Inquiry turns to campaign worker with links to Russia

House panel asks ex-adviser for related documents.

Mic h ael C aputo, who served as a communications adviser to the Trump campaign, has been asked by the House committee investigating Russian election med- dling to submit to a volun- tary interview and to provide any documents he may have that are related to the inquiry.

The House Intelligence Committee, which is exam- ining possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, made its request in a letter May 9. Caputo, who spent six months on the Trump team, worked in Russia during the 1990s and came to know Kremlin officials. He also did work in the early 2000s for Gazprom Media, a Russian conglomerate that supported President Vladimir Putin.

Caputo has strongly denied that there was any collusion between him or anyone else on the campaign and Russian officials. He has also accused the committee of smearing him.

A Democratic member of the panel, Rep. Jackie Speier of California, raised Caputo’s name during a March 20 hearing where James Comey, then the FBI director, testified on Russia’s interference in the election. She noted Caputo’s work for Gaz- prom, and the fact that he met his second wife, who is Ukrainian, while working in 2007 on a parliamentary election in Kiev.

Caputo is the latest in a string of Trump campaign officials who have been approached by the com- mittee.

He is a protégé of Roger Stone, one of President Donald Trump’s longest-serving advisers and one of the peo- ple who has been a focus of investigators’ interest. Stone has also denied having con- tact with Russian officials.

The panel’s letter asked Caputo for “any documents, records, electronically stored information including email, communication, recordings, data and tangible things” that could “reasonably lead to the discovery of any facts within the investigation’s publicly announced parameters.”

The committee said it wanted to discuss with Caputo a number of topics, “including Russian cyberac- tivities directed against the 2016 U.S. election, potential links between Russia and individuals associated with political campaigns, the U.S. government’s response to these Russian active measures, and related leaks of classified information.”

Caputo has denounced the allegations for months on social media, and said he tried to contact Speier the day after she mentioned him and his wife in the hearing.

In a written response to the committee, Caputo said he plans to comply with its request, but that he had no contact with the Russians.