Trump planning ‘war room’ to repel attacks
The White House plans to launch its most aggressive effort yet to push back against allegations involving Russia and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, tackling head on a scandal that has threatened to consume his young presidency.
Trump’s advisers are planning to establish a ‘‘war room’’ to combat mounting questions about communication between Russia and his presidential campaign before and after last November’s election, while bringing new aides into the White House, administration officials and persons close to Trump say.
Beyond pushing back at suggestions that Moscow is unduly influencing Trump’s administration, the messaging effort will also focus How would he trust that the Russians wouldn’t leak it on their side? added to the intrigue surrounding the Trump administration’s relationship with Russia. To some officials, it also reflects a staggering naivete.
The FBI closely monitors the communications of Russian officials in the US, and maintains near-constant surveillance of its on advancing Trump’s stalled policy agenda, and could involve more trips out of Washington, featuring the kind of raucous rallies that were a hallmark of his election campaign.
A person in regular touch with the White House said it needed a different structure to focus on the ‘‘new reality’’ that there would be continued leaks to the media from the law enforcement and intelligence communities.
Jared Kushner will be involved in the new strategic messaging operation, as will Steve Bannon, another top adviser who specialises in managing Trump’s populist appeal and shaping his political image, the sources say.
Bannon and Trump’s chief of diplomatic facilities. The National Security Agency monitors the communications of Russian officials overseas.
Current and former US intelligence officials said that although Russian diplomats had secure means of communicating with Moscow, Kushner’s apparent request for access to such channels was extraordinary.
‘‘How would he trust that the Russians wouldn’t leak it on their side?’’ said one former senior intelligence official.
The FBI would know that a Trump transition official was going in and out of the embassy, which would cause ‘‘a great deal’’ of concern, he added. The entire idea, he said, ‘‘seems extremely naive or absolutely crazy’’.
The discussion of a secret channel adds to a broader pattern of efforts by Trump’s closest advisers to obscure their contacts with Russian counterparts.
Flynn was forced to resign after a series of false statements about his conversations with Kislyak. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from matters related to the Russia investigation after it was revealed that he had failed to disclose his own meetings with Kislyak when asked during congressional testimony about any contact with Russians. staff, Reince Priebus, have been laying the groundwork for the plan this week.
Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager, is also expected to be part of the effort. Lewandowski was fired in June 2016 over concerns that he was not experienced enough to oversee the general election fight, but has remained a trusted adviser to and steadfast defender of Trump.
Trump had been frustrated of late that his communications team hasn’t done a more effective job at making the case that he isn’t implicated in the Russia probe, and highlighting his administration’s successes, sources close to the president say.
Kushner’s interactions with Russians – including Kislyak and an executive for a Russian bank under US sanctions – were not acknowledged by the White House until they were exposed in media reports.
It is common for senior advisers of a newly elected president to be in contact with foreign leaders and officials. But new administrations are generally cautious in their handling of interactions with Moscow, which US intelligence agencies have accused of waging an unprecedented campaign to interfere in last year’s presidential race and help elect Trump.
The State Department, the White House National Security Council and US intelligence agencies all have the ability to set up secure communications channels with foreign leaders, though doing so for a transition team would be unusual.
Russia would also have had reasons of its own to reject such an overture from Kushner. Doing so would require Moscow to expose its most sophisticated communications capabilities to an American.
The Washington Post was first alerted to the meeting and the secret channel request by an anonymous letter it received in mid-December. This week, the officials – who reviewed the letter and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence – said the portion about the secret channel was consistent with their understanding of events.
In addition to their discussion about setting up the communications channel, Kushner, Flynn and Kislyak also talked about arranging a meeting between a representative of Trump and a ‘‘Russian contact’’ in a third country whose name was not identified, according to the anonymous letter.
The Post reported in April that Erik Prince, the former founder of private security firm Blackwater and an informal adviser to the Trump transition team, met with a representative of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Seychelles on January 11, nine days before Trump’s inauguration.