Trump aides ‘had Kremlin links’
Damning report says Moscow calls were made in 2016
WASHINGTON // The White House yesterday struggled to contain the fallout from the resignation of the US national security adviser, Michael Flynn, while Moscow denied reports of contact between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russian officials.
The New York Times reported that US intelligence agents in- tercepted telephone calls between members of Mr Trump’s campaign and top Russian intelligence officials in the run-up to the presidential election.
US intelligence agencies are now trying to determine whether the Trump campaign cooperated with Moscow to disrupt Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Former Trump adviser Paul Manafort, who was among those campaign officials heard on the calls, said the claims were absurd, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the latest allegations. The White House said Mr Flynn resigned on Monday for misleading vice president Mike Pence. But on Tuesday, the White House admitted that Mr Trump knew three weeks ago that Mr Flynn may have misled colleagues about his Kremlin contacts, yet kept his vice president in the dark for two weeks. Spokesman Marc Lotter said Mr Pence learnt of the issue only from media reports.
Mr Flynn initially denied discussing sanctions strategy with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak before he was appointed national security adviser. But White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Mr Flynn had to go not because he broke any laws but because the president lost trust in him. Mr Flynn’s departure means the president has lost three key aides because of questionable ties to Russia.
Republicans and Democratic legislators want an investigation into what happened. The Senate’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell, said it was highly likely that Mr Flynn would have to testify before an intelligence panel.