Senators ask Trump nominees to aid in Russia probe even if it damages president – USA TODAY

Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr heads to a committee meeting on Capitol Hill on July 18, 2017.(Photo: Mark Wilson, Getty Images)

WASHINGTON Two of President Trump's nominees for high-level intelligence jobs promised the Senate Intelligence Committee to cooperate with the panel's Russia investigation, even if the information they uncover proves damaging to Trump.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked the presidents nominee for assistant secretary of Treasury for intelligence and analysis whether she will make it a top priority to investigate Russia's use of shell corporations to launder money in the U.S. even it leads to "ties to the president's business, family or campaign."

"I will take the intelligence wherever it goes," promised nominee Isabel Patelunas, a longtime analyst for the CIA, at a committee hearing Wednesday.

The Senate Intelligence Committee, along with the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Intelligence Committee, are investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.

Both Patelunas and Susan Gordon, the president's nominee for principal deputy director of national intelligence, were asked by Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., whether they would commit to working with the committee on its Russia investigation.

"I certainly will, sir," Patelunas responded. Gordon, who is also acareer CIA officer, promised to do the same.

Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., also pressed Gordon and Robert Storch, Trump's nominee to be inspector general of the National Security Agency, about how they can stop leaks of classified information by NSA contractors.

The most famous of those leaks came in 2013, when former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked classified information about NSA surveillance programs, including the mass collection of phone records from millions of Americans who weren't suspected of any terrorist activity.

While members of Congress generally denounced Snowden's actions, his revelations led lawmakers in 2015 to pass the USA Freedom Act, which ended the controversial bulk collection of data.

In addition to the Snowden case, there have been two other major leaks by NSA contractors. In early June, a 25-year-old federal contractor was arrested in Georgia in connection with a classified NSA report on Russian election interference published by the online publicationThe Intercept.

The report said that Russian military intelligence conducted a cyber attack on at least one supplier of voting software and sent phishing emails containing malicious software to more than 100 local election official just days before the 2016 election,The Interceptreported.

"Do you commit to us ... to try to figure out how to plug this problem?" Burr asked Gordon, who said yes.

"I believe unauthorized leaks of classified information are always damaging," she said, adding that they are "not in this nation's interest."

Storch also promised Feinstein that he would look into the problem and evaluate the NSA's security.

"I absolutely would pledge to you that it is something we would explore," Storch said.

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Senators ask Trump nominees to aid in Russia probe even if it damages president - USA TODAY