More confirmation that the FBI is investigating Russian funding of Trump’s campaign
According to a report in McClatchy DC, the FBI and five other intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies have been investigating for months Rusian attempts to influence the election, including whether money from Russian was funneled into Donald Trump’s campaign account.
The McClatchy DC piece says, “The agencies involved in the inquiry are the FBI, the CIA, the National Security Agency, the Justice Department, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and representatives of the director of national intelligence, the sources said.
“Investigators are examining how money may have moved from the Kremlin to covertly help Trump win, the two sources said. One of the allegations involves whether a system for routinely paying thousands of Russian-American pensioners may have been used to pay some email hackers in the United States or to supply money to intermediaries who would then pay the hackers, the two sources said.
The informal, inter-agency working group began to explore possible Russian interference last spring, long before the FBI received information from a former British spy hired to develop politically damaging and unverified research about Trump, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the inquiry.”
According to the story, one of the central goals of the six-agency investigating group has been to investigate who financed the email hacks of the DNC and John Podesta. The intelligence agencies are also investigating a few of Donald Trump’s close associates with connections to Russia who may have had contact with the Kremlin during the campaign.
The McClatchy DC story confirms a story that the BBC reported last week, which we reported on here, that the multi-agency inquiry was launched when the head of the CIA learned received a recording that indicated the Russian government was funding the Trump campaign.
