June 7, 2017

MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell concluded that both of Trump's top intelligence chiefs "stonewalled' the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing today by refusing to answer questions that weren't classified about their discussions with Trump - whether he asked them to back off Russia investigations.

Mitchell cut into the hearing as it was about to conclude and said, "I''m Andrea Mitchell in Washington where top intelligence officials are stonewalling the Senate Intelligence Committee asking about reports that President Trump pressured them to try to get fired FBI Director James Comey to back off of the Russian investigation."

Both Dan Coats and Admiral Rogers invoked executive privilege by refusing to answer any questions about these discussions with Trump they "felt were inappropriate" to answer without actually telling the committee they were doing so.

Mitchell then played a highly contentious segment between the top chiefs and Sen. Angus King, who furiously said, "What you feel isn't relevant Admiral. What you feel isn't the answer. The answer is why are you not answering the questions. Is it an invocation of executive privilege, if there is then let's know about it. If there isn't answer the questions."

(Here's the full video segment of Sen. King's questions.)

When testifying, a person's "feelings" are not relevant when discussing classified and unclassified information.

Mitchell introduced Rep. Adam Schiff and said, "if the president asked them to back off an investigation, that's not a classified conversation, is it?

Rep. Schiff replied, "These conversations are not classified and it is clear from the witnesses today, there has been no claim of executive privilege and there's no basis for them to refuse to answer."

Many are suggesting that Coats and Rogers will admit in the closed-door session of today's interviews what Trump said to them, but it would be under a classified status then.

Which of course means they are actively covering up for the Trump administration.

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