British, Dutch intel spied on Putin-Trump camp parleys – report
New York Times report comes amid revelations that despite denial, Attorney General Jeff Sessions met with Russian ambassador
Intelligence teams from Britain and Holland, among others, passed information to their American counterparts about meetings in European capitals between associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump during the US election campaign, the New York Times reported.
The report quotes three former American officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss classified intelligence, the paper said.
On a separate track, US intelligence agencies working at the end of the previous Obama administration reportedly intercepted messages from Russian officials, some of them from the Kremlin, about contacts with people associated with then president-elect Trump.
The revelations coincide with claims by a former senior Justice Department official that Trump’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak twice over the past year — claims which appear to contradict denials issued by Sessions during his confirmation hearing in Congress in January, the paper said.
During that hearing, he said he “did not have communications with the Russians,” a claim repeated on Wednesday when he slammed as “false” allegations that communication did take place. He said he “never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign.”
Earlier this month, Trump’s National Security Adviser Michael Flynn resigned over revelations that during the transition period before the new administration took office, he discussed US sanctions strategy with Ambassador Kislyak, then denied having done so to White House leaders.
In January, days before Trump was due to be sworn in, US media reported that spy chiefs had informed Trump that Russian operatives were claiming to possess deeply compromising personal and financial information about him. Trump denounced the report at the time as a “political witch hunt” and declared it “fake news.”
Earlier this month, Trump himself tweeted a scathing rebuke of the intelligence community, saying, “Information is being illegally given to the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost by the intelligence community (NSA and FBI?).Just like Russia.”
In December, the Washington Post reported a secret assessment by the CIA which concluded that Russia had intervened in the US presidential elections to help Trump win, as well as to undermine the US electoral system.