Russian interferenceRussia has “cultivated” Trump, aiming to weaken Western alliance: Ex-spy
A former Western intelligence official, whose career involved decades in conducting Russian counterintelligence operations, has handed the FBI a batch of memos in which he suggested that there was “an established exchange of information between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin of mutual benefit.” The retired spook consulted with Russian sources, and said that: “Russian regime has been cultivating, supporting, and assisting Trump for at least five years. Aim, endorsed by Putin, has been to encourage splits and divisions in Western alliance.” The FBI asked to former intelligence official for all the information he had on Trump, and specifically asked the former spy how he had come by this information.
A former Western intelligence official, whose career involved decades in conducting Russian counterintelligence operations, has handed the FBI a batch of memos in which he suggested that there was “an established exchange of information between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin of mutual benefit.”
The retired spook consulted with Russian sources, and said that: “Russian regime has been cultivating, supporting and assisting Trump for at least five years. Aim, endorsed by Putin, has been to encourage splits and divisions in Western alliance.”
The liberal-leaning news magazine Mother Jones, which broke the story, reports that the FBI has been investigating these allegations – and other allegations about ties between members of the Trump campaign and Russia — in a widening probe over the summer.
Over the weekend, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) urged the FBI togo public with “explosive information” linking Trump to Russia.
Mother Jones reports that the former spy’s memos also claim that the Trump campaign “accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin,” that Russia had enough information from Trump visits to Moscow to “blackmail” him, and that the Kremlin had been feeding him information about Clinton based on her own trips as Secretary of State.
The FBI asked to former intelligence official for all the information he had on Trump, and specifically asked the former spy how he had come by this information.
A high-level FBI official told the New York Times there are aspects of Trump’s relationship with Russia that the agency is still exploring.
The FBI, though, has played down most of the claims made in the press about a Trump-Kremlin collaboration during the election season.
For example, a Slate investigative report suggested that there were connections between a major Russian bank and a server run by the Trump Organization – but the New York Times reported that the FBI, after weeks of investigation and analysis, “ultimately concluded that there could be an innocuous explanation.”
The FBI has said it found it unnecessary to interview Carter Page and Roger Stone, two Trump advisers and the subjects of several press reports dealing with their relationship with the Kremlin.
Both have denied any improper connections with the Russian government.
The FBI has also said that there was no evidence that Trump was involved in the hacking by Russian government hackers of the computer systems of the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign.
Unnamed high-level FBI officials told the Times that the sophisticated hacking campaign represented Russia’s broader goal of disrupting the U.S. election, undermining U.S. democracy, and discrediting U.S. institutions – as well as offering evidence of Russia’s growing cyber capabilities — rather than motivated by the desire to support one of the candidates.
“It isn’t about the election,” the Times quotes one official to say. “It’s about a threat to democracy.”
