Four US intel chiefs will testify on Capitol Hill Wednesday, kicking off the closest thing C-SPAN will ever have to an explosive, two-part season finale.
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, FBI Acting Director Andrew McCabe, National Security Agency Director Admiral Michael Rogers, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein are all expected to face questions from the Senate Intelligence Committee about the investigation into Russia's alleged ties to the Trump campaign. Wednesday's hearing comes just a day before former FBI director James Comey's own hearing, and follows recent news that Attorney General Jeff Sessions may resign due to a growing beef with Trump, according to ABC News.
Senators will likely press Coats and Rogers on a Washington Post report last May that Trump attempted to goad the officials into publicly denying claims that Russia meddled in the election—an "inappropriate" request that both men allegedly refused. This will also be Rosenstein's first public testimony after his Comey memo played a key role in the FBI director's abrupt ousting.
According to CNN, the original reason for the hearing is to discuss the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the NSA to gather large amounts of email and phone conversations from non-US citizens around the globe, though the practice also inevitably pulls in American citizens' communications without a warrant. The official topic will inevitably take a bit of a backseat as senators make use of their time with the intel chiefs to grill them about Comey before he takes the hot seat himself Thursday.
And of course, Trump will probably be live-tweeting the whole thing—sorry, releasing "official White House statements"—if you're looking for some color commentary.
from vice http://ift.tt/2sfQ8IL
via cheap web hosting
No comments:
Post a Comment