UK ‘knew of FBI’S approach to Trump aide’

British officials reportedly aware of two agents looking into campaign’s possible links with Russia in 2016

BRITAIN was aware the FBI was covertly approaching one of Donald Trump’s campaign advisers in London before the 2016 US election, The New York Times has reported.

UK intelligence officials were notified about an operation in which two figures acting for the FBI made approaches to George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, according to the paper.

It followed the FBI opening an investigation into possible links between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin after Mr Papadopoulos mentioned Russia and Hillary Clinton emails to an Australian diplomat.

The report risks further inflaming tensions between the US president, who has publicly accused the UK of spying on his election campaign, and British intelligence figures. Mr Trump and his allies have been demanding an investigation into how the Russia inquiry began since he was cleared of conspiring with the Kremlin in a report published last month by the special counsel Robert Mueller.

Many of the meetings that triggered alarm bells and kick-started the FBI investigation took place in Britain, which has fuelled the Trump camp’s suspicions.

The New York Times reported new details about approaches made to Mr Papadopoulos before the November 2016 election. It was already widely reported that Stefan Halper, a Cambridge University academic and former Republican adviser, had approached Mr Papadopoulos on behalf of the FBI. Mr Halper has not denied the claim.

But the US newspaper also reported that a women named as Azra Turk, who said she was Mr Halper’s assistant, was actually an FBI investigator using a false identity.

Mr Papadopoulos has recalled how Ms Turk met him in a London bar and asked if the Trump campaign was working with Russia. Ms Turk reportedly exchanged emails with Mr Papadopoulos, saying that meeting him had been the “highlight of my trip” and writing: “I am excited about what the future holds for us.”

Mr Trump accuses the FBI of overstepping the mark by investigating a presidential candidate, alleging that those who did so were biased.

William Barr, the US attorney general, is investigating the origins of the Russia inquiry and has said that there was “spying” on the Trump campaign.

He said there was an assumption that the only intelligence collection that occurred was a single confidential informant and a separate wire tap.

“I would like to find out whether that is in fact true,” said Mr Barr. “It strikes me as a fairly anaemic effort if that was the counter-intelligence effort designed to stop the threat as it’s being represented.”

Mr Trump tweeted about The New York Times report: “Finally, Mainstream Media is getting involved – too ‘hot’ to avoid. Pulitzer Prize anyone?” He added: “This is bigger than WATERGATE, but the reverse!”

Both the Foreign Office and the FBI declined to comment.