WASHINGTON -- President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that he wanted retired Sen. Dan Coats to be national intelligence director, describing the former member of the Senate Intelligence Committee as the right person to lead the new administration's "ceaseless vigilance against those who seek to do us harm."
RELATED ARTICLES
http://www.arkansas…">Need to draw Russia closer, Trump tweets http://www.arkansas…">Paul cites Trump health-law stand http://www.arkansas…">Ethics office awaits forms from Cabinet selections
Coats, an Indiana Republican, will await Senate confirmation to head the office, which was created after 9/11 to improve coordination among U.S. spy and law enforcement agencies. Coats now finds himself in line to be at the center of an intelligence apparatus that the president-elect has publicly challenged.
Trump's announcement came a day after the release of a declassified government report on Russian efforts to influence the presidential election. The report predicts that Russia isn't done intruding in U.S. politics and policymaking.
Trump wants to improve relations with Russia and repeatedly has denounced intelligence agencies' assessment that the Kremlin interfered in the election, when he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton. But the report released Friday explicitly ties Russian President Vladimir Putin to the meddling and says Russia had a "clear preference" for Trump over Clinton.
[TRUMP: Timeline of president-elect’s career + list of appointments so far]
Coats was a vocal critic of Russia and pushed President Barack Obama's administration to harshly punish Moscow for its annexation of Crimea in 2014. When the White House levied sanctions, the Kremlin responded by banning several lawmakers, including Coats, from traveling to Russia.
Still, Trump said in his early morning statement that Coats "has clearly demonstrated the deep subject matter expertise and sound judgment required to lead our intelligence community." He said Coats "will provide unwavering leadership that the entire intelligence community can respect, and will spearhead my administration's ceaseless vigilance against those who seek to do us harm."
Coats, in a statement released by Trump's transition team, said, "There is no higher priority than keeping America safe, and I will utilize every tool at my disposal to make that happen."
Coats, 73, is a Capitol Hill veteran who served eight years in the House before moving to the Senate in 1989 to take Dan Quayle's place when Quayle became President George H.W. Bush's vice president. Coats stayed in the Senate until 1998, then left to become a lobbyist.
After serving as U.S. ambassador to Germany under President George W. Bush, Coats joined the international law firm of King & Spalding, helping lead the government affairs division and lobbying for pharmaceutical, defense and energy companies.
Coats, who earned $600,000 in his final 13 months at King & Spalding, downplayed his lobbying work when he returned to Indiana for a successful Senate comeback bid in 2010. He served one term and did not seek re-election last year.
Separately, Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, was preparing to resign as chief executive from his real estate development company, his lawyer said Saturday in a statement. Kushner's planned resignation is meant to reduce conflict-of-interest concerns as he ponders a position in the White House.
Though plans are not yet final, the statement from WilmerHale partner Jamie Gorelick said Kushner "is committed to complying with federal ethics laws." Kushner would also "divest substantial assets" and "recuse from particular matters that would have a direct and predictable effect on his remaining financial interests."
Late Saturday, Trump's transition team defended against plagiarism accusations the syndicated talk-show host Monica Crowley, named as director of communications for the White House's National Security Council.
CNN reported Saturday that Crowley plagiarized sections of her 2012 book, What The (Bleep) Just Happened.
In its report, CNN said it found more than 50 examples of plagiarism from numerous sources, including copying with no changes or minimal changes from news articles, other columnists and think tanks.
A Trump transition spokesman on Saturday commended Crowley for her "exceptional insight and thoughtful work on how to turn this country around" and said that is "exactly why she will be serving in the administration."
Information for this article was contributed by staff members of The Associated Press and by Chico Harlan of The Washington Post.
A Section on 01/08/2017