Trump ‘set to give top job to Putin’s oil boss pal’
DONALD Trump has nominated an oil company chief executive with close links to Russian President Vladimir Putin as America’s most powerful diplomat, it was reported last night.
In what is being seen as a snub to Mitt Romney, the front-runner for Secretary of State, the Presidentelect is said to have chosen Exxon Mobil’s Rex Tillerson.
Aides to Mr Trump confirmed that Tillerson, 64, met with the billionaire businessman yesterday at Trump Towers in New York.
He is likely to be far less critical of Russia than Romney, the Republican Party’s 2012 Presidential Contender, reflecting Mr Trump’s admiration for the country and its hardline president.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Tillerson negotiated a £400 billion energy partnership with Russia in 2011. A year later the Kremlin awarded him the Order of Friendship, the country’s highest honour for foreign nationals.
His expected appointment comes after former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani formally withdrew on Friday from consideration for the job.
Tillerson has been chairman and chief executive officer of Texasbased Exxon Mobil since 2006, having spent his entire career at the firm. He is expected to retire from the company next year.
The development came after claims yesterday that the CIA has confirmed suspicions that Russia hacked emails from Hillary Clinton’s election campaign and leaked them to help Mr Trump win the presidency.
Barack Obama has ordered an investigation after a secret assessment presented to senators last week concluded that state-sponsored Russian hackers were behind the publishing of thousands of emails on whistleblower website WikiLeaks.
A US intelligence official told The Washington Post that Mr Putin’s government had appeared to conclude Mr Trump would be friendlier to Russia – especially on issues such as maintaining economic sanctions.
The hackers accessed both Democratic and Republican databases, but only released emails that were harmful to Mrs Clinton to WikiLeaks, according to the reports.
Senior administration officials quoted in the US press said hackers did not release information gleaned from the Republican networks.
‘That was a major clue to their intent,’ the official said. ‘If all they wanted to do was discredit our political system, why publicise the failings of one party, especially when you have a target like Trump?’
Lisa Monaco, President Obama’s homeland security adviser, said: ‘The President has directed the intelligence community to conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election process and to capture lessons learned from that.’