Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence

[Mileage Psycho]

Flynn was the lowest hanging of the fruit and the investigation into his activities has just started, this story has legs.

 

Quote

 

Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence

WASHINGTON — Phone records and intercepted calls show that members of Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election, according to four current and former American officials.

American law enforcement and intelligence agencies intercepted the communications around the same time that they were discovering evidence that Russia was trying to disrupt the presidential election by hacking into the Democratic National Committee, three of the officials said. The intelligence agencies then sought to learn whether the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians on the hacking or other efforts to influence the election.

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The officials interviewed in recent weeks said that, so far, they had seen no evidence of such cooperation.

But the intercepts alarmed American intelligence and law enforcement agencies, in part because of the amount of contact that was occurring while Mr. Trump was speaking glowingly about the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin. At one point last summer, Mr. Trump said at a campaign event that he hoped Russian intelligence services had stolen Hillary Clinton’s emails and would make them public.

The officials said the intercepted communications were not limited to Trump campaign officials, and included other associates of Mr. Trump. On the Russian side, the contacts also included members of the Russian government outside of the intelligence services, the officials said. All of the current and former officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the continuing investigation is classified.

The officials said that one of the advisers picked up on the calls was Paul Manafort, who was Mr. Trump’s campaign chairman for several months last year and had worked as a political consultant in Russia and Ukraine. The officials declined to identify the other Trump associates on the calls.

The call logs and intercepted communications are part of a larger trove of information that the F.B.I. is sifting through as it investigates the links between Mr. Trump’s associates and the Russian government, as well as the D.N.C. hack, according to federal law enforcement officials. As part of its inquiry, the F.B.I. has obtained banking and travel records and conducted interviews, the officials said.

Mr. Manafort, who has not been charged with any crimes, dismissed the accounts of the American officials in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “This is absurd,” he said. “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.”

Mr. Manafort added, “It’s not like these people wear badges that say, ‘I’m a Russian intelligence officer.’”

Several of Mr. Trump’s associates, like Mr. Manafort, have done business in Russia, and it is not unusual for American businessmen to come in contact with foreign intelligence officials, sometimes unwittingly, in countries like Russia and Ukraine, where the spy services are deeply embedded in society. Law enforcement officials did not say to what extent the contacts may have been about business.

Officials would not disclose many details, including what was discussed on the calls, which Russian intelligence officials were on the calls, and how many of Mr. Trump’s advisers were talking to the Russians. It is also unclear whether the conversations had anything to do with Mr. Trump himself.

A published report from American intelligence agencies that was made public in January concluded that the Russian government had intervened in the election in part to help Mr. Trump, but did not address whether any members of the Trump campaign had participated in the effort.

The intercepted calls are different from the wiretapped conversations last year between Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, and Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States. During those calls, which led to Mr. Flynn’s resignation on Monday night, the two men discussed sanctions that the Obama administration imposed on Russia in December.

But the cases are part of the routine electronic surveillance of communications of foreign officials by American intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The F.B.I. declined to comment.

Two days after the election in November, Sergei A. Ryabkov, the deputy Russian foreign minister, said that “there were contacts” during the campaign between Russian officials and Mr. Trump’s team.

“Obviously, we know most of the people from his entourage,” Mr. Ryabkov said in an interview with the Russian Interfax news agency.

The Trump transition team denied Mr. Ryabkov’s statement. “This is not accurate,” Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump, said at the time.

The National Security Agency, which monitors the communications of foreign intelligence services, initially captured the communications between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russians as part of routine foreign surveillance. After that, the F.B.I. asked the N.S.A. to collect as much information as possible about the Russian operatives on the phone calls, and to search through troves of previous intercepted communications that had not been analyzed.

The F.B.I. has closely examined at least four other people close to Mr. Trump, although it is unclear if their calls were intercepted. They are Carter Page, a businessman and former foreign policy adviser to the campaign; Roger Stone, a longtime Republican operative; and Mr. Flynn.

All of the men have strongly denied they had any improper contacts with Russian officials.

As part of the inquiry, the F.B.I. is also trying to assess the credibility of information contained in a dossier that was given to the bureau last year by a former British intelligence operative. The dossier contained a raft of salacious allegations about connections between Mr. Trump, his associates and the Russian government. It also included unsubstantiated claims that the Russians had embarrassing videos that could be used to blackmail Mr. Trump.

The F.B.I. has spent several months investigating the leads in the dossier, but has yet to confirm any of its most explosive allegations.

Senior F.B.I. officials believe that the former British intelligence officer who compiled the dossier, Christopher Steele, has a credible track record, and he briefed F.B.I. investigators last year about how he obtained the information. One American law enforcement official said that F.B.I. agents had made contact with some of Mr. Steele’s sources.

