Thread: Trump aides were in constant touch with senior Russian officials during campaign

Trump aides were in constant touch with senior Russian officials during campaign

By Pamela Brown, Jim Sciutto and Evan Perez, CNN
Updated 10:59 PM ET, Tue February 14, 2017

(CNN)High-level advisers close to then-presidential nominee Donald Trump were in constant communication during the campaign with Russians known to US intelligence, multiple current and former intelligence, law enforcement and administration officials tell CNN.

President-elect Trump and then-President Barack Obama were both briefed on details of the extensive communications between suspected Russian operatives and people associated with the Trump campaign and the Trump business, according to US officials familiar with the matter.

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Both the frequency of the communications during early summer and the proximity to Trump of those involved "raised a red flag" with US intelligence and law enforcement, according to these officials. The communications were intercepted during routine intelligence collection targeting Russian officials and other Russian nationals known to US intelligence.

Among several senior Trump advisers regularly communicating with Russian nationals were then-campaign manager Paul Manafort and then-adviser Michael Flynn.

Officials emphasized that communications between campaign staff and representatives of foreign governments are not unusual.

However, these communications stood out to investigators due to the frequency and the level of the Trump advisers involved. Investigators have not reached a judgment on the intent of those conversations.

Adding to US investigators' concerns were intercepted communications between Russian officials before and after the election discussing their belief that they had special access to Trump, two law enforcement officials tell CNN. These officials cautioned the Russians could have been exaggerating their access.

CNN has reached out to the White House, Flynn and Manafort for comment.

Manafort dismissed the account to The New York Times, which published a similar story Tuesday night.

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"I have no idea what this is referring to. I have never knowingly spoken to Russian intelligence officers, and 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 said to the paper.

The extensive contacts drew concerns of US intelligence and law enforcement officials in part because it came at a time of Russian cyberactivities targeting mostly Democratic Party political organizations.

Post-election intelligence briefings on Russian meddling in the US elections included details of those communications, which included people involved in Trump's businesses.

The communications were gathered as part of routine US intelligence collection and not because people close to Trump were being targeted.

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The FBI and US intelligence agencies continue to try to determine what the motive for the communications were.

One concern was whether Trump associates were coordinating with Russian intelligence operatives the release of damaging information about the Hillary Clinton campaign.

"If that were the case, then that would escalate things," one official briefed on the investigation said.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/14/politi...ign/index.html

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No names of the "officials"? No names of the "Russian operatives" or "Russians known to intelligence"? No names except Manafort which is old news and who didn't break any laws or Flynn who spoke legally with the Russian Ambassador to the US?

Hey, why don't you use these "routine intelligence-gathering" operations to hunt down foreign terrorists, foreign drug runners, foreign drug cartels, foreign gangs, foreign criminals and illegal aliens?

Then you'd actually have something to show for what now appears to be a huge waste of time. All you've accomplished so far is getting 2 good men fired due to innuendo and bad publicity. Surely you conduct these "routine intelligence-gathering" operations on Mexican officials and all their friendlies, right? Now that would be a very rich intelligence gathering operation.

At this point you have nothing to show for yourselves except 2 character assassinations that cost 2 good men their jobs.

These investigations that the Democrats take on themselves is suffocating this Presidency. I know that is the point of their actions but Trump must have some recourse to take back control of this situation. He needs to distract them with deportations or something else big to get them off his back.

Originally Posted by Judy

No names of the "officials"? No names of the "Russian operatives" or "Russians known to intelligence"? No names except Manafort which is old news and who didn't break any laws or Flynn who spoke legally with the Russian Ambassador to the US?

Hey, why don't you use these "routine intelligence-gathering" operations to hunt down foreign terrorists, foreign drug runners, foreign drug cartels, foreign gangs, foreign criminals and illegal aliens?

Then you'd actually have something to show for what now appears to be a huge waste of time. All you've accomplished so far is getting 2 good men fired due to innuendo and bad publicity. Surely you conduct these "routine intelligence-gathering" operations on Mexican officials and all their friendlies, right? Now that would be a very rich intelligence gathering operation.

At this point you have nothing to show for yourselves except 2 character assassinations that cost 2 good men their jobs.

you're right it stay a myster who did what

Zero sources cited. This is NOT journalism and this is NOT reporting. This is a made up hit piece and rivals old school USSR Pravda propaganda. Unnamed sources... bah!

W

I hope the CORRUPT MEDIA and the TRAITORS IN OUR GOVERNMENT, present and former "officials" who leaked phony bogus information to hurt Flynn, to hurt Trump, to hurt new relations with Russia accept the FULL RESPONSIBILITY for the consequences of their actions.

Trump raised the hopes of most of the world and many Americans and Russians to a new day, a new way to have solid, honest and good relations with Russia, and before he could even have his first meeting with this very important country to take advantage of these hopes and very realistic possibilities, the Traitors and Corrupt Media have turned it on its heels.

Can Trump repair the damage? Can Trump convince Russia that while the US bureaucracy, the DemoQuacks and some RINOs are opposed, the vast majority of the American People support a new relationship with Russia, especially when they know the whole truth about Russia as it is today.

Russia can help the US and the world to reach a new peace agreement with North Korea and Iran as well as peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Russia has that power. Do Americans really want to continue to live in fear of nuclear weapons in North Korea and Iran? Do Americans want to sit idly by while we punish people in all of these countries with sanctions that essentially starve them, because a small percentage of our population works in jobs and makes money in military operations and expenditures that ride on keeping Russia an "enemy"? Russia has never been our enemy. Ever. Russia has been our ally in the most important war we ever fought, WWII. Without them, we would have a very different and unsatisfactory planet.

Look how fast Russia restored order in Syria. Less than 6 months.

All of these government traitors leaking confidential and classified phony information to the press and the corrupt media running illegally obtained information as if it's real when it isn't are playing with fire because they value profit and their own jobs more than they value integrity and peace.

Flynn made two mistakes, 1 was talking to the press last Thursday about his phone calls and 2 was talking to the press again on Monday evening about his phone calls. To me that was the "eroding trust", not having the proper judgment to know when to keep his private conversations private and discussing them in the middle of a corrupt media scandal he started 4 days earlier. I know he was just trying to defend himself, but what he actually ended up doing was "leaking" on himself. When you can't keep your mouth shut, then you're not the trustworthy national security advisor that Trump needs and must have to negotiate and work on his national security agenda.

When I worked for a major chemical company we had a program called PIP, Proprietary Information Protection. We couldn't leave files out on our desk, we couldn't leave our doors unlocked after we left the building, we couldn't take files home, and we never ever talked to reporters about anything. We had a Public Relations Office that handled all contact with the Media. This wasn't to hide anything, it was to protect everything. If you violated PIP, you would depending on what wasn't protected, be put on probation, but speaking to the Media without approval would result in an immediate termination.

Everyone who has ever worked for a private company or a state agency or a school system or county government knows this. Flynn knew this, so why he did the interviews, is mind-boggling. Why he did the second one on Monday evening is just inexplicably reckless.

Unless .... oh my God, I think I know why he did it. They've set a trap.