Trump aides targeted as Moscow tools
WASHINGTON — Senior Russian intelligence and political officials discussed how to exert influence over then-candidate Donald Trump through Russiafriendly political advisers last summer, according to U.S. intelligence described to The New York Times.
Three current and former American officials told The Times that American spies collected information that the Russians were targeting two of Trump’s closest advisers, Michael Flynn and campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Both have been at the center of the FBI’s investigation into whether Trump’s team colluded with Russia to help rig the election in his favor, and have indirect ties with top Russians.
The story is the latest major revelation regarding the Trump campaign’s ties with Russia.
Some Russians boasted of their close ties to Flynn, who was paid handsomely for speaking in 2015 to a Russian state-owned propaganda outlet, where he met Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Others talked of using their ties to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a proRussian politician who was living in exile in Russia for whom Manafort had worked as a top campaign adviser.
American intelligence officials also had information about direct communications between Trump’s advisers and Russian officials, as former CIA director John Brennan testified on Tuesday.
It’s as yet unclear whether there was any actual collusion between Trump’s advisers and the Russians who hacked the Democratic National Committee and leaked sensitive emails, as well as pushing a complex propaganda campaign against Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election. But the information was considered credible enough to pass to the FBI, triggering the investigation that is probing Trump-Russia ties.
Flynn, who served as Trump’s national security adviser before being forced out after it was publicized he’d lied to others in the administration about conversations he had with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., has claimed his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination to refuse to hand over any paperwork outlining his ties to Russia to the Senate Intelligence Committee. Manafort is reportedly cooperating with the investigation.