President-elect Donald Trump will appoint the former Indiana senator Dan Coats as director of national intelligence, it was reported on Thursday. He has been banned from entering Russia: ‘I’m not a big fan of Putin’, informs the Guardian.

The pick could be announced later this week, according to a person briefed on the decision who spoke to the Associated Press. The person was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity. The New York Times and Washington Post also reported the nomination, citing Trump transition officials speaking anonymously.

Coats, a member of the Senate intelligence committee as an Indiana legislator from 2011 to 2017, has held several positions that put him out of step with the emerging Trump administration.

Whereas Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin have expressed mutual respect, leading many in the US and Russia to expect a diplomatic thaw, Russia banned Coats from entering the country in 2014, to retaliate against US sanctions. Coats proclaimed himself “honored” to be blacklisted. 

“I’m not a big fan of Putin,” he said in a November 2015 Senate floor speech. “I’m not a big fan of Russia.”

Yet in the same speech, Coats expressed openness to partnering with Russia against Islamic State, a position Trump has expressed, despite the Russian military intervention in Syria focusing on bolstering dictator Bashar Assad, not fighting Isis. Coats has also vigorously endorsed CIA efforts to arm Syrian rebels, another position Trump has opposed. 

The prospective nomination comes amid reports, denied by Trump spokesman Sean Spicer, that the president-elect is considering an overhaul to US intelligence that would diminish the role Coats is said to be tapped to fill. Previous directors of national intelligence, a position barely a decade old, have clashed with CIA directors over the limits of either’s authority.

The outgoing director of national intelligence, James Clapper, on Thursday pledged to produce next week a declassified intelligence report providing evidence of Russian interference in the US election, a claim rejected by Trump that has spurred a dramatic split with the intelligence apparatus Coats may soon helm.

Trump has dismissed the assessment of Russian hacking as an attack on the validity of his election.

Source: The Guardian