By Chuck Ross
Retired Adm. Michael Rogers, the former director of the National Security Agency, is cooperating with U.S. attorney John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, according to a new report.
The Intercept, citing four sources familiar with the matter, reports that Rogers has met voluntarily with Durham multiple times.
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“He’s been very cooperative,” a former intelligence official familiar with the meetings told The Intercept.
The development comes after The New York Times reported Thursday that Durham, the U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, has asked the CIA for emails, call logs and other correspondence from John Brennan, the former CIA director. (RELATED: Report: Durham Is Seeking John Brennan’s Emails, Call Logs)
The Intercept report does not say whether Rogers has provided any information that contradicts Brennan, the CIA, or the FBI.
In May, Attorney General William Barr tapped Durham to lead an administrative review of U.S. agencies’ investigation and intelligence-gathering activities related to the Trump campaign. Barr said at the time that he had questions about the FBI’s rationale for investigating whether Trump campaign advisers were conspiring with Russia in 2016.
Barr said in a Fox News interview this week that Durham is looking at what happened before the FBI opened that investigation in July 2016, as well as what took place after Trump was elected.
According to The New York Times, Durham is interested in the CIA’s assessment that Russia meddled in the 2016 election specifically to help Donald Trump win the election.
The CIA and FBI assessed with a high degree of confidence that Russia meddled in the 2016 election in order to help Donald Trump win the election, rather than just to sow discord in the American political system. The NSA had only a medium degree of confidence in the theory.
Rogers and Brennan took part in the Jan. 6, 2017 intelligence briefing where then-President-Elect Donald Trump was told of Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 election. Then-FBI Director James Comey and James Clapper, who led the Office of National Intelligence at the time, also took part in the briefing.
Comey stayed behind to brief Trump one-on-one about allegations from the Steele dossier.
Rogers has remained out of the public spotlight, unlike the other three intelligence community chiefs, since retiring from the NSA in May 2018. Comey has done numerous media interviews and embarked on a cross-country book tour since being fired by Trump in May 2017. Brennan is an MSNBC analyst, while Clapper is a CNN contributor.
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment about The Intercept report.
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