Trump's campaign reportedly had multiple contacts with Russian intelligence before the election
(President Donald Trump.Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Intercepted phone calls show that members of President Donald Trump's campaign had multiple communications with senior Russian intelligence officials before the US election, The New York Times reported on Tuesday night.
Citing US law-enforcement and intelligence agencies, The Times said the contact between Trump associates and Russian officials was discovered during a concurrent FBI investigation into cyberattacks the US has said Russia carried out targeting Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee.
Three of the US sources interviewed by The Times said that despite the frequent contact, there was no evidence that the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia on the cyberattacks. What concerned the American officials, however, was how often Trump associates were apparently communicating with Russian officials during an election in which Trump repeatedly showered praise on Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin.
Trump even made a public appeal to Russia in July urging the Kremlin to dig up damaging information on Clinton.
The Times' Michael Schmidt, Mark Mazzetti, and Matt Apuzzo reported that the communications between people in Trump's orbit and Russia ran deep on both sides. They were said to include other associates of Trump outside his campaign. And on the Russian side, people within the country's government — in addition to intelligence officials — were also involved, according to The Times' sources, who remained anonymous.
(Trump joined by Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Vice President Mike Pence, and senior adviser Steve Bannon.REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)
Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort was the only one of Trump's associates to be named by The Times as being tied to the intercepted communications. Manafort once advised a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine. He left the Trump campaign in August.
In an interview with The Times, Manafort denied allegations that he knowingly communicated with Russia during the campaign.
"I have never been involved with anything to do with the Russian government or the Putin administration or any other issues under investigation today," Manafort told the newspaper.
He added: "It's not like these people wear badges that say, 'I'm a Russian intelligence officer.'"
(Paul Manafort checking the teleprompters before Trump's speech at the Mayflower Hotel in April in Washington, DC.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Trump has previously denied his campaign had any contact with the Kremlin. When asked during a CBS interview in January whether anyone in the Trump campaign had contact with Russia, then-Vice President-elect Mike Pence said, "Of course not."
Though Trump has often spoken highly of Putin and Russia, he has, in fits and starts, attempted to moderate his language on the subjects. He conceded in January to US intelligence findings that Russia had indeed tried to influence the election.
That same month, he commented on his chances of getting along with Putin, saying there was "a good chance I won't." The White House has also hardened its public stance on Russian relations, with the administration rebuking the Kremlin on its seizure of the peninsula of Crimea, for example.
(Michael Flynn in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York on January 12.AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The report follows a litany of information leaked by anonymous sources within the US government since the November election that suggests untoward liaisons between Russia and Trump's associates, which culminated in the resignation of his national security adviser, Michael Flynn, on Monday evening.
A classified dossier on Trump originally compiled as political opposition research, which had been making the rounds in Washington since last year, contained unverified details of supposed associations between Trump and Russia. US officials on Friday said some elements in the 35-page document had indeed proved accurate.
Top congressional Republicans have called for further investigations into Flynn and any other possible connections between the Kremlin and the US president.
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