CIA had Russia evidence last summer

Evidence of aiding Trump existed in August.

— The CIA told senior lawmakers in classified briefings last summer that it had information indicating that Russia was working to help elect Donald Trump president, a finding that did not emerge publicly until after Trump’s victory months later, former government officials say.

The briefings indicate that intelligence officials had evidence of Russia’s intentions to help Trump much earlier in the presidential campaign than previously thought. The briefings also reveal a critical split last summer between the CIA and counterparts at the FBI, where a number of senior officials continued to believe through last fall that Russia’s cyberattacks were aimed only at disrupting America’s political system and not at getting Trump elected, according to interviews.

The former officials said that in late August — 10 weeks before the election — John Brennan, then the CIA director, was so concerned about increasing evidence of Russia’s election meddling that he began a series of urgent, individual briefings for eight top members of Congress, some of them on secure phone lines while they were on their summer break.

It is unclear what new intelligence might have prompted the classified briefings. But with concerns growing both internally and publicly at the time about a significant Russian breach of the Democratic National Committee, the CIA began seeing signs of possible connections to the Trump campaign, the officials said. By the final weeks of the campaign, Congress and the intelligence agencies were racing to understand the scope of the Russia threat.

In an Aug. 25 briefing for Harry Reid, then the top Democrat in the Senate, Brennan indicated that Russia’s hackings appeared aimed at helping Trump win the November election, according to two former officials with knowledge of the briefing.

The officials said Brennan also indicated that unnamed advisers to Trump might be working with the Russians to interfere in the election. The FBI and two congressional committees are investigating that claim, focusing on possible communications and financial dealings between Russian affiliates and a handful of former advisers to Trump. So far, no proof of collusion has emerged publicly.

Trump has rejected any suggestion of a Russian connection as “ridiculous” and “fake news.” The White House has also sought to redirect the focus from the investigation and toward what Trump has said, without providing evidence, was President Barack Obama’s wiretapping of phones in Trump Tower during the presidential campaign.

The CIA and the FBI declined to comment for this article, as did Brennan and senior lawmakers who were part of the summer briefings.

In the August briefing for Reid, the two former officials said, Brennan indicated that the CIA, focused on foreign intelligence, was limited in its legal ability to investigate possible connections to Trump. The officials said Brennan told Reid that the FBI, in charge of domestic intelligence, would have to lead the way.

Days later, Reid wrote to James Comey, director of the FBI. Without mentioning the CIA briefing, Reid told Comey that he had “recently become concerned” that Russia’s interference was “more extensive than widely known.”

In his letter, the senator cited what he called mounting evidence “of a direct connection between the Russian government and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign” and said it was crucial for the FBI to “use every resource available” to conduct an investigation.

Unknown to Reid, the FBI had already opened a counterintelligence inquiry a month before, to examine possible links between Russia and people tied to the Trump campaign. But its existence was kept secret even from members of Congress.