Trump-Russia investigation deepens with papers request

Investigators working for US special counsel Robert Mueller, who leads the inquiry into possible collusion between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia, have asked the White House for documents related to former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

The document request, although not a formal subpoena, is the first time Mr Mueller’s team has asked the White House to hand over records.

The New York Times said the investigators had questioned witnesses about whether Mr Flynn was secretly paid by the Turkish government in the final months of last year’s campaign.

Ty Cobb, special counsel to Mr Trump, said: “We’ve said before we’re collaborating with the special counsel on an ongoing basis.”

Mr Trump has denied collusion between his campaign and Russia and called the inquiry a witch hunt.

Yesterday, the former Russian ambassador to the US strongly denied the accusation of meddling in the American presidential race.

Sergei Kislyak, who has just returned from Washington, said he was merely doing his job as a diplomat when he met with members of Mr Trump’s team. He said he also had meetings with representatives of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, but did not say with whom.

Mr Kislyak called the accusations against him as absurd and “shameful” for the US. The official acknowledgment that his phone conversations were bugged was “unhealthy,” he said.

Asked about his contacts with Michael Flynn, who served briefly as Trump’s national security advise, Mr Kislyak said that they did not discuss any secrets.

“We talked about very basic things,” he said. “There are a few subjects important for Russia-US co-operation, primarily terrorism, and it was one of the subjects we talked about.

“Our conversations were legitimate, calm and absolutely transparent.”

Mr Kislyak insisted they had not talked about sanctions because he was under orders from Moscow not to discuss the subject.

“I had instructions not to discuss sanctions,” he said.

The president sacked Mr Flynn in February after it became clear that he had misrepresented the nature of phone conversations he had with the Russian ambassador last December.