The F.B.I.’s investigation into Mr. Manafort began last spring as an outgrowth of a criminal investigation into his work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine and for the country’s former president, Viktor F. Yanukovych. The investigation has focused on why he was in such close contact with Russian and Ukrainian intelligence officials.

The bureau did not have enough evidence to obtain a warrant for a wiretap of Mr. Manafort’s communications, but it had the N.S.A. closely scrutinize the communications of Ukrainian officials he had met.

The F.B.I. investigation is proceeding at the same time that separate investigations into Russian interference in the election are gaining momentum on Capitol Hill. Those investigations, by the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, are examining not only the Russian hacking but also any contacts that Mr. Trump’s team had with Russian officials during the campaign.

On Tuesday, top Republican lawmakers said that Mr. Flynn should be one focus of the investigation, and that he should be called to testify before Congress. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said that the news surrounding Mr. Flynn in recent days underscored “how many questions still remain unanswered to the American people more than three months after Election Day, including who was aware of what, and when.”

Mr. Warner said that Mr. Flynn’s resignation would not stop the committee “from continuing to investigate General Flynn, or any other campaign official who may have had inappropriate and improper contacts with Russian officials prior to the election.”

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-campaign-aides-had-repeated-contacts-with-russian-intelligence/ar-AAmWODE

 

 

[Skidooski]

Is this the Left's BENGHAZI?

[JEFF]

Every time you or MC says "a story has legs"...  Just get on with your life, everything will be just fine. 

[Mileage Psycho]

1 hour ago, Skidooski said:

Is this the Left's BENGHAZI?

I think this story has the interest of both the Dems and Republicans, legs  

Quote

 

Senior F.B.I. officials believe that the former British intelligence officer who compiled the dossier, Christopher Steele, has a credible track record, and he briefed F.B.I. investigators last year about how he obtained the information. One American law enforcement official said that F.B.I. agents had made contact with some of Mr. Steele’s sources.

The F.B.I.’s investigation into Mr. Manafort began last spring as an outgrowth of a criminal investigation into his work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine and for the country’s former president, Viktor F. Yanukovych. The investigation has focused on why he was in such close contact with Russian and Ukrainian intelligence officials.

The bureau did not have enough evidence to obtain a warrant for a wiretap of Mr. Manafort’s communications, but it had the N.S.A. closely scrutinize the communications of Ukrainian officials he had met.

The F.B.I. investigation is proceeding at the same time that separate investigations into Russian interference in the election are gaining momentum on Capitol Hill. Those investigations, by the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, are examining not only the Russian hacking but also any contacts that Mr. Trump’s team had with Russian officials during the campaign.

On Tuesday, top Republican lawmakers said that Mr. Flynn should be one focus of the investigation, and that he should be called to testify before Congress. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said that the news surrounding Mr. Flynn in recent days underscored “how many questions still remain unanswered to the American people more than three months after Election Day, including who was aware of what, and when.”

Mr. Warner said that Mr. Flynn’s resignation would not stop the committee “from continuing to investigate General Flynn, or any other campaign official who may have had inappropriate and improper contacts with Russian officials prior to the election.”

 

 

[ICEMAN!]

1 hour ago, Skidooski said:

Is this the Left's BENGHAZI?

No, this is what a REAL scandal looks like

3 weeks in and the Trump admin is circling the bowl.

[Snoslinger]

meh, nothing to see. just another coincidence.

I like trump's main concerns in all this - the leaking of information

which is kind of ironic, considering he loved leaky leaky during the campaign.

 

 

Edited February 15, 2017 by Snoslinger

[Skidooski]

1 minute ago, ICEMAN! said:

No, this is what a REAL scandal looks like

3 weeks in and the Trump admin is circling the bowl.

A "real" scandal you say?  

[Snoslinger]

Just now, Skidooski said:

A "real" scandal you say?  

dude...................

[Mainecat]

Vince I was going to post this last night and I was waiting for more news sources to report and it seems now they have.

To the moronic Trump supporters here this is Watergate x 1000 if these stories are true.

This is quite possibly treason on so many levels and as Vince says Flynn was easy pickings.

 

[Snoslinger]

1 minute ago, Mainecat said:

Vince I was going to post this last night and I was waiting for more news sources to report and it seems now they have.

To the moronic Trump supporters here this is Watergate x 1000 if these stories are true.

This is quite possibly treason on so many levels and as Vince says Flynn was easy pickings.

 

a lot of this depends on how far comey and the fbi want to take this. that concerns me. I think somebody has some dirt on comey, hence the reason he did what he did with Hillary right before the election. there is a chance this whole stinking mess gets swept under the rug. wouldn't it be nice if they released the transcripts of all these conversations?

[Mainecat]

1 minute ago, Snoslinger said:

a lot of this depends on how far comey and the fbi want to take this. that concerns me. I think somebody has some dirt on comey, hence the reason he did what he did with Hillary right before the election. there is a chance this whole stinking mess gets swept under the rug. wouldn't it be nice if they released the transcripts of all these conversations?

