WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name former senator Daniel Coats, R-Ind., to be his director of national intelligence, a position some of Trump’s own advisers suggest is unneeded, a Trump transition team official said Thursday.
Coats, who is seen as a traditional Republican, served a total of 16 years in the Senate during two separate stretches and was ambassador to Germany during George W. Bush’s presidency.
His selection comes at a time when the incoming administration’s views on the quality and value of U.S. intelligence-gathering are unclear at best.
Coats would probably bring a strongly skeptical view of Russia to the job. In 2014, as part of the Kremlin’s response to U.S. and European sanctions for its actions in Ukraine, Coats was one of several members of Congress who were banned from Russia.
“While I’m disappointed that I won’t be able to go on vacation with my family in Siberia this summer,” Coats said at the time, “I am honored to be on this list,”
The Indiana Republican was seen as a hawk on Russia issues in the Senate, where his most recent term ended this week when the 114th Congress concluded. A member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, he pushed for even heavier sanctions over what he called Russia’s territorial aggression, particularly its annexation of Crimea and military backing of separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Coats also served in the chamber from 1989 to 1999 and was ambassador to Germany from 2001 to 2005. While in Germany, he was involved in the cleanup after a bungled intelligence operation in which the CIA kidnapped a German citizen on the mistaken assumption that he was a terrorist. Coats was detailed to explain the mistake to the German government and ask that it not reveal what had happened.
Coats would need to win confirmation by the Senate, where his relationships and reputation as a diligent and even-tempered colleague may help. He also had good working relationships with Democrats.
“Daniel Coats is a good choice. Serious. Respected,” former Obama national security spokesman Tommy Vietor said Thursday on Twitter.
Coats also worked as a lobbyist for a period and had foreign firms or governments as clients, which could be an issue raised at his confirmation hearing.
Coats was not initially a Trump supporter; he endorsed Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., less than a month before Rubio ended his presidential bid.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) was born out of recommendations in the 9/11 Commission Report to better coordinate and synthesize intelligence collected by multiple agencies.
Trump has been weighing an overhaul, but not elimination, of the office for weeks, a matter that has factored into the delay in nominating someone to serve in the position, according to members of Trump’s transition team, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
Some of Trump’s top advisers on intelligence matters, including Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, are skeptical of the value of the ODNI position. Trump’s choice for national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, may have a more personal animus toward the office. Flynn was fired as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper Jr., who is among those scheduled to meet with Trump in New York on Friday.
The threat to dismantle the ODNI, which was reported by the Wall Street Journal and denied by the Trump transition team, may have been designed to send a message in advance of that high-stakes intelligence briefing. It would remind Clapper and others scheduled to attend that Trump - who is likely to be accompanied by Flynn - holds significant power over the fates of their agencies.
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The Washington Post’s Philip Rucker, Greg Miller and Ed O’Keefe contributed to this report.
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Video: Trump’s Transition: Who is Dan Coats?
President-elect Donald Trump is nominating former senator Dan Coats (R-Ind.) for director of national intelligence. Here’s what you need to know about him. (Peter Stevenson / The Washington Post)
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