article_eb7da9be-65c8-5581-88b4-d9eca34e48f6.html
https://www.cfr.org/blog/obamas-final-drone-strike-data
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-president-barack-obama-bomb-map-drone-wars-strikes-20000-pakistan-middle-east-afghanistan-a7534851.html
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/dan-coats-lobbyist-for-fat-cats-plots-senate-return
https://www.politico.com/story/2010/02/the-nuking-of-dan-coats-032752
https://shadowproof.com/2010/03/13/dan-coats-hypocritical-lobbying-floorplans-not-cars/
https://web.archive.org/web/20161230113848/http://www.coats.senate.gov/meet-dan/committees/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-expected-to-name-ex-senator-dan-coats-as-director-of-national-intelligence/2017/01/05/6ad3a7f6-d380-11e6-945a-76f69a399dd5_story.html
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/07/dan-coats-donald-trump-intelligence-lobbying
https://web.archive.org/web/20210215004249/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/28/us/politics/dan-coats-intelligence-chief-out.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-expected-to-name-ex-senator-dan-coats-as-director-of-national-intelligence/2017/01/05/6ad3a7f6-d380-11e6-945a-76f69a399dd5_story.html
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/07/donald-trump-dan-coats-director-national-intelligence
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/dan-coats-announced-trump-s-pick-director-national-intelligence-n704231
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/mike-pence-talked-dan-coats-out-quitting-trump-administration-n985096
https://splinternews.com/mike-pence-reportedly-begged-dni-dan-coats-not-to-quit-1833571918
https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/how-adam-schiff-secretly-thwarted-efforts-bring