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Report: Intercepted Calls Show Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contact With Russian Intelligence


trpuPrior to the 2016 presidential election, members of Donald Trump’s campaign team and other associates were repeatedly in contact with senior Russian intelligence officials, four current and former U.S. officials told The New York Times.

Their phone calls were intercepted at around the same time U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies found evidence that Russia, in an attempt to disrupt the election, had hacked the Democratic National Committee. The officials told The Times no they have so far not seen any evidence of collusion, but the discovery was worrying because Trump often praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and at one point during the summer asked Russia to steal Hillary Clinton’s emails.

The officials said one person picked up on the phone calls was Paul Manafort, who briefly served as Trump’s campaign chairman and had worked as a political consultant in Russia and Ukraine. Manafort told The Times the report was “absurd” and he had “no idea what this is referring to,” adding, “It’s not like these people wear badges that say, ‘I’m a Russian intelligence officer.'” The officials would not reveal to The Times the other Trump associates and aides who made calls, the Russians they spoke with, or the topics of discussion, but did say this is not connected to December calls between Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and the Russian ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, in which they discussed sanctions imposed by outgoing President Barack Obama. These conversations led to Flynn’s resignation on Monday.

READ MORE: NY TIMES



12 Responses

  1. this is a non-stop vendetta against our president. when is this going to end? they are determined to take him down and you know something? they eventually will, unfortunately, succeed. he’s only human. so, what will the left gain? only one thing. we’ll be the laughing stock of the world…just the way it was for the last 8 years.

  2. #1 It is not a non stop vendetta. It is non stop scandal and lying from the Trump administration. Trump lied, Flynn lied, Spicer lied, Kellyanne lied. This administration is inept and out of touch with reality. Don’t blame the media for doing its job blame Trump for not doing his.

  3. #3 Do you actually think they were planning to defect?
    It is very careful diplomacy to get the best result for USA, nothing else.

  4. #3 is 100% correct. This is just coverage of the non-stop lying, cover-up, and perhaps illegality of the trump administration. Some of you would be singing a very different tune if this was Hillary in the White House doing these things, and rightly so.

  5. Biggest inaugaration crowds, 3 million plus voter fraud, Bowling Green Massacre, Atlanta terror attacks, no sanction discussions with Russia, bus loads of voters being sent from Massachusetts to New Hampshire These are all a sampling of Trumps outrageous lies and blatant disregard for reality. He has failed to substantiate even one of the claims above and this is besides his creating a diplomatic mess with Australia and Mexico and his attacks on the judiciary. These are Trumps actions. He bares full resposibility for them. He is the problem and danger to this country not the media that rightfully lets the country know about his horrendous record to date.

  6. Whatever happened to the “proof” that the women who accused him were lying? What happened to “he will never” settle the trump university lawsuit? What happened to “I’ll have all the best people”?

  7. Do you Lefties really want Mike Pence as President instead of Trump? That is the only other choice. Pence, to you hard left radicals, is the ultimate evil white bigoted racist deplorable male chauvinist gun-toting Republican.

  8. #4 “It is very careful diplomacy to get the best result for USA, nothing else” In fact it is probably illegal, nothing else.

  9. #8 True conservatives recognize that Trump is a fraud. National Review, Weekly Standard, George Will and Charles Krauthammer all opposed this egotistical maniac from the get go. It is only the rabble rousers and the riff raff of the Republicam party like Hannity, Limbaugh and Coutler that actually supported this authoritarian buffoon.

  10. Trump is the only one who is pro-Israel and anti-abortion. HE WINS!

    And you shikkers who are against these two things, you lose!

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