Letter: Reader questions Washington Post story

Readers beware. In the June 7 Gazette in an article by the Washington Post, this headline was printed in bold type, to make sure the casual reader would read and assume it was the truth: 'Trump asked intel director if he could intervene with the FBI probe”.

This contradicts information in the last paragraph, which states: Brian Hale, a Director of National Intelligence spokesman, declined to comment on whether President Donald Trump asked Daniel Coats to intervene with James Comey regarding the Michael Flynn investigation.

Hale said in a statement, 'Director Coats does not discuss his private conversation with the president. However, he never felt pressured by the president or anyone else in the administration to influence any intelligent matters or ongoing investigations”.

Later that morning in a Senate investigation, Senators drilled Coats about his private conversations with the president. Many times he said he could not discuss this in an open hearing because it was classified.

John McCain had concerns why Coats could not discuss this with the Senate, when leaked classified information about it was in the morning's Washington Post. Coats said he would be willing to talk in a closed investigation.

I will let the reader decide. Are these investigations political, most news media biased, and should leakers of classified information be punished?

Ivan Hardt

Cedar Rapids