They can and will release the transcriptsl. Watergate was similar.

Edited February 15, 2017 by Mainecat

[Snoslinger]

2 minutes ago, Mainecat said:

They can and will release the transcriptsl. Watergate was similar.

I hope you're right.

[ICEMAN!]

3 minutes ago, Snoslinger said:

a lot of this depends on how far comey and the fbi want to take this. that concerns me. I think somebody has some dirt on comey, hence the reason he did what he did with Hillary right before the election. there is a chance this whole stinking mess gets swept under the rug. wouldn't it be nice if they released the transcripts of all these conversations?

They have to release the transcripts eventually. This is not going away and the longer it drags on for, the worse it's going to get. 

Amateur hour in Washington.

Well done Republican voters!

The next thing you know, the narrative of "Well so many Dems abandoned Hillary that Trump got elected.  It was the Dems that gave us this mess!"

[Snoslinger]

4 minutes ago, ICEMAN! said:

They have to release the transcripts eventually. This is not going away and the longer it drags on for, the worse it's going to get. 

Amateur hour in Washington.

Well done Republican voters!

The next thing you know, the narrative of "Well so many Dems abandoned Hillary that Trump got elected.  It was the Dems that gave us this mess!"

the blaming of Hillary has already started. never mind the fact they overwhelmingly selected this loon from a long list of repug candidates, any of which would be doing a better job than this clown. which says a lot in itself, considering ben fucking carson, carly and few other whacks were in it 

 

 

Edited February 15, 2017 by Snoslinger

[Snoslinger]

that little weasel, man of god, pence had to be aware of all this shit too. despicable POS.

[Rigid1]

 

 

 

 

 

27 minutes ago, ICEMAN! said:

No, this is what a REAL scandal looks like

3 weeks in and the Trump admin is circling the bowl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks to me, the obama admin had lied to the american people for days, and rock solid proof of it.. but thats ok, nothing to see here, move along..

 

Transcript from September 12, 2012, Congressional Staff Call: Question from Congressional Staffer: ‘Was this attack under the cover of a protest?’

Answer from Under Secretary Patrick Kennedy: ‘No, this was a direct breaching attack.’

(Washington DC)—Judicial Watch today released 54 pages of new State Department documents, including a transcript of a September 12 2012, telephone conference call with congressional staffers in which then-Under Secretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy admitted that the deadly terrorist assault on the Benghazi Consulate was not “under cover of protest,” but was, in fact, “a direct breaching attack.”

The documents were produced in response to a January 29, 2016, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit that was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the State Department failed to respond to an August 27, 2015, FOIA request (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:16-cv-00153)). The recently settled lawsuit sought:

• All records of security waivers issued for the Special Mission compound in Benghazi, Libya under the Secure Embassy Construction and Counterterrorism Act (SECCA);
• All records related to the Special Mission compound in Benghazi, Libya being “excepted from office facility standards and accountability” under SECCA as

The transcript was contained in an email from Julie K. Bulgrin, the State Department Bureau of Legislative Affairs director for Global and Functional Affairs:

From: Bulgrin, Julie K.

Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2012 7:55 PM

To: H_Egypt; Canedo, Denese; Lang, Alan; ‘Rodriguez Miguel’; ‘Arguelles, Adam’; ‘Lundebergy, Greta’; ‘Ortiz, Michael’; ‘Lee Collin’; Pitkin, Douglas A; Maier, Christina A

Subject: Write up of U/S Kennedy Call with Hill re Libya

The call ended up starting around 6:30. Here are the raw notes.

***

• Rob Carter – was this an attack under the cover of a protest?
• No, this was a direct breaching attack.
• Do we have any ideas of who launched? Leads?
• Some claims from someone who has never made threat before, but everyone is looking at this closely.
• Do we believe coordinated w/Cairo?
• Attack in Cairo was a demonstration. There were no weapons shown or used. A few cans of spray paint.

The call notes also detail that Amb. Stevens got of the compound, but “collapsed” and was taken to the hospital.  Kennedy also said that it was his personal opinion that the attack “was semi-complex.”

When asked why no Americans troops were inserted, Kennedy responded that “the entire thing lasted approximately 4.5 hours. No US forces within time to get there.”  (This was false, troops were available and could have arrived in time to provide support during the second attack on the CIA annex, which according to Kennedy, was assaulted by 100 attackers.)

