Trump aides linked to Russia spies
Feds eye campaign spy chats Top advisers’ Moscow calls found in DNC hack probe
SEVERAL PEOPLE close to President Trump had repeated contact with Russian intelligence officials while working on his campaign, according to new reports Tuesday.
The FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies are poring over a trove of phone records and intercepted calls made between high level advisers and others linked to Trump’s campaign and Russian operatives in the time before the presidential election, according to The New York Times.
Both the frequency of the communications and the proximity to Trump of those involved “raised a red flag” with U.S. intelligence and law enforcement, officials familiar with the matter told CNN.
The allegations come one day after Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned for misleading the White House about discussing sanctions with Russian officials.
The unusual level of contact was discovered as the FBI investigated election-related Russian cyberattacks targeting Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee.
Sources told The Times there was no evidence linking the Trump campaign to the hacks.
But the amount of interaction between people close to Trump and senior Russian intelligence officials raised red flags, partially due to how often Trump showered Russian President Vladimir Putin with praise.
Sources told The Times that the FBI has looked closely at Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who has worked in Ukraine and has close ties to Putin allies.
“This is absurd,” Manafort told The Times. “I have no idea what this is referring to. I have never knowingly spoken to Russian intelligence officers.”
The FBI has also examined businessman Carter Page (below) and Republican operative Roger Stone (opposite page).
Aside from the phone calls, the FBI has collected travel records and conducted interviews, officials told The Times.
Officials did not disclose details about what was discussed in the phone calls.
The FBI is also reportedly looking into the credibility of a dossier compiled by a British intelligence officer that contained unsubstantiated claims linking Trump with Russian officials, among other claims that Moscow had embarrassing videos that could be used to blackmail Trump. In January, both the President and Vice President Pence adamantly denied that the Trump campaign had any interaction with Moscow. On Tuesday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer appeared to stand by those earlier denials. Brian Fallon, the Clinton campaign’s press secretary, said on Twitter that the report proved “everything we suspected during the campaign,” adding “this is a colossal scandal.” Intelligence officials sharing such highly sensitive and damning information is sure to anger Trump. The President seemed more upset Tues-
day morning that news of Flynn’s apparent duplicity had leaked out to the media than the fact that one of his top advisers lied.
“The real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington?” he tweeted Tuesday morning.
Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) said the President should get used to it.
“Leaks are endemic to Washington, D.C., leaks happen, and they will continue to happen, they are at a level now with this administration I don’t think I have ever seen,” McCain said.
The White House acknowledged Tuesday it’s known about the Flynn controversy “for weeks.”
“We’ve been reviewing and evaluating this issue with respect to Gen. Flynn on a daily basis for a few weeks, trying to ascertain the truth,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday, claiming that Trump had asked Flynn to resign Monday following an “eroding level of trust as a result of this situation and a series of other questionable instances.”
Those comments both contradicted White House adviser Kellyanne Conway’s Tuesday morning remarks that Flynn had decided on his own to resign, even though Trump had full confidence in him, and Trump’s comments Friday that he didn’t know about the matter.
Flynn had publicly denied he’d spoken to Russia’s ambassador about President Barack Obama’s sanctions against the country before Trump’s inauguration.
He also denied it privately to Vice President Pence. He later acknowledged the topic may have come up.
While the White House maintains it had known about the controversy since late January, a Pence aide said the vice president just found out about it last week.
“He became aware of the incomplete information he received through media accounts on Feb. 9, last Thursday,” Pence spokesman Marc Lotter told the Daily News. “He then inquired about that.”
The New York Times reported Tuesday that the FBI had questioned Flynn about the December phone call — which was being monitored by NSA officials eavesdropping on the Russian ambassador — shortly after Trump’s inauguration.
After the interview, then-acting Attorney General Sally Yates told the White House that Flynn was vulnerable to Russian blackmail because of inconsistencies between his public statements and what intelligence officials knew to be true, the report said.
The White House’s acknowledgment that it knew about Flynn’s conversation weeks ago — and that he’d misled Pence and other Trump administration officials about it — raises questions about why he was allowed to remain national security adviser for weeks afterward.
Russia has carried out a series of provocations recently, including positioning a spy ship off the coast of Delaware, secretly deploying a cruise missile, violating a key arms treaty, and carrying out flights near a U.S. Navy warship. Spicer, meanwhile, vowed that the Trump administration planned on taking a tough stance against Russia.
“The irony of this entire situation is that the President has been incredibly tough on Russia,” Spicer said.