FBI: Ex-Trump campaign adviser had ties to Russia

The Federal Bureau of Investigation believes a former Trump campaign adviser had ties to Russia as it sought to influence the 2016 United States presidential election, top secret documents released to US news organisations revealed on Saturday.

The October 2016 application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court named Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser to the campaign of Donald Trump, according to the documents which The New York Times published.

“The FBI believes Page has been the subject of targeted recruitment by the Russian government,” the initial FBI application said before it was blacked out and continued: “to undermine and influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election in violation of US criminal law”.

Release of the documents comes just over a week after 12 Russian intelligence officers were charged with hacking Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton’s campaign to steal documents, which were then publicly released. Trump is not named in the document but identified only as “Candidate #1”.

The FBI, in its initial application the month before Trump won the election, said it “believes that the Russian government’s efforts are being coordinated with Page and perhaps other individuals associated with Candidate #1’s campaign”.

It added that “Page has established relationships with Russian government officials, including Russian intelligence officers”.

Page has not been charged.