Russian contacts troubled ex-CIA chief
As Russian hackers tried to manipulate the U.S. election last year, the CIA noticed suspicious contacts between Russian officials and associates of the Trump campaign, John Brennan, the former CIA director, says.
WASHINGTON — There was enough intelligence tying members of President Donald Trump’s election campaign to Russian intelligence officers to worry former CIA Director John Brennan before he left office in January, Brennan told Congress on Tuesday.
It was the closest an American intelligence official has come to explaining the genesis of the FBI investigation into whether the Trump campaign cooperated in Russia’s meddling in the U.S. election, and it made clear that what Trump has called “the Russia thing” was viewed last year with the utmost seriousness by the intelligence community.
“Frequently, individuals who go along a treasonous path do not even realize they are on that path until it gets to be a bit too late, and that’s why my radar goes up early when I see certain things,” Brennan said, explaining that he did not know whether the contacts between Trump team members and Russia were “benign.”
Among those things that concerned him, Brennan said, was “intelligence that revealed contacts and interactions between Russian officials and U.S. persons involved in the Trump campaign.” He declined to reveal details or names in public.
“It raised questions in my mind, again, whether or not the Russians were able to gain the cooperation of those individuals,” he said.
He added that he did not know “if such collusion” existed but “I know there was sufficient basis in intelligence that required further investigation by the bureau to determine whether U.S. persons were actively conspiring and colluding with Russian officials.”
Brennan’s comments on what evidence existed to begin an investigation were almost pried out of him during questioning by Republican committee members who to this point have appeared dubious of the notion that Trump’s campaign team had colluded with Russia.
Reps. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina and Tom Rooney of Florida were the most aggressive Republican questioners, and they solicited some of Brennan’s most detailed responses.
“Did you find evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Putin in Moscow?” Rooney asked at one point. Brennan responded, “I was worried by a number of the contacts that the Russians had with U.S. persons.”
Later, Gowdy asked, “Did evidence exist of collusion, coordination, conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russian state actors?”
Brennan balked at addressing the notion of evidence, saying his role was in intelligence gathering, not determining what could be used as evidence in a criminal matter.
But when Gowdy pushed him for an answer, Brennan revealed that “intelligence” had detected “contacts and interactions between Russian officials and U.S. persons involved in the Trump campaign.” That intelligence was concerning enough to merit an FBI probe, he said.
Brennan said Trump’s reported “spontaneous” sharing of so-called “codeword” intelligence from Israel with two visiting Russian diplomats had violated “two protocols” of behavior between spy agencies.
First, he testified, “Such intelligence, classified intelligence, is not shared with visiting foreign ministers or local ambassadors. It’s shared through intelligence channels, because it needs to be handled the right way and it needs to make sure it is not exposed.”
Beyond that, he said: “Before sharing any classified intelligence with foreign partners, it needs to go back to the originating agency to make sure that the language in it is not going to provide sources and methods and compromise the future collection capability.”