Legal experts are divided over whether a sitting president can face obstruction charges; it’s possible that impeachment would be the only remedy for a president still in office committing a crime. Obstruction and related charges are also difficult to prove, because they necessarily turn on an individual’s state of mind.

Monday’s report indicates that Trump attempted to enlist other administration officials in efforts to both shut down the Flynn investigation and to contain the fallout from Comey’s testimony that Trump associates were being investigated. During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday, Coats said that he wouldn’t comment on the Post’s specific allegation, but added that “any political shaping of that presentation or intelligence would not be appropriate,” and that “I have made my position clear on that to this administration, and I intend to maintain that position.”

Clint Watts, a former FBI agent who is now a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said that the report suggested that top intelligence officials “have had the same reaction as Comey, covering their backs against inappropriate presidential influence and potentially obstruction of justice.” The allegation that Trump pressured Comey to shut down the Flynn investigation was reportedly documented in contemporaneous notes taken by Comey, who said no to the request.

According to the Post, “In addition to the requests to Coats and Rogers, senior White House officials sounded out top intelligence officials about the possibility of intervening directly with Comey to encourage the FBI to drop its probe of Michael Flynn.” The Post quoted one official who characterized the White House’s line of questioning as: “Can we ask him to shut down the investigation? Are you able to assist in this matter?”

Flynn appears to be facing serious legal peril. On Monday he invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid turning in documents to the Senate intelligence committee; House Democrats released a letter stating they had concrete evidence that Flynn lied to federal investigators about receiving payments from the Russian government.

While the conversations between Trump and Comey might come down to one man’s word against another, the involvement of White House officials in an effort to enlist intelligence officials to help shut down the Flynn inquiry increases the odds that investigators could compel their cooperation.

“I think that as they all get called before the special prosecutor and the FBI begins questioning them, and they get representation, the pressure begins to mount, it's going to create a situation where they may be inclined to cooperate with the investigation as opposed to being a fall guy for the president,” said David Gomez, a former FBI agent who is now a senior fellow at George Washington University’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security. “The senior staffers may have some culpability in obstruction of justice; of course their defense is that they were acting on the orders of the president.”