The documents also include a September 13, 2012, email in which an unidentified sender reveals that as early as December 2011, the State Department confirmed the necessity for making a wide variety of “physical security upgrades.” Those upgrades included:

• Concrete, jersey-type barriers installed curbside and on the villa ground to block unused vehicle gates.
• Four steel, manual drop-arms (vehicle barriers) for access control and anti-ram protection.
• Compound lighting increased for LGP observation.
• Barbed wire installed on top of the existing perimeter wall to raise height.
• Installation of barbed wire on top of the interior chain link fence to create a secondary barrier.
• Installation of several LGP platforms for property and street surveillance.
• Construction of four guard booths.
• Installation of steel grill work on all windows not already treated with this protection.
• Erecting sandbag emplacements for internal defense purposes.
• Hardening villas with safe rooms with a steel door.

Though some of these “physical security upgrades” were apparently made, according to the State Department Accountability Review Board report issued on December 20, 2012, sufficient security remained an issue at the time of the attack:

Board members found a pervasive realization among personnel who served in Benghazi that the Special Mission was not a high priority for Washington when it came to security-related requests, especially those relating to staffing.

The insufficient Special Mission security platform was at variance with the appropriate Overseas Security Policy Board (OSPB) standards with respect to perimeter and interior security. Benghazi was also severely under-resourced with regard to certain needed security equipment, although DS funded and installed in 2012 a number of physical security upgrades.

Despite Kennedy’s admission on September 12 that the deadly terrorist assault on the Benghazi Consulate was not “under cover of protest,” but was, in fact, “a direct breaching attack,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice appeared on five major interview shows the Sunday, September 16, to claim the attack was due to a “spontaneous protest” and was not premeditated.

Based on the best information we have to date, what our assessment is as of the present is in fact what began spontaneously in Benghazi as a reaction to what had transpired some hours earlier in Cairo where, of course, as you know, there was a violent protest outside of our embassy—sparked by this hateful video … We do not—we do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this was premeditated or preplanned.

Based upon the work of Judicial Watch , the House Select Committee was appointed as the direct result of emails uncovered by Judicial Watch showing White House orchestration of the knowingly false narrative that the Benghazi attack was due to an Internet video and spontaneous protests.  The documents were obtained through federal court order obtained by Judicial Watch in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

On June 30, 2016, Kennedy was deposed by Judicial Watch regarding Hillary Clinton’s and Huma Abedin’s use of the clintonemail.com system to conduct official government business.  Kennedy testified that the significance did not “register” with him that Clinton was using a non-state.gov email account even though he communicated with her by email. Though he was undersecretary for management of three of the four offices charged with ensuring State Department policies practices and procedures are followed, he told Judicial Watch attorneys he had no opinion as to whether policies were violated except to say that State Department records-management policy encourages employees to use state.gov addresses for official business.

On Thursday, January 26, Patrick Kennedy left his position at the State Department.

“This document removes any further doubt that the State Department and the Obama administration knew immediately after the assault on Benghazi that it was a well-orchestrated terrorist attack and not a ‘spontaneous demonstration’ over a ‘hateful video,’ as the Obama administration repeatedly claimed,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.  “These documents show that the Benghazi scandal is not over … not by a long shot.”

 

 

http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/top-state-obama-department-official-admitted-benghazi-nothing-protests/

 

[Skidooski]

29 minutes ago, Snoslinger said:

dude...................

So we should see some convictions here shortly then huh? Or more politics per usual?

[Mainecat]

3 minutes ago, Skidooski said:

So we should see some convictions here shortly then huh? Or more politics per usual?

 

3 minutes ago, Skidooski said:

So we should see some convictions here shortly then huh? Or more politics per usual?

So you support this?

[Skidooski]

1 minute ago, Mainecat said:

 

So you support this?

No

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But RUSSIANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mainecat]

2 minutes ago, Skidooski said:

No

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But RUSSIANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You support Putins Russia?

[ICEMAN!]

Benghazi

[Skidooski]

3 minutes ago, Mainecat said:

You support Putins Russia?

Well yeah since I'm a covert spy programmed at birth by my parents who were test tube babies during the cold war era and a product of the USSR.

^^^^ You'd believe that too if CNN were to report it! 

[Skidooski]

3 minutes ago, ICEMAN! said:

Benghazi

RUSSIANS

WWIII

NUKES

THE SKY IS FALLING

[ICEMAN!]

5 minutes ago, Skidooski said:

RUSSIANS

WWIII

NUKES

THE SKY IS FALLING

Strange though how Benghazi was a partisan witch hunt but this Russian debacle is very bipartisan and becoming more so.

See the difference?  Nah, of course you don't.

[Skidooski]

8 minutes ago, ICEMAN! said:

Strange though how Benghazi was a partisan witch hunt but this Russian debacle is very bipartisan and becoming more so.

See the difference?  Nah, of course you don't.

Of course not just like I haven't noticed the bipartisan resistance to trump during the entire campaign, the election and his presidency thus far. Strange how he was still elected....must have been cause THE RUSSIANS!

How about that spy ship off the east coast too eh?

Edited February 15, 2017 by Skidooski