White House struggles to insulate Trump from security advisor scandal
WASHINGTON. — The White House yesterday struggled to contain fallout from the resignation of the US national security advisor, as Moscow denied reports of contacts between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russian officials.
The New York Times reported that US intelligence agents intercepted calls showing that members of Trump’s 2016 campaign had repeated contacts with top Russian intelligence officials in the year preceding the November 8 presidential election.
US intelligence agencies concluded in January that Russia had intervened in the US electoral process at least in part to help Trump.
US agents are now trying to determine whether the Trump campaign cooperated with Moscow to disrupt Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign, The Times reported.
The newspaper, citing current and former US officials, said that no such evidence has yet emerged.
Former Trump advisor Paul Manafort, who was among those campaign officials heard on the calls, told The Times that the claims were “absurd.”
Trump himself took fresh aim at the media in a tweet yesterday, without mentioning the Times.
“The fake news media is going crazy with their conspiracy theories and blind hatred. @ MSNBC & @ CNN are unwatchable. @foxandfriends is great!”
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the latest allegations.
“Don’t believe newspaper reports, it’s very difficult at the moment to differentiate them from falsehoods and fabrications,” Peskov told reporters.
“If you don’t mind, let’s wait and let’s not believe anonymous information, which is information based on no fact,” he said.
The White House admitted Tuesday that Trump was told three weeks ago that ousted national security advisor Michael Flynn may have misled colleagues about his Kremlin contacts.
The retired three-star general and former head of US defense intelligence initially denied discussing sanctions strategy with Russia’s ambassador Sergey Kislyak before taking office, a move that may have breached US law on negotiating with foreign powers.
Flynn was asked to resign on Monday, after what the White House said was an internal investigation that showed no wrongdoing but “eroded” trust.
Flynn is the third Trump aide to step back amid questions about his ties to Russia since the mogul began his improbable White House bid.
His departure follows those of Manafort and Carter Page, an early foreign policy advisor to the candidate.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer strongly denied that Trump had instructed Flynn to discuss possibly rolling back sanctions that Obama imposed on Russia.
The White House had painted Trump’s final decision as based on Flynn misleading Vice President Mike Pence.
But it emerged Tuesday that Trump kept Pence in the dark for two weeks.
Spokesman Marc Lotter said Pence only learned the issue in media reports.
The unprecedented early resignation of a key staff member has rocked an administration already buffeted by leaks, in-fighting and legal defeats. — AFP.