Trump seizes on report that Russian sold ‘phony secrets’

President mum on U.S. spies’ main goal to get NSA tools back.

President Donald Trump responded Saturday to a news report alleging that U.S. spies paid a Russian who claimed he could provide classified information stolen from the National Security Agency and promised compromising information about the president and his connections to Russia.

“According to the [New York Times], a Russian sold phony secrets on ‘Trump’ to the U.S.,” Trump wrote in a Twitter message. “Asking price was $10 million, brought down to $1 million to be paid over time. I hope people are now seeing & understanding what is going on here. It is all now starting to come out - DRAIN THE SWAMP!”

The report said that U.S. officials didn’t want the information about Trump, who didn’t address the attempt to retrieve the classified National Security Agency material, which was considered extraordinarily important to intelligence operations.

In his tweet, Trump appeared to refer to his long-standing accusation that intelligence agencies are trying discredit him by investigating his connections to Russia.

Possible Trump campaign ties to Russia are currently being scrutinized by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is also investigating whether the president or any of his aides tried to obstruct an investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

The president has called the Russia investigation a “witch hunt.”

U.S. officials have said that information stolen from the NSA included computer code used in classified government hacking operations. That information was obtained by a group calling itself the Shadow Brokers, which officials privately say they believe is connected to Russia.

The intelligence community was involved in an effort to investigate and determine whether it could gain access to stolen government data, according to a U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. It was determined later that the offer was bogus and the people behind it couldn’t produce any of the stolen government data, this official said.

The Times reported Friday that “after months of secret negotiations,” a Russian with suspected ties to the country’s intelligence apparatus and to Eastern European criminals “bilked American spies out of $100,000 last year.”

The Russian had promised to deliver the stolen computer code, the Times said. But officials determined that information he was offering had already been published online.