page_title: Dan Coats
section_title: Director of National Intelligence
hierarchical_section_title: Dan Coats / Director of National Intelligence
caption_attribution_description: English: Intelligence Director Dan Coats sworn in by VP Mike Pence
context_page_description: Daniel Ray Coats is an American politician and former diplomat. From 2017 to 2019, he served as the Director of National Intelligence in the Trump administration. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a United States Senator from Indiana from 1989 to 1999 and again from 2011 to 2017. He was the United States Ambassador to Germany from 2001 to 2005, and a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1989. Coats served on the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence while in the U.S. Senate.
  Born in Jackson, Michigan, Coats graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois and the Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis. He served in the U.S. Army from 1966 to 1968. Coats represented Indiana's 4th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1989. He was appointed to fill the Senate seat vacated by Dan Quayle following Quayle's election as Vice President of the United States. Coats won the 1990 special election to serve the remainder of Quayle's unexpired term, as well as the 1992 election for a full six-year term. He did not seek reelection in 1998 and was succeeded by Democrat Evan Bayh.
context_section_description: On January 5, 2017, Coats was announced as then-President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for the position of Director of National Intelligence, to succeed the outgoing James R. Clapper. His confirmation hearing was held on February 28, 2017 to the United States Senate Intelligence Committee. On March 9, 2017, the United States Senate Intelligence Committee approved the nomination of Coats as National Intelligence Director with a 13–2 vote. The Senate confirmed his nomination with an 85–12 vote on March 15, 2017, and he was sworn into office on March 16.
  On July 16, 2018, Coats released a statement affirming the consensus of the United States Intelligence Community (IC) that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, a day after the 2018 Russia–United States summit where President Trump recanted his endorsement of the IC's assessment.
  On September 6, 2018, Director Coats denied that he had authored the anonymous op-ed piece from a Senior Trump Administration official that berated the President which had been published by the New York Times the day prior. The day before, MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell had speculated that Coats was the author of the controversial anonymous piece.
  Coats released the DNI's "Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community" on January 29, 2019, listing the major threats to the United States. The reports states that the "international system is coming under increasing strain amid continuing cyber and WMD proliferation threats, competition in space, and regional conflicts. Among the disturbing trends are hostile states and actors' intensifying online efforts to influence and interfere with elections here and abroad and their use of chemical weapons. Terrorism too will continue to be a top threat to US and partner interests worldwide, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. The development and application of new technologies will introduce both risks and opportunities, and the US economy will be challenged by slower global economic growth and growing threats to U.S. economic competitiveness." In the report, Coats also highlighted the potential negative impacts to US national security as a result of climate change, with this statement: "The United States will probably have to manage the impact of global human security challenges, such as threats to public health, historic levels of human displacement, assaults on religious freedom, and the
  negative effects of environmental degradation and climate change."
  Reporting to Congress in January 2019, the subject advised that Russia acting in concert with their allies will use novel strategies that build on their previous experience in election meddling. In July 2019, Coats appointed an election security "czar," Shelby Pierson, to oversee efforts across intelligence agencies. She is the first to have that role. Coats also directed other intelligence agencies to appoint executives to coordinate election security.
  During his tenure Coats sometimes took public positions that conflicted with Trump's statements or actions. Areas of disagreement included Russia, and particularly Russia's interference in the 2016 election, as well as North Korea and Iran. On July 28, 2019, following multiple anonymous reports that he was about to be let go, Trump announced on Twitter that Coats would depart on August 15 and that he would nominate Congressman John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) to replace him as Director of National Intelligence. 
  There has been speculation  that Coats's firing as DNI was connected to the intelligence community's response to the Trump telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on July 25, 2019. Coats's dismissal was three days later. This sequence of events was not understood at the time, because details of the call, which resulted in the impeachment inquiry against Trump, were not then yet public.
caption: Coats being sworn in as Director of National Intelligence by Vice President Mike Pence on March 16, 2017
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