Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., said Wednesday he would hold a closed hearing with top U.S. intelligence officials in the near future to talk about questions related to the investigation into ties between Russia and the Trump administration, after those officials declined to answer several questions posed by Democrats.
Democrats on the committee used the hearing to ask Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein what they know about President Trump’s conversations with former FBI Director James Comey, and whether Trump tried to influence Comey’s investigation.
But officials refused to describe those conversations or reveal other details, and insisted generally that they never faced political pressure from the White House.
Sens. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., and Angus King, I-Maine, in particular grew frustrated at several points in the hearing. Heinrich complained about McCabe’s “unwillingness” to answer, and King asked every official what the legal justification was for not answering.
Officials implied at some points that it would get into classified information, or would get into conversations with Trump that they did not want to relay in public.
After several back and forth discussions like this, Burr stepped in and said he would set up a closed session. He said the closed session scheduled for later today is already planned for a detailed talk about the use of Section 702 surveillance authority under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but said another date could be found.
“This afternoon is set with technical people to walk us through 702,” Burr said. “Rest assured that we will take the first available opportunity in closed session to address those questions that they can address, and hopefully prior to that, the vice chair and I would have an opportunity to meet with Director Mueller to determine whether that fits within the scope of his current investigation. And we will do that.”
