Russian contacts upset ex-CIA boss
UNITED STATES: The CIA alerted the FBI to a troubling pattern of contacts between Russian officials and associates of the Trump campaign last year, former agency director John Brennan has testified, shedding new light on the origin of a criminal probe that now reaches into the White House.
In testimony before the House intelligence committee yesterday, Brennan said he became increasingly concerned that Donald Trump’s associates were being manipulated by Russian intelligence services as part of a broader covert influence campaign that sought to disrupt the election and deliver the presidency to Trump.
Brennan said he did not see proof of collusion before he left office on January 20, but ‘‘felt as though the FBI investigation was certainly well-founded and needed to look into those issues’’.
Brennan’s remarks represent the most detailed public accounting to date of his tenure as CIA director during the alleged Russian assault on the US presidential race, and the agency’s role in triggering an FBI probe that Trump has sought to contain.
‘‘It should be clear to everyone that Russia brazenly interfered in our 2016 presidential election process,’’ Brennan said at one point, one of several moments in which his words seemed aimed squarely at the president.
Trump has refused to fully accept the unanimous conclusion of US intelligence agencies that Russia stole thousands of sensitive emails, orchestrated online dumps of damaging information, and employed fake news and other means to upend the 2016 race.
Brennan refused to name any of the US individuals who were apparently detected communicating with Russian officials. The FBI investigation, which began last July, has scrutinised Trump associates including Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager; Carter Page, who was once listed as a foreign policy adviser to Trump; and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was forced to resign after misleading statements about his contacts with the Russian ambassador were exposed.
The probe has intensified in recent weeks and has identified a current White House official as a significant person of interest.
Brennan said Russian agencies routinely sought to gather compromising information to coerce treason from US officials who ‘‘do not even realise they are on that path until it gets too late’’. The remark appeared to be in reference to Flynn.
The committee said yesterday it was issuing new subpoenas for information from Flynn’s companies, and challenging his lawyer’s refusal to comply with an existing subpoena for documents detailing his contacts with Russian officials.
Brennan testified that he was the first to confront a senior member of the Russian government about the matter, using an August phone conversation with the head of Russia’s security service, the FSB, to warn that the meddling would backfire and damage the country’s relationship with the US.
The former CIA chief is the latest senior Obama administration official to appear publicly before Congress in hearings that have often produced damaging headlines for Trump.
Meanwhile, the top US intelligence official declined to comment yesterday on a report in The Washington Post that Trump had urged him to deny publicly the existence of any evidence of collusion with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Director of national intelligence Daniel Coats told the Senate armed services committee: ‘‘I have always believed that . . . it’s not appropriate for me to comment publicly on any of that.’’
The newspaper reported that Trump made the request of Coats after then-FBI director James Comey disclosed on March 20 that the bureau was investigating potential co-ordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. – Washington Post