U.S. Intelligence Picked Up Russian Government Conversations About Trump Associates Going Back To 2015
Trump associates met with Russians going back to 2015 before Trump announced candidacy.
Meetings between the Russian government and Trump associates go back to before the campaign started, according to surveillance conducted by the US intelligence community of Russia.
The revelation that Trump associates were in communication with and meeting with Russian government officials even before Donald Trump announced his candidacy is a major new revelation in the quickly expanding Trump-Russia scandal.
The meetings between Trump associates and Russians was first reported by The Wall Street Journal Wednesday. The report noted, “In some cases, the Russians in the overheard conversations talked about meetings held outside the U.S. involving Russian government officials and Trump business associates or advisers.”
US intelligence routinely monitors Russian government espionage communications and from time to time Americans are picked up in those reports. The Wall Street Journal specifically noted that the surveillance “efforts weren’t aimed at Mr. Trump or his associates.” Rather Trump’s associated were picked up in what is called incidental collection.’
After the revelations that came from the release of Donald Trump Jr.’s emails, investigators are going back through these intelligence reports to figure out if there is a connection.
The Trump Jr. emails the first conclusive evidence that the highest levels of the Trump campaign were willing to collude with the Russians to interfere in the election.
The Wall Street Journal report cites one official describing the reaction to the intelligence reports as “What’s going on?”
The report also explains how US intelligence officials were turned on to the Russian meddling when “their counterparts in Europe warned that Russian money might be flowing into the presidential election, according to officials with knowledge of the warning. It remains unknown if or whether those funds were funneled to a particular campaign or to others to spend it on behalf of candidates.”
Read the full report here.
[image via screenshot]
