WASHINGTON (AP/KMOX) — Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, is resigning after a turbulent two years in which he and President Donald Trump were often at odds over Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump named a GOP congressman and fierce loyalist to replace him.
Trump announced Coats' departure as Aug. 15 in a tweet Sunday thanking Coats for his service. He said he will nominate Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, to the post and that he will soon name an acting official. Ratcliffe is a frequent Trump defender who fiercely questioned former special counsel Robert Mueller during a House Judiciary Committee hearing last week.
“Dan Coats and I served on the Senate Intelligence Committee together. His questions were always tough and he demanded the best from the agencies that reported to us. He had the same standards as Director of National Intelligence. He handled a hard job well.”
Coats often appeared out of step with Trump and disclosed to prosecutors how he was urged by the Republican president to publicly deny any link between Russia and the Trump campaign. The frayed relationship reflected broader divisions between the president and the government's intelligence agencies.
Coats' public, and sometimes personal, disagreements with Trumpover policy and intelligence included Russian election interference and North Korean nuclear capabilities. Trump had long been skeptical of the nation's intelligence agencies, which provoked his ire by concluding that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election with the goal of getting him elected.
In a letter of resignation released Sunday night, Coats said serving as the nation's top intelligence official has been a "distinct privilege" but that it was time for him to "move on" to the next chapter of his life. He cited his work to strengthen the intelligence community's effort to prevent harm to the U.S. from adversaries and to reform the security clearance process.
A former Republican senator from Indiana, Coats was appointed director of national intelligence in March 2017, becoming the fifth person to hold the post since it was created in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to oversee and coordinate the nation's 17 intelligence agencies.
Coats had been among the last of the seasoned foreign policy hands to surround the president after his 2016 victory. That roster included Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and later national security adviser H.R. McMaster.
Coats developed a reputation inside the administration for sober presentations of intelligence conclusions that occasionally contradicted Trump's policy aims.
Coats' departure comes days after Mueller's public testimony on his two-year investigation into Russian election interference and potential obstruction of justice by Trump, which officials said both emboldened and infuriated the president.
Ratcliffe shares Trump's view of the Mueller probe. Last week, the Texas Republican was one of the most aggressive questioners of the former special counsel at the House Judiciary hearing. In an appearance Sunday on Fox News Channel's "Sunday Morning Futures," he also said it was time to move on from Democrats' talk of impeachment.
Confirmation takes a simple 51-vote majority, under new rules in the Senate, but that leaves slim room for error with Republicans holding a 53-seat majority.