It
has been revealed that Donald Trump's campaign were in contact with
Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least 18 calls and
emails.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
US President Donald Trump
Michael Flynn and other advisers to Donald Trump’s campaign were in
contact with Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least
18 calls and emails, current and former U.S. officials familiar with
the exchanges told Reuters.
The sources said the 18 calls and emails, took place in the last seven months of the 2016 presidential race.
The previously undisclosed interactions form part of the record now
being reviewed by FBI and congressional investigators probing Russian
interference in the U.S. presidential election and contacts between
Trump’s campaign and Russia.
The sources said six of the previously undisclosed contacts
described to Reuters were phone calls between Kislyak and Trump
advisers, including Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser,
three current and former.
Conversations between Flynn and Kislyak accelerated after the Nov. 8 vote.
The two discussed establishing a back channel for communication
between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that could bypass the
U.S. national security bureaucracy, which both sides considered hostile
to improved relations, four current U.S. officials said.
In January, the Trump White House initially denied any contacts
with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign. The White House and
advisers to the campaign have since confirmed four meetings between
Kislyak and Trump advisers during that time.
The people who described the contacts to Reuters said they had seen
no evidence of wrongdoing or collusion between the campaign and Russia
in the communications reviewed so far.
The disclosure could increase the pressure on Trump and his aides
to provide the FBI and Congress with a full account of interactions with
Russian officials and others with links to the Kremlin during and
immediately after the 2016 election.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Flynn’s lawyer declined to comment.
In Moscow, a Russian foreign ministry official declined to comment
on the contacts and referred Reuters to the Trump administration.
Separately, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Washington said:
“We do not comment on our daily contacts with the local interlocutors.”
Sources said the 18 calls and electronic messages took place
between April and November 2016 as hackers engaged in what U.S.
intelligence concluded in January was part of a Kremlin campaign to
discredit the vote and influence the outcome of the election in favour
of Trump over his Democratic challenger, former secretary of state
Hillary Clinton.
Those discussions focused on mending U.S.-Russian economic
relations strained by sanctions imposed on Moscow, cooperating in
fighting Islamic State in Syria and containing a more assertive China,
the sources said.
Sources said members of the Senate and House intelligence
committees have gone to the CIA and the National Security Agency to
review transcripts and other documents related to contacts between Trump
campaign advisers, associates, Russian officials and others with links
to Putin.
The U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday it had appointed
former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate
alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential campaign and possible
collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
Mueller will now take charge of the FBI investigation that began last July.
Trump and his aides have repeatedly denied any collusion with Russia.
In addition to the six phone calls involving Kislyak, the
communications described to Reuters involved another 12 calls, emails or
text messages between Russian officials or people considered to be
close to Putin and Trump campaign advisers.
According to one person with detailed knowledge of the exchange and
two others familiar with the issue, one of those contacts was by Viktor
Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian oligarch and politician.
Sources said it was not clear with whom Medvedchuk was in contact
within the Trump campaign but the themes included U.S.-Russia
cooperation.
Putin is godfather to Medvedchuk’s daughter.
Medvedchuk denied having any contact with anyone in the Trump campaign.
“I am not acquainted with any of Donald Trump’s close associates, therefore no such conversation could have taken place,” he said in an email to Reuters.
The sources said in the conversations during the campaign, Russian
officials emphasised a pragmatic, business-style approach and stressed
to Trump associates that they could make deals by focusing on common
economic and other interests and leaving contentious issues aside.
Beyond Medvedchuk and Kislyak, the identities of the other
Putin-linked participants in the contacts remain classified and the
names of Trump advisers other than Flynn have been “masked” in
intelligence reports on the contacts because of legal protections on
their privacy as American citizens.
However, officials can request that they be revealed for intelligence purposes.
U.S. and allied intelligence and law enforcement agencies routinely monitor communications and movements of Russian officials.
After Vice President Mike Pence and others had denied in January
that Trump campaign representatives had any contact with Russian
officials, the White House later confirmed that Kislyak had met twice
with then-Senator Jeff Sessions.
Sessions later became attorney-general.
Courtesy -Reuters/NAN
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
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